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Marriott VCI points purchase restrictions
At the KoOlina resort in Hawaii during a sales presentation the sales rep said the points purchased from the open market has multiple restrictions. Biggest drawback is that there is a limit on how far in advance the points can be used to make a reservation.
I have 6500 points that I use every other year for Carribean stays or Hawaii. I make reservation 13 months in advance for February. This amounts to 2 weeks every other year.
Sales rep said points purchased on the open market only allow a 3 month advance for use. Hence I would never be able to use these points together.
Seems Marriott is very limiting for the resale market making the points worth far less that way
Rich D.
The sales person was lying. There are additional required (junk) fees to fully activate the points but then the points function the same way that points purchased directly from Marriott. The only case this would be true (limited) is if you own less than 1000 points you will be limited.
Tracey S.
Thank you for the really fast reply. I will talk to a Marriott representative and ask for the facts about this issue in writing.
So to be clear I have my anniversary date in January for my existing 6500 points. I can purchase 5,000 resale points from a seller through Red Week and I can have my points fall for use in January. Do I have to purchase a January anniversary date as noted in the Red Week advertisement or will I be able to convert any anniversary date to January to match my existing 6500 points. I have found that with less than 13 months to set a reservation I am not able to secure my requested dates at the location I request, My goal is to have 3 weeks in Hawaii or Caribbean in February of the next year.
In the same meeting the sales rep said there was a program that will be "ending very shortly" that allows me to purchase a resale week (not points) directly from Marriott and then I would convert to points in the MVCI system. I followed his description closely and we mapped out a simple flow chart but even with a resale the purchase was significantly more than purchasing straight points through Red Week. Also the chart was quite convoluted making me quite uneasy about this type of transaction. When something is complicated I generally shy away because there will be significant fine print to understand and time share purchases are complicated enough.
Best, Rich
tracey75 wrote:The sales person was lying. There are additional required (junk) fees to fully activate the points but then the points function the same way that points purchased directly from Marriott. The only case this would be true (limited) is if you own less than 1000 points you will be limited.
Rich D.
The anniversary date may not be able to be changed. There are reports on tugbbs.com (timeshare users group) Marriott forum where those that have purchased resale points have different anniversary dates for different points purchases. There is no reason to talk to the sales rep. He probably won't know and will have no desire to help you understand resale points. It would be like going to dealership X new car sales person to talk about the day to day operation and maintenance offered on a car you were planning on buying a dealership Y. His only reason to talk to you is to talk you out of buying from dealership Y. I am not sure you realize this but the fees Marriott charges to resales are quite significant. $500/BI (i.e. 250 Points) with a minimum $3,000.00 Initiation Fee (increased as of 7/1/14 from $200/BI with a min $2,000) ; $300 Owner Education Fee; $95 ROFR Fee; $25/BI Transfer Fee; etc. So you are looking at $10,895 in fees to Marriott plus the purchase price for the 5000 points (less than $5 per point may not pass ROFR) plus some kind of closing costs for the points. Sometimes buying something like an EOY 3 br Grand Vista platinum plus points is very close to the same price as purchasing resale. I suggest you review the FAQ MVC Destination Points program at TUG http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=197346 and ask any questions that you have on the Marriott forum before going back to talk to sales and also to decide if what you want to accomplish couldn't be done by simply renting the extra points you need without purchasing more.
Tracey S.
