At our home Marriott resort June 2015, we bought a lot of Destination points on the promise from the sale agent that these points could be used on our upcoming leaf tour in New England. We were told that we would have a personal contact person to assist when and as needed in using the points. Our resort sales agent is no longer employed with Marriott. After weeks attempting to get information from her, we are now told that everything she said was a lie. There is no personal contact person and you cannot make reservations the morning of your need and there are no destinations in the area we are to travel that accept destination points. Marriott offers no help whatsoever with the problem. We have refused to pay Marriott and are contemplating a lawsuit against Marriott for providing false information. Has anyone had a similar experience of this type of tragedy?
Welcome to TUG!!
Certainly not trying to be an arbitrator between what was said, but technically speaking, you can trade a portion of your Destination points into Marriott Reward points that can then be used for booking Marriott hotels which are scattered all over the New England area. Such a booking can be done fairly close to check in, as long as there is availability for a MR points night at that particular hotel. Also, there is a MVC resort in Boston (Marriott's Custom House) that you can use your Destination Points at, but you are unlikely to get in there unless you booked quite a ways out.
Also, you do get a Vacation Ownership Advisor assigned to you, but most just call the phone number and deal with whomever they get.
Without being there, its hard to say how much the truth was stretched, but based on those 2 things, there is at least some merit to what story you were told.
That said, you sound very frustrated, and hopefully by sticking around TUG and reading a lot and asking a lot of questions here on the Marriott board, you can learn enough to find out how to best use your points so that you can get enjoyment out of them in the future.
