[2012] "Should My Week(s) Be Enrolled?"

[dioxide45]

Thank you for the information. I was considering enrolling my one lonely Barony Beach week. I have two questions.

I currently have my normal summer reserved (July 2012). If I join now, can I turn in that week into points right away? The reason I'm asking is that my son is getting married in September and I would like to give him a week vacation for his honeymoon in September. I figure with the points, I would have a lot of flexibility,

Question two - is it permissible or easy to use points to reserve a room in the name of someone else (like my son?)

Thanks!

No, you won't be able to convert your 2012 week to points. You had to have converted 2012 weeks to points by September 30, 2011. You may be able to get them to make an exception when enrolling. They permitted this in the first year of DC, but may not do it now.

You can make a reservation with points and add another person's name (like your son's).

 

[EKniager]

You can make a reservation with points and add another person's name (like your son's).

Actually, you can do this with weeks ownership and exchange as well.

 

[Quilter]

Thank you for the information. I was considering enrolling my one lonely Barony Beach week. I have two questions.

I currently have my normal summer reserved (July 2012). If I join now, can I turn in that week into points right away? The reason I'm asking is that my son is getting married in September and I would like to give him a week vacation for his honeymoon in September. I figure with the points, I would have a lot of flexibility,

Question two - is it permissible or easy to use points to reserve a room in the name of someone else (like my son?)

Thanks!

You could rent your summer week to recover costs and then rent points from another DC member for your son's honeymoon. The simplest thing would be to make the reservation yourself but with lots of people getting 800 purchase points there might be plenty of opportunity for you to get others to make a reservation for you and you pay them for the points. If you did end up with 2 reservation numbers at the same resort I would call the GM and ask if they could please leave you (your son) in the same room for both reservations.

We weren't able to use our 800 points and Marriott made me a better deal in exchange for them. It's was all based on a mix-up of info from one of their executives when the product was rolled out so they made good on the misinformation.

 

[ilene13]

deleting an error was made

 

[dioxide45]

Actually, you can do this with weeks ownership and exchange as well.

Exactly, nothing changes with DC enrollment.

 

[CJ2etc]

Quick question as we are new to the game and I am trying to educate myself as quickly as possible. We own a 3 bdrm platinum lock off at Grand Vista and lock it off and trade each piece every year, so I assume this would be a no brainer for us. Our last few and next few vacations have been skiing during prime season and we haven't been able to use our Marriott timeshare to get lodging or exchange into these prime weeks so we may need to buy some time before we get back to destinations that work better with our timeshare and trading. My question is how long are the points given as incentive and if you exchange for points as well good for? I see reference to a year on the incentive points but am not sure if it is based on the closing date or a calendar year or what and haven't seen anything on the dates related to exchange points before they expire. One thing we like about II is that the window they give you for exchange after you deposit if fairly large.

Thanks
Craig

 

[tjkahn]

Quick question as we are new to the game and I am trying to educate myself as quickly as possible. We own a 3 bdrm platinum lock off at Grand Vista and lock it off and trade each piece every year, so I assume this would be a no brainer for us. Our last few and next few vacations have been skiing during prime season and we haven't been able to use our Marriott timeshare to get lodging or exchange into these prime weeks so we may need to buy some time before we get back to destinations that work better with our timeshare and trading. My question is how long are the points given as incentive and if you exchange for points as well good for? I see reference to a year on the incentive points but am not sure if it is based on the closing date or a calendar year or what and haven't seen anything on the dates related to exchange points before they expire. One thing we like about II is that the window they give you for exchange after you deposit if fairly large.

Thanks
Craig

The incentive points are good for a year from your enrollment date. As far as weeks converted to points, I think they are good until the end of the calendar year in which you relinquished your unit (in other words, if you traded your 2013 week for points, the points are good from your exchange date to 12/31/13. I personally wouldn't trade for DC points unless I had a place picked out and knew it was available. Otherwise II still seems like a better bet. But my knowledge is quite limited at the moment.

 

[CJ2etc]

tjkahn
Thanks for the clarification. That helps with my education. I think we are ready to enroll. Not thrilled with paying more money but I think we will recoup our investment fairly quickly the way we use it. Everything we do results in a fee of some type.

 

[NJMOM2]

The incentive points are good for a year from your enrollment date. As far as weeks converted to points, I think they are good until the end of the calendar year in which you relinquished your unit (in other words, if you traded your 2013 week for points, the points are good from your exchange date to 12/31/13. I personally wouldn't trade for DC points unless I had a place picked out and knows it was available. Otherwise II still seems like a better bet. But my knowledge is quite limited at the moment.

