Electing DC points seems to available on line

OMG - Earlier this week I noticed that on the Check Availability page under My Weeks the number of DC points were shown next to my week for next year that I have not done anything with yet. Today I clicked the Elect Vacation Club Points button and a NEW screen popped up asking me to confirm that I wanted to convert to DC points. I cancelled at that point because I am still not sure what I am going to do with that week.

I guess they have been working on the web site. Lets hope that they start working on the other future features soon.

That is good news for those exchanging in DC points. It seems like this should have been something easy for Marriott to do and wonder why it took them nearly a year. Wonder if the ability to reserve online with points exists yet? Perhaps you can elect and test for us?

They also added a column on the 1st page showing you how many points your week is worth with DC. I was looking for that a couple week ago. Looks like they are moving in the right direction. I still think Marriott is better than other timeshares like DVC and Starwood. There are no online capabilities that are worth anything.

ciscogizmo1 said:

They also added a column on the 1st page showing you how many points your week is worth with DC. I was looking for that a couple week ago. Looks like they are moving in the right direction. I still think Marriott is better than other timeshares like DVC and Starwood. There are no online capabilities that are worth anything.

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I have allready made a reservation for 2 of my enrolled weeks. I can click on "Elect Points" but it ask me to confirm that I am giving up my reserved week for 0 points. I think they have bugs again!!!

I plan to comvert 1 week to points then bank them as I cannot use it in 2012 and thought it would help get OV or OF in 2013 Hawaii vacation, If figure I will bank 1 week in points and bank another week (actually 2 by locking off) in II. Just can't use all 5 in 2012!

dioxide45 said:

That is good news for those exchanging in DC points. It seems like this should have been something easy for Marriott to do and wonder why it took them nearly a year. Wonder if the ability to reserve online with points exists yet? Perhaps you can elect and test for us?

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I was told by a Rep that the online reservation system has been available since inception but they did not want to overwhelm new members with a new program and a new system. He said they wanted people to use the counselors and advisors to learn the program. I am sure there is more to it but he indicated the system is in place and workable and that he had seen it.

floyddl said:

I was told by a Rep that the online reservation system has been available since inception but they did not want to overwhelm new members with a new program and a new system. He said they wanted people to use the counselors and advisors to learn the program. I am sure there is more to it but he indicated the system is in place and workable and that he had seen it.

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This is actually rather funny if true. It shows that MVCI thinks their owners are rather unintelligent. When in fact many of them know more about how the program works than their own reps. Instead of just dealing with the pain and anxiety all at once, they decide to spread it out.

Good but more needed.

This is good but they need another column for usage like, currently allocated points and remaining points with an expiration date.

The option to elect DC points has been available online since we became members back in Dec. The ability to reserve using DC points online is something Marriott needs to put in place. Right now I believe you can convert (check availability) your week to DC points for reservations but, you still must call Marriott to actaully reserve using those points once your week has been converted.

The salesman's line about not wanting to overwhelm their owners is just more salesman BS. There are far to many points systems out there that allow for online reservations for this to be true.

Or, it's like Dioxide says that and Marriott thinks their owners are idiots. Right not I'm not so sure this isn't the case. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I believe Dioxide is right. Marriott DOES believe their owner base is essentially stupid. Their initial comments, if I'm not mistaken, was this change was in responce to members not being satisfied with I.I. and that members found I.I. to complicated to manage exchanges. Maybe there was a vocal group that convinced Marriott that all owners were dumb.

The problem for Marriott with online reservations, as I see it, is that they've split points into two catagories, trust and legacy points (two buckets). Unlike other systems that have trust points and converted weeks points (DRI for one), Marriott hasn't figured out how to co-mingle points for resrevations. It appears that if you have trust points and legacy week points, they are very nearly two seperate reservations running back to back as evidenced by attempts to book one night using both sets of points (one night using legacy and trust points can't be made).

Marriott took so long developing this system that they appear to have outthought themselves. What should have been a relatively simple system with other successful systems out there as examples has become something of a monster for Marriott. I believe this is secondary to Marriott's desire to "re-season" there existing resorts rather than keeping the points the same for the existing seasons. Rather than say, 4,000 points to reserve a silver season 2 bedroom week, they got all crazy and established all sorts of point totals for individual weeks. Essentially, Marriott outdid itself in making this more complex than it needed to be out of greed rather than using the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid).

dougp26364 said:

The option to elect DC points has been available online since we became members back in Dec.

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The ability to elect to use vacation club points just became available this week. The button to elect club points may have been there is Dec. but it did nothing but tell you to call your VOA to use the option of electing to use club points when the button was clicked.

