It has to do with resale mandatory ownership. The elephant in the room is whether they are eligible for Abound or not. Resale mandatory ownership does not currently qualify for elite status. If they are not eligible for Abound, VSN booking system needs to continue to run in parallel. Mandatory weeks will continue to use VSN, as it written into the CC&R documents. There is also no ROFR on WKV so they will continue to be available outside of Abound framework.
You are entitled to see it differently. Vistana will continue to function as an independent system with an integration option with Abound for those that qualify. That means it will continue to use recognition levels within Vistana to apply Vistana-specific benefits to Vistana ownerships and the resulting transactions...extended banking deadlines, converting to Bonvoy every year, waitlists, etc. We've heard along the way that they have plans to make those Vistana levels match the name and number of Marriott recognition levels (presumably for ease of administration and when accessing Abound) but the criteria for hitting each level will be Vistana-specific. It has to be. Could you imagine as Dioxide suggested if Marriott came in and valued every Vistana ownership in MVC points (Abound eligible or not) based upon its own judgment of what is worth in Marriott's eyes and then set Vistana recognition levels based upon that? There would be buildings burnt to the ground! Imagine two owners each have a 2 Bed worth 148,100 StarOptions and Marriott came into Vistana and assigned one 8K point moving them up to elite and another 4K points. A revolution would begin, staring with pitchforks and torches. It makes sense for Marriott to do that for ownerships that are Abound eligible only for the purpose of knowing what they would be worth if they elected to participate in that program. But otherwise I can't see Vistana's recognition level being based upon anything but StarOptions at this juncture...perhaps down the line as more integration occurs that might change.
But what VSN ownerships won't be eligible to participate in Abound? If it is mandatory resales, those aren't eligible for Vistana * Elite levels anyway. Voluntary resales aren't eligible either.
Points allocated to pre-2010 Marriott resale weeks count toward MVC owner benefit levels. Just because they allowed Marriott resales to play in DC, it doesn't mean they will allow non qualified Vistana weeks to enroll in Abound.
So what you believe will happen is they're going to rename the elite levels to complete match "Abound" but continue to maintain a completely separate set of criteria for what constitutes elite in Vistana? I think not. Why would Marriott maintain this level of complication for both themselves and for consumers to navigate? Again, they are not legally required to maintain the Vistana Elite System at all...it's spelled out clearly that it and all benefits are completely at the discretion of Vistana. I think it's much more likely that "Vistana" levels and their computations will go away. Current members who's level might go down as a result of the "Abound" valuations will be "grandfathered" in to their existing level, but there will be no moving up unless you meet the "Abound" required calculations (it is possible they won't even be selling Vistana weeks or points at all moving forward....so why maintain Vistana elite staroptions requirements?).
No disagreement that for the time being it seems VSN will continue to operate as it's written into the HOA documents of HOA mandatory resorts. I was only speaking of VSN Elite Levels (which are not written into the HOA docs). However, there is very little written as to what "VSN" has to look like. What is stopping Marriott from modifying VSN so it looks identical to Abound? A rose by any other name is still a rose...
I think also it is simply not wanting to take something away that already exists for owners. Sure, they may be able to legally do it, but they sold on that product for 25 years. Changing it now could produce challenges. In general when timeshare systems merge you don't see them take away programs that existed before. SBP owners can still reserve home resort 24 months in advance. Marriott owners can still reserve split weeks and Florida Club. Hilton is simply adding in a layer with HGV Max instead of a full integration. They leave old legacy systems in place for a reason, both to keep owners happy and also use it to sell the shiny new system...
We are legacy VSN and considering buying more VSN Westin flex options before the Abound program launches which I have been told is when flex will no longer be sold. We are still VSN 3 star elite not 4 star with this purchase but it will get us to above 10,000 Marriott vacation club points based on a conversion chart I haven’t even seen (just told verbally). Currently Presidential tier starts at or more than 10,000 club points and that is the reason we want to move forward, is to get to Presidential. My question is, does anyone know if the VSN tiers map directly to MVC tiers so 3>Executive, 4>Presidential regardless of the destination club points conversion? Or can one still be 3 star elite and still be Presidential if the DCP conversion is over 10,000.
That is a good question. If this is what the sales reps are telling you, I would have them provide guaranty of Presidential in the contract. How many Abound points will you be short of 10,000 based on what you were told?
~1500
How many Westin Flex do they want to sell you to get you there and what is the buy in cost? You could possibly buy 1,500 resale DC/Abound points after full integration for about $10K all in.
Nobody knows anything for sure but it's pretty much been said from the beginning that 3* will map to Executive in MVC. What really hasn't been talked about is qualifying for levels based upon the MVC point value of your qualified Vistana ownership. It's possible if you get to the equivalent of 10K that you would get Presidential and it's also possible that they might raise the limit without grandfathering in Vistana converters. We just won't know until it actually launches so maybe as dioxide suggested try to get Presidential written into your purchase contract.
Can you share the chart?
I guess I’ll be buying people drinks next time we’re at the same resort.
I'm not sure if this is the chart that is being referred, but it gives the levels based upon DC points.
tugbbs.com