Those 2013 points can be banked to 12/31/14. The deadline to bank 2013 points would be 6/30/13. You can also borrow points up to 2 years in advance of use year.

 

[jimf41]

Thank you for the information. I was considering enrolling my one lonely Barony Beach week. I have two questions.

I currently have my normal summer reserved (July 2012). If I join now, can I turn in that week into points right away? The reason I'm asking is that my son is getting married in September and I would like to give him a week vacation for his honeymoon in September. I figure with the points, I would have a lot of flexibility,

Thanks!

If you join the easiest way to do this is to keep your July 2012 week and convert your 2013 week to points. Let your son use the 800 point incentive plus any points he needs from converting your 2013 to make his honeymoon plans. If you have points left over take a two or three day trip somewhere or just rent what you need for a full week from Greg T's website.

 

[tjkahn]

Those 2013 points can be banked to 12/31/14. The deadline to bank 2013 points would be 9/30/13. You can also borrow points up to 2 years in advance of use year.

Some clarification:

I think you have a typo in your date - the deadline to bank 2013 points for usage in 2014 would be 6/30/2013 (assuming you are a weeks owner enrolled in DC, in which case your usage year begins January 1).

Link attached, but the summary:

- Must elect to trade for DC points by Sept. 30 prior to your usage year (so to trade for DC points for 2013 usage, you must do so by Sept. 30, 2012)

- If you want to bank the 2013 points for 2014 use, you must do so 6 months before the end of the usage year the points were originally for. So 2013 points must be banked by June 30, 2013 to use them in 2014.

- The deadline to trade for MR points is still Dec. 31 (no change).

https://www.my-vacationclub.com/common/vc/en-us/pdfs/enrollment_legal_docs/important_dates.pdf

 

[NJMOM2]

Some clarification:

I think you have a typo in your date - the deadline to bank 2013 points for usage in 2014 would be 6/30/2013 (assuming you are a weeks owner enrolled in DC, in which case your usage year begins January 1).

Link attached, but the summary:

- Must elect to trade for DC points by Sept. 30 prior to your usage year (so to trade for DC points for 2013 usage, you must do so by Sept. 30, 2012)

- If you want to bank the 2013 points for 2014 use, you must do so 6 months before the end of the usage year the points were originally for. So 2013 points must be banked by June 30, 2013 to use them in 2014.

- The deadline to trade for MR points is still Dec. 31 (no change).

https://www.my-vacationclub.com/common/vc/en-us/pdfs/enrollment_legal_docs/important_dates.pdf

Your right - so many dated to remember I got them mixed up. I have them all marked on my calendar and planning spread sheet. I modified the post with the correct date. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[John Cerra]

Considering enrolling...looking for advice

Hi everyone,

Some recent experiences trying to trade in II with long lead times has made me wonder about how strong the II option is. I saw the thread where people showed their trades, but since II does not seem to publicize trades, it is all guesswork.

We have one week, Fairway Villas, and are always able to book a prime summer week a year out. The place is always full or nearly full in summer and seems in demand. We bought the week resale in 2004 and have occasionally traded it in II, but I have never been blown away by a trade...Orlando and Phoenix in June/July does not seem like it's too hard.

From December to March, we tried to trade our week for a week in Newport and never got it done. A change in plans and we tried Beachplace in the July 4 week, but had no luck. I am renting the week in Beachplace for cash since we need to be there and now have a 7/29 week in Fairway Villas I am looking to get rid of. One alternative is to put it in II,a and when the 13 month window opens for summer 2013, try to get Newport. A second alternative is to rent the week.

The this deadline appears. I appreciate you TUG members bringing to my attention, since Marriott did not, btw. I am again rethinking joining. I am not happy putting more money in, since it seems Marriott's business plan is to continually depreciate what ever they have sold you. But the number of points that FV generates doesn't seem to do much in trade. Do I understand that I can rent points for one year from other owners?

What about the three year II renewal I just paid? Am I out that money?
I think I get 1 time 800 points. I have seen estimates of that being worth $400 to $500....seem right? I am committing to paying $165 a year instead of II fees, but would pay no exchange fees?

So how good is the one time point market rental?

Would you do it?

Thanks.