NJMOM2 said:

The ability to elect to use vacation club points just became available this week. The button to elect club points may have been there is Dec. but it did nothing but tell you to call your VOA to use the option of electing to use club points when the button was clicked.

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I think I'm talking about booking using points online whereas everyone else is talking about simply converting/electing to change a legacy week to DC points. Maybe I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure I had seen the option to elect to convert my weeks to DC points online from the point we became enrolled owners back in December.

As far as actually booking a reservation online, the site does not give me that option but tells me to call my VOA once we've decided where to go.

Enrolled Owners participating in the Marriott Vacation Club Destinations™ Exchange Program, please utilize this Web site to familiarize yourselves with the new program’s benefits and to receive answers to your questions. When you are ready to reserve a vacation using your Vacation Club Points, please contact your Vacation Ownership Advisor team at 888-MVCI-VOA (888-682-4862)

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dougp26364 said:

I think I'm talking about booking using points online whereas everyone else is talking about simply converting/electing to change a legacy week to DC points. Maybe I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure I had seen the option to elect to convert my weeks to DC points online from the point we became enrolled owners back in December.

As far as actually booking a reservation online, the site does not give me that option but tells me to call my VOA once we've decided where to go.

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Yes the option was on the Marriott Availability Page. But when you clicked the button, it told you to call your VOA to convert to points. Now when I click it tells me to confirm "0" points because I have made a reservation. The system still has bugs and this should be the easy part!!

wvacations said:

Yes the option was on the Marriott Availability Page. But when you clicked the button, it told you to call your VOA to convert to points. Now when I click it tells me to confirm "0" points because I have made a reservation. The system still has bugs and this should be the easy part!!

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I see. I never took it any further than looking at the button. Due to the skim, I really didn't want to get close enough for an "accidental" week to points conversion to happen.

It's pretty sad when owners get excited about just being able to convert their weeks to points when most other (if not all other) points based reservations system allow their owners to complete just about any transaction online. You'd have though Marriott would have had online conversion and reservations procedures up and running from day one.

dougp26364 said:

I see. I never took it any further than looking at the button. Due to the skim, I really didn't want to get close enough for an "accidental" week to points conversion to happen.

It's pretty sad when owners get excited about just being able to convert their weeks to points when most other (if not all other) points based reservations system allow their owners to complete just about any transaction online. You'd have though Marriott would have had online conversion and reservations procedures up and running from day one.

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Disney is one that didn't have an online reservation system for their points system until sometime in the last year or so (if it's even up and running correctly yet ...) DVC has been around since the early 1990's and those owners have been requesting online access forever.

Really, I want to be able to do DC Points transactions online just as much as the next guy but I'm willing to give them some time to get everything up and running perfectly. Maybe it's giving them too much leeway, but I think it's unrealistic for us to expect that every single component of a brand new system would be available on Day One. Allowing them to get their ducks in a row over the first year, anyway, means at least that we're not being subject to processing errors that are inherent in most every new IT roll-out under the sun. Heck, even Apple didn't get it right the first time around with their iPhone 4.

SueDonJ said:

Disney is one that didn't have an online reservation system for their points system until sometime in the last year or so (if it's even up and running correctly yet ...) DVC has been around since the early 1990's and those owners have been requesting online access forever.

Really, I want to be able to do DC Points transactions online just as much as the next guy but I'm willing to give them some time to get everything up and running perfectly. Maybe it's giving them too much leeway, but I think it's unrealistic for us to expect that every single component of a brand new system would be available on Day One. Allowing them to get their ducks in a row over the first year, anyway, means at least that we're not being subject to processing errors that are inherent in most every new IT roll-out under the sun. Heck, even Apple didn't get it right the first time around with their iPhone 4.

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If Marriott was cutting a new road, sure I'd give them more time. But it's not as if they needed to reinvent the wheel. There are to many other examples out there for them not to have had their ducks in a row prior to launch.

I think it's more or less a miscalculation on their part as to what their owners really wanted. Now they're having to backtrack and figure out how to deliver a basic function that their owners want. Maybe Marriott thought their clients were closer to DVC owners than to HGVC owners? Who knows what was going through their minds. Limiting options for owners is never a good idea IMO.

I think if MVCI has been sitting on a functioning online reservation system, it is just plain dumb. I don't really believe that they would do that. It makes no logical sense.

The thing with just about any upgrade or new system, the only way to get it working is to get it out there. The system will never be ready and will never be perfect. Things move slow, there is no better way to get priority behind something that isn't quite done than to roll it out. When customers start complaining, it becomes a priority fast and things get done. I have seen this happen in a number of system upgrades over the years.

