As I have been reading all of this speculation, one thought that occurred to me is for the last 8 years, Marriott owners have been talking about pre-June 2010 and post-June 2010. Those who were owners pre-6/2010 have a huge advantage with regards to ease of enrollment in the DC compared to those of us who came in after 6/2010. It seems at some point we may have a new before/after date - the point at which Marriott Vacations Worldwide announces any kind of specific program to allow cross-program bookings. Those who are on board before that point, may be grandfathered or otherwise benefit from that status. For example, if point levels needed for Executive, Presidential, etc rise due to the influx of owners with interests in both systems (not sure how significant that might be), folks already at that level might be grandfathered. There also could be some other option that is grandfathered like the pre-June 2010 weeks were.
Our goal has been to find a reasonable way to get to at least Executive status (so far haven't made the jump), and since Westin and Hyatt have a lot of locations I think we would like to try, our meager point total would be even more inadequate than it is now should some sort of an expanded program emerge. This all at least has me thinking about whether we should approach things with a little more sense of urgency to get to a higher level before plans are announced. I suspect that any before/after date would not be until the specific changes/programs were actually announced, so that will clearly take some time, so hopefully we'll find a way to better our status before that day comes.
Now your thinking like sales executives and I’m very certain your correct!
I remember all the speculation before the DC was announced. We all looked at other systems and speculated on what may or may not be in store for MVW owners ( for the record my speculation was WAY off ). We got bits and pieces right but, by and large the program was considerably different than what any of us thought. I even called it a big piece of sh*t, or something to that effect. To this day I’m still HUGELY disappointed in MVW’s point system, even though I will use it when it fits my needs.
Now we have at least a little history to look back on. I think it’s reasonably safe to say that there will be a honeymoon period where MVW makes it less expensive for owners to merge or blend the products......for a small fee that will escalate considerably after the honeymoon is over. I believe we originally paid $295 to join, allowing us to convert our traditional weeks tompoints that played in the DC system. This gives the sales teams the opportunity to milk current ownership by driving us into the sales rooms to explain our options under the new program and scare us into buying more of a product that, IMHO, is WAY overpriced.
Past this I think we can throw everything out the window. When MVW came out with the DC owners where somewhat blindsided by the “skim”. There was also the big debate about the different “point buckets” and the difference between what was in writing and what the sales staff was telling owners. Also the previous weeks seasons didn’t match up evenly with the points allotted (Ocean Pointe gold season weeks received fewer points than Silver season owners if I recall correctly).
Now MVW will be takes with blending not just weeks to points, but two separate points systems with different rules. It’s fu to speculate but, I bet we get far more wrong than we get right. I also bet they do something to pull at least a little more money out of my pocket wether or not I want to spend it. I like keeping my options open. You never know what life is going to throw at you. I’m happy with the MVW selection but I’d REALLY like access to the Hyatt in Sedona. Now if I can get reasonable access thru an internal weeks exchange for very little upfront money (joiner fee that I anticipate), that’s what we’ll do. OTOH, if they want thousands out of us in the form of purchasing mandatory points packages to participate in both systems, well, it would probably be cheaper for me to buy a resale week in Sedona and rarely use it than buy direct from Marriott. I’m hoping for a small joiner fee to be able to use what I have to play in all the ownership pools. I’m betting Marriott will want far more. Regardless of what they do I’m reasonably content to stay where I am if the price to play is to high, and to high is when it gets to be in the thousands of dollars vs hundreds.
