• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 30 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 30th anniversary: Happy 30th Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $21,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $21 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    60,000+ subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Exchanging WM for Ko'Olina, and e-plus

Tahiya

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2006
Messages
200
Reaction score
43
Points
388
Location
Portland, Oregon
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.
 

VacationForever

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2010
Messages
16,196
Reaction score
10,607
Points
1,048
Location
Somewhere Out There
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.
 

ecwinch

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
3,731
Reaction score
1,119
Points
748
Location
San Antonio
Resorts Owned
Marriott Harbour Point (HP), Kauai Beach Villas, Riverside Suites, WorldMark Pts (WM), Wyndham Pts
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.
 
Last edited:

VacationForever

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2010
Messages
16,196
Reaction score
10,607
Points
1,048
Location
Somewhere Out There
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.
 

ecwinch

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
3,731
Reaction score
1,119
Points
748
Location
San Antonio
Resorts Owned
Marriott Harbour Point (HP), Kauai Beach Villas, Riverside Suites, WorldMark Pts (WM), Wyndham Pts
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.
 

VacationForever

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2010
Messages
16,196
Reaction score
10,607
Points
1,048
Location
Somewhere Out There
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.
 

GregT

TUG Member
TUG Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2007
Messages
7,128
Reaction score
1,886
Points
599
Location
Carlsbad, CA
Resorts Owned
Marriott: Maui Ocean Club Lahaina Villas (3BRx5), Ko Olina, Shadow Ridge II, Willow Ridge, Aruba Ocean Club, DC Points HGVC: Flamingo, Sea World, I-Drive, Starwood Bella (x4), SDO, TradeWinds, Worldmark
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
 
Top