John

 

[EKniager]

Hi everyone,

Some recent experiences trying to trade in II with long lead times has made me wonder about how strong the II option is. I saw the thread where people showed their trades, but since II does not seem to publicize trades, it is all guesswork.

We have one week, Fairway Villas, and are always able to book a prime summer week a year out. The place is always full or nearly full in summer and seems in demand. We bought the week resale in 2004 and have occasionally traded it in II, but I have never been blown away by a trade...Orlando and Phoenix in June/July does not seem like it's too hard.

From December to March, we tried to trade our week for a week in Newport and never got it done. A change in plans and we tried Beachplace in the July 4 week, but had no luck. I am renting the week in Beachplace for cash since we need to be there and now have a 7/29 week in Fairway Villas I am looking to get rid of. One alternative is to put it in II,a and when the 13 month window opens for summer 2013, try to get Newport. A second alternative is to rent the week.

The this deadline appears. I appreciate you TUG members bringing to my attention, since Marriott did not, btw. I am again rethinking joining. I am not happy putting more money in, since it seems Marriott's business plan is to continually depreciate what ever they have sold you. But the number of points that FV generates doesn't seem to do much in trade. Do I understand that I can rent points for one year from other owners?

What about the three year II renewal I just paid? Am I out that money?
I think I get 1 time 800 points. I have seen estimates of that being worth $400 to $500....seem right? I am committing to paying $165 a year instead of II fees, but would pay no exchange fees?

So how good is the one time point market rental?

Would you do it?

Thanks.

John

Not sure you gave us enough info. Do you own a platinum week? When you attempted the exchange was your unit reserved for a high demand summer week?

I like Fairway Villas and actually bought our Aruba week after attending a sales pitch there, however... over the last 18 months I have watched resales there go for practically nothing. That translates to me that it is not a high demand destination and thus, not necessarily a great trader. Certainly, anything less than platinum would have marginal trading power.

The new point system gives you added flexibility to rent one night at a time. Without knowing your exact point allocation it would be hard to comment on the appropriateness of those points relative to the rental market, but, in general, the skim that Marriott takes usually makes trading for a full week better with II than in the new system.

Your II membership is spent. That money ain't coming back so for the next 3 years you won't save money or break even on the new annual $165 fee, even if you trade every year. (I don't think you have lockoffs up there, right?) After that, your annual fee in the point system will be offset by your free Marriott to Marriott trades and free II membership ($165 vs. $129+$75).

I joined this week but we have a lockoff that costs us $80 per year and trade at least half of the unit, another $129. Sometimes we trade both halves so the $165 represents a big savings for us even if we never trade the week in for the new points.

 

[tjkahn]

Your II membership is spent. That money ain't coming back so for the next 3 years you won't save money or break even on the new annual $165 fee, even if you trade every year. (I don't think you have lockoffs up there, right?) After that, your annual fee in the point system will be offset by your free Marriott to Marriott trades and free II membership ($165 vs. $129+$75).

I've seen a number of posts that indicate if you are insistent, you will get a pro-rata refund of your II dues. Ask to speak to a supervisor. At a minimum, many folks have said they'll try to appease you with AC's.

 

[John Cerra]

Not sure you gave us enough info. Do you own a platinum week? When you attempted the exchange was your unit reserved for a high demand summer week?

I like Fairway Villas and actually bought our Aruba week after attending a sales pitch there, however... over the last 18 months I have watched resales there go for practically nothing. That translates to me that it is not a high demand destination and thus, not necessarily a great trader. Certainly, anything less than platinum would have marginal trading power.

The new point system gives you added flexibility to rent one night at a time. Without knowing your exact point allocation it would be hard to comment on the appropriateness of those points relative to the rental market, but, in general, the skim that Marriott takes usually makes trading for a full week better with II than in the new system.



Your II membership is spent. That money ain't coming back so for the next 3 years you won't save money or break even on the new annual $165 fee, even if you trade every year. (I don't think you have lockoffs up there, right?) After that, your annual fee in the point system will be offset by your free Marriott to Marriott trades and free II membership ($165 vs. $129+$75).

I joined this week but we have a lockoff that costs us $80 per year and trade at least half of the unit, another $129. Sometimes we trade both halves so the $165 represents a big savings for us even if we never trade the week in for the new points.

Yes, we own a platinum week. Your response got me thinking, and I think I realized why I am lukewarm about this.

