# Exchanging WM for Ko'Olina, and e-plus



## Tahiya (Feb 2, 2018)

I have requests in using WM points for week 7 in 2019 at Marriott Ko'Olina and Disney's Aulani resort.  Two questions:

1.  How does e-plus work if I use WM points to accept a studio, but later find a larger unit?  What if the larger unit appears within 60 days of the vacation?  (I saw a warning thread a while ago about this issue, but couldn't find it because the "search" function thinks e-plus is too short or too common a word to search for.)  The II vacation guide didn't know the answer.

2.  Has anyone gotten Marriott Ko'Olina using WM at 12 months or 11 months ahead of the trip?  I want to buy my plane tickets at 11 months out using ff miles, so would love to have an advance reservation for the accommodations.


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## VacationForever (Feb 3, 2018)

Week 7 is typically President's Day week which I think that's why yyou plan to travel then, which adds a level of difficult as there are fewer holiday week deposits.  The other challenge you have is trying to use a non-Marriott timeshare to exchange to a Marriott resort.  Studios do often show up without the Marriott priority block and you may be able to see/exchange into a studio with a WM when bulk deposit first shows up. 

From my experience, at 13th month and 12th month, there is limited owner deposit, so that would be the first time that one may stand a chance of having an exchange into a Marriott resort.  Most of these are usually matched to ongoing requests and rarely show up when you do a manual search.

About 4 to 6 months out is usually when bulk deposits happen.  Marriott timeshares will have first dibs for 24 days.  Then there is minor deposits between 2-3 months before the travel date and some last minute deposits closer to the travel dates.

I would say it is very difficult to exchange into MKO with a non-MKO timeshare for week 7.  

If you want to buy plane tickets, you may want to book a hotel as back up plan.

Oh... on your other question... if it is within 60 days, there will not be "upsize" charge, but the question is whether your original deposit, i.e. WM, has enough trade power to book it and also that there will still be a short block for Marriott-Marriott priority.  If your WM can see it, you should be able to book it.


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## ecwinch (Feb 4, 2018)

Tahiya said:


> I have requests in using WM points for week 7 in 2019 at Marriott Ko'Olina and Disney's Aulani resort.  Two questions:
> 
> 1.  How does e-plus work if I use WM points to accept a studio, but later find a larger unit?  What if the larger unit appears within 60 days of the vacation?  (I saw a warning thread a while ago about this issue, but couldn't find it because the "search" function thinks e-plus is too short or too common a word to search for.)  The II vacation guide didn't know the answer.
> 
> 2.  Has anyone gotten Marriott Ko'Olina using WM at 12 months or 11 months ahead of the trip?  I want to buy my plane tickets at 11 months out using ff miles, so would love to have an advance reservation for the accommodations.



One word of caution about using ePlus on a II exchange booked with WM credits. A ePlus rebooking is essentially cancelling your existing reservation - returning the credits to your WM acct, and then a withdrawal of credits from your acct for the rebooked reservation.

The problem is that the new reservation quickly withdraws credits from your acct, while the cancellation takes days - sometimes weeks - to redeposit the credits to your acct.

So if you are without enough credits to book the new reservation, then WM will do a FAX rental to fulfill the credits needed - and will charge you either 8 cents or 15 cents per credit.

And sometimes the cancellation credits never come back into your account. So you need to monitor it closely. I have had this happen and am still fighting to get it sorted out.

Also they will never borrow a HK token on a II exchange, they will bill you for one if you dont have one in the available column. So if you dont watch the mail and pay the bill - your acct can easily be suspended. They will not just bill your credit card on file - they will just send you a paper bill that you need to pay.

On the plus side - if you do a retrade within 59 days - then you get it the unit at 4k credits. If you upsize the unit outside 59 days, you will be hit for whatever the credits required for the larger unit. So if charged 8k for a 1BR reservation, and you upsize to a 2BR at the 150 day mark, you will quickly see 10k credits withdrawn from your acct, and 8k credits deposited with a few days/weeks. Within 59 days, you would see 4k come out and 8k redeposited.

Obviously none of the above applies to your Aulani resort, since Disney is RCI only.

And the trading power concern that VacationHopeful mentions is true, but not for WM. WM is a top trader with II.


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## VacationForever (Feb 5, 2018)

ecwinch said:


> And the trading power concern that VacationHopeful mentions is true, but not for WM. WM is a top trader with II.



While WM may be a top trader, Marriott deposits into II are blocked out from non-Marriott timeshare weeks for 24 days.  Only other Marriott timeshare can exchange into these Marriott weeks during this period.  By the time 24 days is over, the desirable resorts like MKO never make it out to other owners except the occasional studios.


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## ecwinch (Feb 5, 2018)

VacationForever said:


> While WM may be a top trader, Marriott deposits into II are blocked out from non-Marriott timeshare weeks for 24 days.  Only other Marriott timeshare can exchange into these Marriott weeks during this period.  By the time 24 days is over, the desirable resorts like MKO never make it out to other owners except the occasional studios.



Fully understood. If you re-read my post you will see I only mentioned "trading power", and I did not reference the Marriott exclusive period.


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## VacationForever (Feb 5, 2018)

ecwinch said:


> Fully understood. If you re-read my post you will see I only mentioned "trading power", and I did not reference the Marriott exclusive period.


I think we are in agreement.  I will still say this is going to be a very tough trade.


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## GregT (Feb 5, 2018)

I agree with others - this will be a tough trade but it is possible.  I did trade my WM for a Presidents Week Studio here in 2018.   I think your best chance of matching is right now.  Marriott owners typically don’t want a Studio and are reluctant to trade for a MKO Studio, accordingly a Marriott owner who booked at 13 months out and deposited their Studio into II - it’s sitting there right now in II going through the Marriott preference period. 

At 13 months minus 24 days, it clears the preference period and can match to that powerful WM trader. 

So it’s possible - I wouldn’t characterize as likely, but you may see a match sooner than you thought.   Same logic applies at 12 months minus 24 days.

If it doesn’t hit then, then you are dependent on a bulk bank - and that would be much closer to your travel date and is still a crapshoot. 

Good luck and I hope you catch a break!

Best,

Greg


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