Combining Enrolled Points with Trust Points

[tmmabey]

The article below (for which I have provided both the link as well as the content) makes the claim that enrolled points and trust points are treated separately and apply to separate inventory, such that it is not so straightforward to add trust points to your enrolled points to achieve a higher level of ownership and purchasing power. A few days ago I sat with a sales rep at Marriott Grand Vista who said this is absolutely untrue. She claimed they combine together just fine, and you have access to full inventory. Can anyone confirm for me which is true?

Should you purchase Marriott Trust Points? - the Art of Vacationing

Now that most owners have enrolled in the Destinations Club program at Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott is turning up the pressure for owners to purchase “Trust points”. If all you have is access to points converted from your deeded weeks, they will tell you that you are not a “real” owner and...

www.theartofvacationing.com

"We recently learned that there are 2 pools of inventory that the new Destination Club points can access. The majority of Marriott owners own deeded weeks which can be “elected” for Club Points in any given year. These points can be used to reserve Marriott Vacation Club stays for any number of days that you choose. These “enrolled” Club points can only access the available inventory of resorts and dates that are made available from owners turning their deeded weeks into Club Points. This is known as the Exchange Inventory.

When you purchase Club points these are considered “Trust” Club points and with these points you can only access the Trust Inventory. This is the inventory comprised of unsold weeks, resale weeks and re-acquired weeks. In other words, this is the inventory that Marriott owns, not the owners.

When searching for available resorts for specific dates, you can only search the inventory in which your points can access. The two types of points can not be combined. Marriott Sales Executives have been selling existing owners a minimum of 1,500 points and some owners have opted to do this with the idea that these 1,500 “trust” points can be combined with their deeded week Club points. Not so.

The following example illustrates how exchanging with points works: You have 2,500 points in the bank that you have elected from your deeded weeks. And you have 1,500 Trust points you have purchased. You want to go to Aruba in February and it requires 3,900 points. If the inventory is only in the Trust you don’t have enough points to book it. If the inventory is only in the Exchange Inventory, you don’t have sufficient points to book it. ONLY if the inventory is in both pools, can you book it. MVCI will use 2,400 points for the first 4 nights from your “enrolled” points and then 1,500 points from your “Trust” points for the last 3 nights."

 

[dioxide45]

The article below (for which I have provided both the link as well as the content) makes the claim that enrolled points and trust points are treated separately and apply to separate inventory, such that it is not so straightforward to add trust points to your enrolled points to achieve a higher level of ownership and purchasing power. A few days ago I sat with a sales rep at Marriott Grand Vista who said this is absolutely untrue. She claimed they combine together just fine, and you have access to full inventory. Can anyone confirm for me which is true?

The sales reps like to tell you they combine together great to be able to reserve pure trust inventory. Which technically isn't true. The article is correct. However in practice much of the trust inventory gets dumped into the exchange company inventory to make most bookings rather seamless.

 

[Fasttr]

Perhaps technically correct, but totally incorrect per how the system currently works. It has been years since I have seen anything booked with my Trust points that did not come from the Exchange. I believe all, or at least very nearly all Trust inventory is tossed into the Exchange with the other Exchange inventory very early on in the process so anybody with any type of points has access to it. I also have, many times, used a combo of Trust and Enrolled points to make a single ressie. Very early in the systems life, you had to use one type of points or the other for each night within a multi night ressie, but they have also fixed that quirk and it too is no longer the case. The two types of points are easily used together and effectively work the same in the system as currently set up.

 

[Dean]

The article below (for which I have provided both the link as well as the content) makes the claim that enrolled points and trust points are treated separately and apply to separate inventory, such that it is not so straightforward to add trust points to your enrolled points to achieve a higher level of ownership and purchasing power. A few days ago I sat with a sales rep at Marriott Grand Vista who said this is absolutely untrue. She claimed they combine together just fine, and you have access to full inventory. Can anyone confirm for me which is true?

Should you purchase Marriott Trust Points? - the Art of Vacationing

Now that most owners have enrolled in the Destinations Club program at Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott is turning up the pressure for owners to purchase “Trust points”. If all you have is access to points converted from your deeded weeks, they will tell you that you are not a “real” owner and...

www.theartofvacationing.com

"We recently learned that there are 2 pools of inventory that the new Destination Club points can access. The majority of Marriott owners own deeded weeks which can be “elected” for Club Points in any given year. These points can be used to reserve Marriott Vacation Club stays for any number of days that you choose. These “enrolled” Club points can only access the available inventory of resorts and dates that are made available from owners turning their deeded weeks into Club Points. This is known as the Exchange Inventory.