Consider the week first. When we go in July or August, we see the facility fully booked. When we have tried to rent a week from Marriott, none are available. Look in the classifieds, not many available, look in Craigslist or Redbook, again, not many. Summer weeks are used by the owners, who probably live within driving distance (say North NJ) and what ever is left Marriott rents to people looking for a late decision opportunity to get a week on the "Jersey Shore." But if you have a week somewhere else, you aren't likely to trade it...it's not on the beach, it's a drive to the casinos, although great golf is at your door. So my conclusion...economically it is a great renter but not a great trader.

Now consider the value of the unit...you can buy a platinum resale for $7500. Joining the DC club is $1500, you do it to protect your the value of week. But at FV, you don't get enough points to make it worthwhile. You get 2075 points, but if you try to book the week we have this summer, it costs 2725. Yes I know I can still book the week like I used to, but I just get killed on the trading value. I think if Marriott gave me 2725,or that minus a reasonable skim, this would make sense. But the $1500 is just then opener, clearly I have to buy points (Newport in the same week is 4725 points) to do anything. The act of buying points pretty much means that I accept and lock in the 2075 point level, instead of 2725 minus a skim. My conclusion is that Marriott WANTS the summer weeks at FV to rent, and doesn't want people to trade in to the place.

It seems to make more sense to rent the week than anything, doesn't it?

 

[aka Julie]

Now consider the value of the unit...you can buy a platinum resale for $7500

I think your valuation of your platinum week is wishful thinking, although I realize you didn't say you were going to sell.

The last platinum Fairway Villas that sold on Ebay went for $2036 and ended on May 3 (had 15 bids). Here's the listing:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2BR-MARRIOT...30779437324?pt=Timeshares&hash=item35bb86c10c

 

[thinze3]

I know this has been asked before, but do your current reservations carry over and npt get cancelled when you enroll. I am all but certain they remain in place.

I want to wait until the last day so that my bonus points will be good through early June 2013. My 2013 reservations will already made and I do not want to lose them.

 

[pipet]

Orlando and Phoenix in June/July does not seem like it's too hard.

You're right; these weren't hard trades. For future reference, you can get summer desert weeks as inexpensive Getaways.

From December to March, we tried to trade our week for a week in Newport and never got it done. A change in plans and we tried Beachplace in the July 4 week, but had no luck. I am renting the week in Beachplace for cash since we need to be there and now have a 7/29 week in Fairway Villas I am looking to get rid of. One alternative is to put it in II,a and when the 13 month window opens for summer 2013, try to get Newport. A second alternative is to rent the week.

What week in Newport were you trying to get? I suspect the problem here is you were trying for a summer Newport week, and these are hard to get, even for owners (very bad seasoning at this resort has plat owners competing for a handful of weeks). The DC also owns a good bit of Newport inventory, and I doubt they would release anything in the summer into II until very late in the game. Basically, I don't think anything is wrong with the trade value of your week, but you were trying to get something that even the strongest weeks sometimes have trouble getting.

I am committing to paying $165 a year instead of II fees, but would pay no exchange fees?

Correct.

You get a low point allocation, so you would be hard pressed to get good exchanges with DC points (although you could do that summer desert week!). From a purely economic perspective, you might be better off renting out your week the years you plan to go somewhere else. As for fees, for you, there is not much, if any, fee savings. It sounds like you use your resort some, which means that the DC might actually be more expensive for you in fees. Joining for you would be more to get the option to rent points and to "legitimatize" your week with Marriott. You're also at one of the few resorts where trading for MRPs is actually not a terrible deal, so you would open up that eligibility.

 

[John Cerra]

You're right; these weren't hard trades. For future reference, you can get summer desert weeks as inexpensive Getaways.


What week in Newport were you trying to get? I suspect the problem here is you were trying for a summer Newport week, and these are hard to get, even for owners (very bad seasoning at this resort has plat owners competing for a handful of weeks). The DC also owns a good bit of Newport inventory, and I doubt they would release anything in the summer into II until very late in the game. Basically, I don't think anything is wrong with the trade value of your week, but you were trying to get something that even the strongest weeks sometimes have trouble getting.

Correct.

You get a low point allocation, so you would be hard pressed to get good exchanges with DC points (although you could do that summer desert week!). From a purely economic perspective, you might be better off renting out your week the years you plan to go somewhere else. As for fees, for you, there is not much, if any, fee savings. It sounds like you use your resort some, which means that the DC might actually be more expensive for you in fees. Joining for you would be more to get the option to rent points and to "legitimatize" your week with Marriott. You're also at one of the few resorts where trading for MRPs is actually not a terrible deal, so you would open up that eligibility.

