Vistana owner needing Marriott point purchase advice

[LJT]

Hello Marriott Tuggers - we are 20 year Vistana owners with multiple units including Maui. We have plenty of weeks to use and know how to use them well. We are less than 500 points away from Chairman level - I know - not much different than Presidential…. However, I am intrigued with the idea of being a Marriott owner and having access to the Marriott side of the system without having to deposit my vistana week first. How does purchasing resale points work? Will it get me access to look at things I can’t see now and do I need to pay Marriott a qualifying fee in order to be able to combine them with my deposited vistana weeks when I choose to do that? Thanks in advance for advice!

 

[kozykritter]

You will be seeing and booking the same inventory that you already have access to when you elect Club Points for your Vistana ownership so no advantage there. Once you elect those Club Points, they are treated the same as Marriott points purchased and can be combined with them for transactions, no fee involved.

I am also a long time Vistana owner and bought 1,000 Marriott points last summer (from Marriott directly in my case) for really the same reason you are seeking them, to have access to the entire Marriott system side of things. I have to say it sure made things easier when Abound launched and Vistana owners with only passthrough access were having so many problems. I could continue to do all the transactions directly in the Marriott system amidst the mayhem! Plus Marriott makes it so much easier to borrow points from future years as they automatically show up as an option to choose online when you go to book and you don't have to pay the maintenance fees upfront to do it unlike with Vistana.

I had very specific reasons for buying directly from Marriott (long story!) but resales points are treated pretty much the same as direct purchases once you pay the transfer fee so most will tell you to go that route. I'm sure other users will be chiming in with that info. Enjoy your adventure!

 

[jwalk03]

Marriott resale points work exactly the same as Marriott direct purchase points. Typically 1000 is the fewest you can buy. It’s $3.50-$4 per point to pass ROFR plus $3/pt to Marriott so $6.50-$7/pt all-in. Instead of $16/pt thru Marriott.

 

[skolvikes65]

I bought around 900 points from vistana (in form of star options that elects) a few months ago to get to executive. They had even smaller pieces of inventory but I needed 800. The deal they put together was decent .

 

[kozykritter]

I bought around 900 points from vistana (in form of star options that elects) a few months ago to get to executive. They had even smaller pieces of inventory but I needed 800. The deal they put together was decent .

Glad you got what you needed! Marriott points direct ownership has different minimums for purchases based upon the number of points, which is what the original poster is interested in buying. Their stated minimum currently is 2,000 points, which they still lower to 1,000 points during sales presentations. Supposedly for a new points owner you need to buy a minimum of 1500 points if you buy resale but not sure if that's enforced. Vistana's minimum sale instead is based upon the $ spent...it was in the $12-14K range last time I did a sales presentation. I would guess you spent in that range to get enough home options to convert to 900 Club Points points with the current election conversion rates.

 

[dioxide45]

An every other year 44,000 Sheraton Flex would get you the needed Club Points.

 

[Wanderlustgrl]

Hello Marriott Tuggers - we are 20 year Vistana owners with multiple units including Maui. We have plenty of weeks to use and know how to use them well. We are less than 500 points away from Chairman level - I know - not much different than Presidential…. However, I am intrigued with the idea of being a Marriott owner and having access to the Marriott side of the system without having to deposit my vistana week first. How does purchasing resale points work? Will it get me access to look at things I can’t see now and do I need to pay Marriott a qualifying fee in order to be able to combine them with my deposited vistana weeks when I choose to do that? Thanks in advance for advice!

A few years back when we only had enrolled weeks we were 400 pts shy of executive. Our rep got it so we could buy just the 500 pts we needed. It came to about the same as having to buy 1000 pts resale with a couple hundred dollars less in maintenance and less hassle cause executive was effective that day. After that straight purchase we have only done bundles which I know have minimums but was good to get us to chairman as we needed 8k pts more