When you purchase Club points these are considered “Trust” Club points and with these points you can only access the Trust Inventory. This is the inventory comprised of unsold weeks, resale weeks and re-acquired weeks. In other words, this is the inventory that Marriott owns, not the owners.

When searching for available resorts for specific dates, you can only search the inventory in which your points can access. The two types of points can not be combined. Marriott Sales Executives have been selling existing owners a minimum of 1,500 points and some owners have opted to do this with the idea that these 1,500 “trust” points can be combined with their deeded week Club points. Not so.

The following example illustrates how exchanging with points works: You have 2,500 points in the bank that you have elected from your deeded weeks. And you have 1,500 Trust points you have purchased. You want to go to Aruba in February and it requires 3,900 points. If the inventory is only in the Trust you don’t have enough points to book it. If the inventory is only in the Exchange Inventory, you don’t have sufficient points to book it. ONLY if the inventory is in both pools, can you book it. MVCI will use 2,400 points for the first 4 nights from your “enrolled” points and then 1,500 points from your “Trust” points for the last 3 nights."

Technically the article is correct, there are 2 pools of inventory. But from a practical standpoint there's so much crossover that it has no real effect. There were a few examples very early in the points program where trust points were able to access inventory but weeks could not. I have not seen any real life examples in several years. IMO it would be unreasonable to buy trust points because of this concern.

 

[SueDonJ]

From this forum's Destination Club FAQ:

>>
~~ Inventory Sources for DC Points Usage ~~

MVCI Weeks and MVCD Points inventory is kept separate according to the terms of each system's governing documents in order to protect Owners/Members ownership and usage rights. Inventory available through the DC Exchange Company is sourced from Marriott-controlled deposits as well as (according to a no-longer-available FAQ that had been posted to the owners' website during the early DC years,) "... other Marriott Vacation Club Owners who enroll their weeks and elect Vacation Club Points, and non-enrolled Owners who trade their usage for Marriott Rewards points or exchange their week through membership in Interval International."

Technically, in compliance with the governing documents, DC Trust Members have direct access to inventory in the DC Trust as well as inventory available through the DC Exchange Company; and, DC Exchange Members have direct access to only the inventory that's available through the DC Exchange Company. Functionally, it appears that Marriott is managing inventory such that a few select high-demand intervals are available only from the Trust at the 13-months Reservation Window, then at the 12-months Reservation Window most intervals are made available through the Exchange Company. Effectively, it appears that inventory is currently being managed by Marriott such that the technical v. functional legal aspects are practically nullified with respect to the overwhelming majority of available intervals.
<<

 

[Fasttr]

^^^ And it’s been years since I have even booked a 13 month ressie that did not show its source as the MVC Exchange so I think even the 13 month window Trust inventory is effectively being put into the Exchange right away.

 

[dougp26364]

I’ll just give you our real life example.

We started as Executive level owners. We purchased a combination of a resale week and trust points and were moved to Presidential level. We later added points and were elevated to Chairman’s level. So one can use the combination of enrolled points and trust point to change benefits levels.

Now, as to making reservations. I’m sure they have to, for accounting purposes, keep enrolled points and trust points separate. However, for reservations purposes, they reserve exactly the same. When we were executive level members, it was with enrolled points only. We had no issues finding/reserving what we wanted, including prime season Hawaii weeks (I search a lot to see what can/can’t be done).

Because CoVid has altered our vacation plans, I spend time looking for high point value reservations. Reservations that require both enrolled and trust points from our membership to accomplish. To date I have had absolutely no issues finding what I want. MVC doesn’t want to make reserving difficult. It would chase customers if the system was made to complex or difficult to use. To imply any different is only make one believe they need to spend more money to achieve what is already within their grasp.

How they achieve available inventory really doesn’t matter, so long as it is achieved.

 

[csalter2]

The article below (for which I have provided both the link as well as the content) makes the claim that enrolled points and trust points are treated separately and apply to separate inventory, such that it is not so straightforward to add trust points to your enrolled points to achieve a higher level of ownership and purchasing power. A few days ago I sat with a sales rep at Marriott Grand Vista who said this is absolutely untrue. She claimed they combine together just fine, and you have access to full inventory. Can anyone confirm for me which is true?