Could you explain this last point: Joining for you would be more to get the option to rent points and to "legitimatize" your week with Marriott. You're also at one of the few resorts where trading for MRPs is actually not a terrible deal, so you would open up that eligibility.?

btw, for an earlier poster, that ebay sale in insanely low. You can rent the week for $1300 to $1400 no problem.

 

[SueDonJ]

I know this has been asked before, but do your current reservations carry over and npt get cancelled when you enroll. I am all but certain they remain in place.

I want to wait until the last day so that my bonus points will be good through early June 2013. My 2013 reservations will already made and I do not want to lose them.

Yes, you'll keep any existing reservations. (No change at all to any MVC-direct reservations; any pending matched II exchanges will remain in your old account.)

You have just about the only good reason to not enroll until the last day but I'd advise you to do it first thing in the morning on that last day. On the phone or online, doesn't matter - get in the queue as soon as it opens! (Of course it's possible they'll surprise us and not have IT issues at the deadline so maybe this warning isn't necessary, but if they do, it's better to be prepared as much as possible. )

 

[billymach4]

Not worth joining

John

With only one plat resale week at mfv, I would advise you not to sign up in the DC points club.

Imho it would begin to make sense if you had at least three weeks.

I have three weeks all lockouts. I always lockout. Also rented my Aruba surf club for the first time this year.

I also reserve and occupy at Ocean Pointe. Also I trade on shoulder season in order leverage good II trades.

Also take into consideration the other prime resorts outside of mvci.

By the way I am not joining.

 

[pipet]

Could you explain this last point: Joining for you would be more to get the option to rent points and to "legitimatize" your week with Marriott. You're also at one of the few resorts where trading for MRPs is actually not a terrible deal, so you would open up that eligibility.?

By "legitimatize," I just meant that your resale weeks will be eligible for the same benefits as a developer purchased week.

Most developer purchased weeks are eligible to trade for Marriott Reward Points every other year. In many cases, this is not a good deal if you compare MFs to the cash price for buying points (each point worth $.0125 @ Marriott.com), the rental value of your week (which you could also apply to buying MRPs), or how many nights you would get with a Marriott points hotel redemption. However, if your MF/MRP point ratio is favorable, and you use your MRPs for a travel package (and then use the air miles part to fly 1st/business on a transoceanic flight), you can still do OK. Of course, you don't need to buy into DC to accumulate MRPs (the Marriott credit card, etc), so this "benefit" may or may not be valuable to you.

I'd recommend going back SueDonJ's first post in this thread; it might be more meaningful now after all the additional comments. You are not going to save buy joining in unless you exchange almost every year, so you have to decide if any of the pros of the DC are worth the extra cost.

 

[m61376]

Could you explain this last point: Joining for you would be more to get the option to rent points and to "legitimatize" your week with Marriott. You're also at one of the few resorts where trading for MRPs is actually not a terrible deal, so you would open up that eligibility.?

Joining puts resale weeks on even footing with developer purchased weeks. At the moment, other than the ability to trade for Marriott Reward points (of questionable value, imho) that's not a big issue. However, right now Marriott is offering to basically grandfather pre June 2010 resale weeks, which may (or may not) continue down the road. Are further changes possible to the exchange program? Could Marriott ultimately handle all internal trades for their DC members, including week based trades? Might the 24 day Marriott preference we now see in II only be for corporate account weeks? These are only speculations, but ya never know, and it may be a finite opportunity to have those resale weeks included. I don't know if anyone else here thinks that this is even a remote possibility or it is just a figment of my over active imagination, but it is something that factors into my analysis.

The part about renting points is real- you have to be in it to use it. If you are an enrolled member, you never have to exchange for points, but you can rent points from others to perhaps rent an extra week somewhere, which can be much less expensive than renting directly from Marriott, even with the owners' discounts, and give you the security of your own reservation rather than merely renting on the Tug marketplace, Redweek or elsewhere.

 

[shsansone]

DC enrollment questions

Have looked at previous threads but could not find the answers to the following questions.
Will there be a charge for guest certificates or exchanging your units for Marriott reward points?
Will enrollment in II be a standard enrollment or will gold or platinum membership be available?
Do we still retain our right to have representation on how the timeshare is run?