It doesn't matter how much testing and training you do. When you roll something out to 400,000 people at once, things happen. Breaks and bugs are found that were not uncovered in testing. It is inevitable.

dioxide45 said:

I think if MVCI has been sitting on a functioning online reservation system, it is just plain dumb. I don't really believe that they would do that. It makes no logical sense.

The thing with just about any upgrade or new system, the only way to get it working is to get it out there. The system will never be ready and will never be perfect. Things move slow, there is no better way to get priority behind something that isn't quite done than to roll it out. When customers start complaining, it becomes a priority fast and things get done. I have seen this happen in a number of system upgrades over the years.

It doesn't matter how much testing and training you do. When you roll something out to 400,000 people at once, things happen. Breaks and bugs are found that were not uncovered in testing. It is inevitable.

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I wonder if the salesmen have access to what the exchange manger can see, so that they can show it to potential owners as an example of how Marriott VOA's complete your exchanges. Sort of a look-at-the-inventory-you'd-have-access-to-today scenario. Maybe this isn't even suppose to be promoted as a soon-to-be-announced reservations tool for owners.

Hmmmmm, a Marriott salesmen telling a lie? Say it isn't so!

dougp26364 said:

I wonder if the salesmen have access to what the exchange manger can see, so that they can show it to potential owners as an example of how Marriott VOA's complete your exchanges. Sort of a look-at-the-inventory-you'd-have-access-to-today scenario. Maybe this isn't even suppose to be promoted as a soon-to-be-announced reservations tool for owners.

Hmmmmm, a Marriott salesmen telling a lie? Say it isn't so!

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I don't believe that a salesman would lie that much as this was also shown to someone at the MOC about a month ago to a Marriott owner and he was told that it would be available to him early this summer. Here are his own words as I am not making this up.

One thing about our resort is that we have always had low key updates and our friends had low key presentations too. The reason is that the resort sells itself because of the great location and the grounds, koi pond and pool show nicely when you enter the resort.

PS. I am still not sure if this is for Trust point owners only or for Legacy week owners too who decide to exchange in points. Dan is a Marriott owner so I assume that it is for Legacy week owners too.

iconnections said:

I don't believe that a salesman would lie that much as this was also shown to someone at the MOC about a month ago to a Marriott owner and he was told that it would be available to him early this summer. Here are his own words as I am not making this up.

One thing about our resort is that we have always had low key updates and our friends had low key presentations too. The reason is that the resort sells itself because of the great location and the grounds, koi pond and pool show nicely when you enter the resort.

PS. I am still not sure if this is for Trust point owners only or for Legacy week owners too who decide to exchange in points. Dan is a Marriott owner so I assume that it is for Legacy week owners too.

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I hope your right but, that last year has proven to me that Marriott is no longer the company it was when we first purchased back in 2001. At any rate, we have 4 or 5 months for Marriott to introduce the new online points booking machine and prove their sales staff correct.

The salesmen might be honorable but, I don't trust management. I would not surprise me to see management feed their staff a line to use during sales presentations that they know is not 100% truthful. I could see them giving the staff this information to use and, when it doesn't come to pass, make up something about there being delay's, issues or unforseen problems.

In short, I no longer am willing to take Marriott's sales staff at their word. I don't believe they are always given accurate information from their managers. Because of that, I no longer recommend MVCI to our friends or family. MVCI sales has a ways to go to prove their honesty to us again.

If they get their online booking up by the end of the year, at least that will be a first step towards believability.

I agree with you that the Corporate climate has changed at the Marriott and that their loyal customer base is no longer valued like it used to be. They are driven by Wall Street greed for a quick profit but they forget to look far ahead what is good for the Company in the long run.

If they lose their loyal customer base, it will be harder for them to sell these worthless points on the street to an Internet savvy public unless they take the heavy restrictions away that hinders any resale value. Resales in deeded weeks will suffer too if the new buyers are not allowed to enroll in the new DC exchange program and I feel that we are let down by a once "family oriented Marriott". JMHO.

They may sell the Trust points in dribs and drabs but it will give them a lot of headaches later with many unhappy customers, who may have understood that they can go to all these beautiful resorts some time in the future, but then find out later that they never have enough points to ever go there, imho. Marriott will probably change their program again if they want to survive.

After reading TUG, I haven't recommended buying from the Marriott direct to my friends because I wouldn't be their friend. We liked our saleslady very much but told her that we couldn't recommend our friends as they could do better on the resale market and she understood.