Should you purchase Marriott Trust Points? - the Art of Vacationing

Now that most owners have enrolled in the Destinations Club program at Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott is turning up the pressure for owners to purchase “Trust points”. If all you have is access to points converted from your deeded weeks, they will tell you that you are not a “real” owner and...

www.theartofvacationing.com

"We recently learned that there are 2 pools of inventory that the new Destination Club points can access. The majority of Marriott owners own deeded weeks which can be “elected” for Club Points in any given year. These points can be used to reserve Marriott Vacation Club stays for any number of days that you choose. These “enrolled” Club points can only access the available inventory of resorts and dates that are made available from owners turning their deeded weeks into Club Points. This is known as the Exchange Inventory.

When you purchase Club points these are considered “Trust” Club points and with these points you can only access the Trust Inventory. This is the inventory comprised of unsold weeks, resale weeks and re-acquired weeks. In other words, this is the inventory that Marriott owns, not the owners.

When searching for available resorts for specific dates, you can only search the inventory in which your points can access. The two types of points can not be combined. Marriott Sales Executives have been selling existing owners a minimum of 1,500 points and some owners have opted to do this with the idea that these 1,500 “trust” points can be combined with their deeded week Club points. Not so.

The following example illustrates how exchanging with points works: You have 2,500 points in the bank that you have elected from your deeded weeks. And you have 1,500 Trust points you have purchased. You want to go to Aruba in February and it requires 3,900 points. If the inventory is only in the Trust you don’t have enough points to book it. If the inventory is only in the Exchange Inventory, you don’t have sufficient points to book it. ONLY if the inventory is in both pools, can you book it. MVCI will use 2,400 points for the first 4 nights from your “enrolled” points and then 1,500 points from your “Trust” points for the last 3 nights."

{kmmad
This article would give one the wrong idea. Points are points are points. There’s no difference in using points to make a reservation in the system. Yes, there are two inventories, but you can use any combination of enrolled and/or trust points. I had a salesman tried to sell me trust points in Ko Olina. He insisted that there was more power in trust points than enrolled points. What he did not know was that I was working with corporate sales in Utah on a deal while I was on vacation. The salesman insisted on trying to keep up his lie. When I left the unit and called off the deal on buying two properties worth almost 10,000 points, there was a call made to Ko Olina and I received a phone call from the Director of Sales at Ko Olina. In addition to a formal apology and a few other goodies, I have a letter from Marriott corporate offices indicating that both trust points and enrolled weeks can be used separately or together to make reservations to all current and future resorts. This was important to me because I was going to have all enrolled points and I wanted to have full access to all trust only properties that come online. I had to make sure. In addition, when you call reservations, they do not look to see if you have trust or enrolled points. All they look for is if you have enough points for the reservation.

 

[bazzap]

{kmmad
This article would give one the wrong idea. Points are points are points. There’s no difference in using points to make a reservation in the system. Yes, there are two inventories, but you can use any combination of enrolled and/or trust points. I had a salesman tried to sell me trust points in Ko Olina. He insisted that there was more power in trust points than enrolled points. What he did not know was that I was working with corporate sales in Utah on a deal while I was on vacation. The salesman insisted on trying to keep up his lie. When I left the unit and called off the deal on buying two properties worth almost 10,000 points, there was a call made to Ko Olina and I received a phone call from the Director of Sales at Ko Olina. In addition to a formal apology and a few other goodies, I have a letter from Marriott corporate offices indicating that both trust points and enrolled weeks can be used separately or together to make reservations to all current and future resorts. This was important to me because I was going to have all enrolled points and I wanted to have full access to all trust only properties that come online. I had to make sure. In addition, when you call reservations, they do not look to see if you have trust or enrolled points. All they look for is if you have enough points for the reservation.

Hallelujah

 

[dougp26364]

You need to keep in kind that the #1 sales tactic used for timeshare sales is to create a sense or urgency or, as most will attest to, a feeling of anxiety. They try to make you feel insecure about what you own and how you can, or can’t, use your ownership.

One angle is your current points or deeded weeks aren’t good enough. The second angle they’ll work is access to SVN properties. Over the last few years they’ve tried to sell the idea that only trust points or those who own a combination of trust points and enrolled points or those owners at the higher membership levels will have unfettered access to reserve across brands (the exact angle depends on the salesman). At this point no one really knows for certain what will or won’t be available across brands. For that matter no one knows if cross brand points reservations will ever be available. Never buy on the speculation or unwritten promise of a sales person. At this point It’s been so long since the merger with no real progress that the sales staff may have abandoned this particular sales tactic. I can say they were using it as recently as June of 2019 when we sat for a presentation in Lake Tahoe but it wasn’t mentioned in our presentation during our December stay at Ocean Pointe.