Original Message:
Marriott Vacation Club Destinations Program - New Point System (by Q S.):
Let me say upfront that I really love Marriott, or I used to. We have owned for over 20 years. The purpose of this posting is to warn potential buyers of an obscure problem with the TRUST Points.
I will begin with the "end in mind" according to Steven Covey. If you are an Exchange points owner DON'T BUY TRUST POINTS unless you understand what they really mean! Last year, we enrolled our 4 weeks at Grande Ocean in the Destinations program which gave us Exchange Points and we liked it last year. So far, I can't even get on the waiting list for my home resort in my home season in 2012 with ANY points. Yes, I know, just call up and reserve your week at your home resort, but because when I was trying to book, by the time the vacation club reservations person was able to figure out how to do what I wanted to do (which was perfectly within the guidelines and rules, but they didn't believe me) all the weeks were gone.
This happened to me twice. I would welcome doing this online, but at 13 months out, it can only be done with the "luck of the draw" person you happen to get as you can't call your assigned vacation adviser. All that said, I am hopeful that on September 30th, many weeks will open up as that is the deadline for those who want to rollover points to the next year, or deposit weeks for points, must do so by Sept 30 - even if you don't yet know whether or not you will be lucky enough to use your points at your desired destination the following year or just get a week in your season at your resort! Last year, we had no trouble using Exchange Points but NOW, things seem to be different.
The program overall is probably good and I am optimistic, however, the BIG PROBLEM we have is that we bought TRUST POINTS believing, as we were told, that they were our ticket to "ACCESS" to TRUST INVENTORY. Well, this is not exactly true. Yes, you get access to ONLY as many points as you have in TRUST. (I don't think the person we bought from knew this since I called him after I had so much trouble, he didn't know and had to gt back to me).
You have to keep up with TWO balances and varying expiration dates. We were absolutely told we would have access to ALL inventory. However, we can't use our Exchange points (from the OLD system) for TRUST Inventory. If I had any idea about this, we would have never, never, never, considered this purchase. We have enough points and we didn't need more. We wanted access to the TRUST Inventory! I would NOT recommend this program to anyone. Go and buy a week on the aftermarket. As many problems as I felt like we had with Interval International, they are looking pretty good to me now!
AGAIN, If you are an Exchange Points owner, DON"T BUY TRUST POINTS unless you are CERTAIN you know what you are getting into. We made an $18,000 mistake!!!!