Ownership of the inventory should dictate how the inventory is allocated. When I purchased my legacy week, I established ownership of 1 of 52 weeks of a 2 BR villa with a right to use in my purchased season. When I purchased from Marriott, they promoted that I actually owned this inventory and I had the added benefit of being able to exchange it for MR points (now worthless) or exchange through II (who then used my one week deposit to exchange to another timeshare that that owner had deposited). All exchanged weeks were based on a deposited week for which I paid my annual MF's. Marriott (now MVC) only had access to inventory for the weeks exchanged for MR points or for unsold inventory. When the DC program was initiated, MVC gained additional access to inventory purchased by the trust or inventory for enrolled weeks that were converted to points. My understanding is that DC inventory is supposed to be used for DC reservations, but not for MVC rentals or Encore packages. How would MVC justify the decision to use limited inventory for Encore packages while totally withholding inventory from II exchangers who had ownership based deposits for which MF's had been paid?
Basically, MVC is devaluing an important benefit (II internal exchanges) they promoted to convince us to buy their products so they can offer special packages to nonowners so they can lie to them to get them to buy their 'modified' products. II exchangers are not 'outsiders', and all II exchange inventory required a deposit from an owner and an investment from another owner (mostly MVC). How is it fair or a good business decision to give Encore package discount shoppers with no skin in the game priority over a MVC owner who uses the II exchange with their paid for owned week? Dean seems to be forgetting that many II exchangers are owners who have paid for their week and right to exchange them for other MVC weeks. Now that II is owned by MVC's parent company, would they make a similar decision?
I learned three valuable lessons with my experiences:
1. Don't Exchange through II because they no longer indicate MVC or home resort exchange source, and MVC may cancel these exchange reservations.
2. Don't trust MVC corporate management to value the needs or concerns of owners who have invested significant resources in their MVC portfolio.
3. Don't buy the MVC sponsored travel insurance because the fine print will disallow a high percentage of claims.