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How to use our points - Ideas please!

dmharris

dmharris

TUG Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2006
Messages
2,128
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102
Location
Butler, PA
Hi Everyone,

We have 3675 points available through December 2024. I can add our points if I elect them by Sept 30 and have a total of 5850. We are in our 70s and typically go to Hilton Head, Newport, Calif., Florida. This coming year we're ready for a European experience. WE ARE NOT, REPEAT NOT, CRUISERS. We have traveled extensively in our careers and have about 350,000 Marriott Bonvoy points and about the same American Express points and airline miles in Delta and American.

We are looking for suggestions for a two week vacation in Europe. I love England, France, Italy. And would go there again. But is there something special we're missing? I don't think Germany is 'us'. I love gardens, historic homes, flowers, the Sea, quaint and beautiful places.

If there's someone in the Marriott system I should call for advice, I'd appreciate you sharing that. Thanks so much!
 
I'm planning a two-week trip to Europe for sometime in 2025, and I'm hoping to do the MVC locations outside of Paris and one of the two on the Costa Del Sol. A week of sightseeing (and maybe hit up Disney) and a week of some sightseeing but some relaxing. If we're really up to it we might try to squeeze in Greece for a few days to start, but I'm not sure I can get the family CEO on board with that long away.
 
Have to go to Belgium with my wife on a chocolate tour. So we added Paris on front end as base and Spain on the back as another base.
For me the first thing I did was look for flights. Worked out that CDG was cheapest business class to Europe and MAD was cheapest on return.
 
dmharris said:
Hi Everyone,

We have 3675 points available through December 2024. I can add our points if I elect them by Sept 30 and have a total of 5850. We are in our 70s and typically go to Hilton Head, Newport, Calif., Florida. This coming year we're ready for a European experience. WE ARE NOT, REPEAT NOT, CRUISERS. We have traveled extensively in our careers and have about 350,000 Marriott Bonvoy points and about the same American Express points and airline miles in Delta and American.

We are looking for suggestions for a two week vacation in Europe. I love England, France, Italy. And would go there again. But is there something special we're missing? I don't think Germany is 'us'. I love gardens, historic homes, flowers, the Sea, quaint and beautiful places.

If there's someone in the Marriott system I should call for advice, I'd appreciate you sharing that. Thanks so much!
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You should look into the MVC locations in south Spain (Marbella, Playa Andaluza) - nearest airport is Malaga/AGP. In particular, I'd do it just outside the ultra-busy ultra-hot July and August seasons, like May, June or September. Great locations with plenty of things to do in the area for day trips like Alhambra, Seville, Gibraltar, and even a day trip to Morocco via ferry. If you have two weeks, you can easily spend 7-9 days in that area and the remaining 5-7 days in a large city in Europe a short flight away like Barcelona, Madrid, or Lisbon.
 
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Also Mallorca Spain (its an island off the coast of Barcelona). Could use MVC points there (Son Antem), and Bonvoy points in Barcelona.

Google search for pics.....
 
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You mentioned you are not cruises but I'd suggest a river cruise is a totally different animal. More of a moving hotel with some included tours depending on company selected. For the land portion of our cruise we most enjoyed Amsterdam, Vienna & Budapest but there were a lot of other areas we truly enjoyed. For timeshares it's the Disneyland and Spain options for MVC. Of course you could do a portion one way and something else using cash or non MVC points.
 
Watch out for the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris for end July to early Sept 2024, best to avoid the area.
Germany is indeed an excellent choice, take a look at whether any Marriott hotels have sensible redemptions for your club points, otherwise use your Bonvoy points. Berlin and Frankfurt can work well for international flights, you could even go in to one and out of the other and do the train or fly between.
If you have an embarrassment of club points, you can rent them out and then use the $$ to go where you want.
 
I've thought about that. Any particular river cruise line? I know Viking but not sure if points, etc. can be tied into Viking.
 
