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.
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?).
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.
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...
In the beginning there is benefit to Marriott maintaining the two systems as somehow "distinct" as they can use it as a sales/upgrade technique. However, over time, I can see the balance tipping to the point where they eventually move all on to what is effectively a platform identical to "Abound".
