I just won the jack pot with an AC last week. It has been a few years since I have found anything with an AC. Last week I was looking and there was Marriott's OceanWatch Villas at Grande Dunes. Check in was less than a week. I took it and gave it to a friend, who is very kind and let's us use her Master's tickets for a day. (we only pay the face value) so I was happy to give her a little something. So I still believe in AC. I am going to deposit my Marriott before the end of June and II will give me an AC. Maybe I will get lucky again.
ACs are nothing more than excess inventory. That's a nice way of saying nobody wanted them---
Too "off-season"? too remote?? too last-minute?? lots of reasons.
Occasionally (more often, rarely) things happen, whether a last minute cancelation or whatever, and a week will show up.
That week will be invariably noticed by the Interval stalkers and snapped up (I used to be one!).
If they last more than 24 hours now it's a miracle. I still have TUG friends who tell me about a fortunate "get" within the last 2 years.
I used to peruse Interval more than I do now, because as everyone knows very little is usable or even desirable.
In the old days, we got "off-season" weeks at Hilton Head on a regular and predictable basis, Myrtle Beach, Williamsburg, Ocean Pointe, and many others. If any weeks are ever available at Hilton Head now (whether possessed by Marriott or Interval), regardless of the month, they are blacked out, because the fringe time frames have become so popular and desirable that Marriott knows they will be able to rent them. Haven't seen a HH week via AC in several years, and looking back at my Interval history, we used AT LEAST one AC week annually. The cost used to be very cheap too, and sometimes I'd buy one or two and give them away to family or friends. Those days are certainly gone. Doing a search on Interval now for a decent AC week is an effort in futility, and borders on the insulting. I guess they are hoping somebody has a wild hair and bites---it's one less week's maintenance fee they have to pay.