Thank you for the insight about the Olympics!!! I'd like to go in May as I love spring and flowers so it would be nice to see Europe then. I've been several times in the fall, but not since 2006.
 
dmharris said:
I've thought about that. Any particular river cruise line? I know Viking but not sure if points, etc. can be tied into Viking.
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My only personal experience is with Viking and it was very positive but not perfect mostly due to water level issue. My TA touts Avalon because of it's tie in to Globus. Each have their plusses and minuses. For us Viking was about the best option based on our investigation. We did a duck view room and in retrospect feel that was the perfect choice given the price differences. Our cruise was late August with 2 extra days in Amsterdam, 14 nights on the ship and 2 days in Budapest. We're really happy with our choices overall. I have booked a Christmas Market Cruise for next Dec as a present for my Christmas loving spouse but don't tell her as it's her Xmas present this year. It's completely different than ocean cruises which we also enjoy. I don't know your situation but I do find it common that people assume they won't like ocean cruises that have not tried it or have tried something that's not a good fit for them.
 
If you pick Germany, Lufthansa has a 100k credit card bonus offer. I am spoiled so I can’t imagine not flying business class but also never want to pay for flights.
 
I did a quick search of river cruises on the MVC site and gosh! They're like 10,000 points. That's way more than we have. Sadly.
 
dmharris said:
I did a quick search of river cruises on the MVC site and gosh! They're like 10,000 points. That's way more than we have. Sadly.
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You’re gonna have to pay cash not use points for something like this. Maybe rent out the points
 
Sounds like you acquired points without knowing their limitations "and" there are limitations. You may want to step back and have a hard look at uses for both weeks and points. Sounds like you are trying to do the impossible with what you have.
 
dmharris said:
Thank you for the insight about the Olympics!!! I'd like to go in May as I love spring and flowers so it would be nice to see Europe then. I've been several times in the fall, but not since 2006.
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Are you not interested in the 3 MVCs in Spain?
 
Pamplemousse said:
Are you not interested in the 3 MVCs in Spain?
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Hmm. We had a serious look at what do we really want to do and I have 3 things related to flowers that are important to me to see before I die. Chelsea Flower Show in London, Tulips in Holland and Giverny in France. I'm hoping we can do all three this coming May. I'm leaning towards electing points for 2024 so I have more flexibility with a few days here, a few days there and not tied up with a full week.

What do you think?
 
Actually, I have a great understanding of weeks. It's the range of things I can do with points that is less clear to me.
 
Rent out your points or weeks on Redweek and go where you want without limitations. There is a whole other world out there not tied to Marriott. We just came back from a 12 night stay in the Amalfi Coast in Italy and hopefully we are going to the southern Portugal in 2024. We are also booked in St. Martin with a weeks trade in January and Grand Chateau in June.
 
How much value do MVC points have in hotels? vs. Bonvoy points? Anyone know? Or direct me to a thread. TIA.
 
dmharris said:
Hmm. We had a serious look at what do we really want to do and I have 3 things related to flowers that are important to me to see before I die. Chelsea Flower Show in London, Tulips in Holland and Giverny in France. I'm hoping we can do all three this coming May. I'm leaning towards electing points for 2024 so I have more flexibility with a few days here, a few days there and not tied up with a full week.

What do you think?
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Electing MVC/Abound points?
There are no Abound TS properties in those areas, which is the best use for those points.
Do you have bonvoy points?
You might not want to elect your 2024 week to points and instead deposit the week into II so it will be good for 2+ years.
Or you could elect the points and bank them for the next years trip to an abound property. I can recommends the gardens on Kauai!
 
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dmharris said:
How much value do MVC points have in hotels? vs. Bonvoy points? Anyone know? Or direct me to a thread. TIA.
Click to expand...

Log onto the owners site and click “use points” and “book vacation club points” to see the list of what you can book.
Other uses for the points are in the last column under exchange options.
 
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dmharris said:
How much value do MVC points have in hotels? vs. Bonvoy points? Anyone know? Or direct me to a thread. TIA.
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Sign in to MVC, click Use Points, click Cruises Hotels and More, click Explore Hotels and Luxury Residences, and from there you can sort by country and city. As an example, for London, at St. Ermin’s, the Abound points range from 1150 to 1875 per night, based on room type.

Not sure what the cash rate is there, but something tells me if you rented out your points at 70+ cents a point, you could likely get 2 nights using your proceeds to pay cash, for every 1 night reserving with Abound points.
 
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