Thanks for the info... The problem is, not really sure where we would like to go... My family lives in Pittsburgh, and there aren't really resorts there... My wife on the other had, she is from the LA area, Glendale to be exact, and we would love to visit at least once a year.... I believe LA would be the place to buy. My issue is we would also like to visit my family. Pittsburgh is a rising city and getting quite expensive to visit... Hotels alone for just a couple nights are around $400-$500. I read that I can exchange marriott vacation club for stays at Marriott Hotels as well which is why I was looking at Marriott.... You definitely squashed that thought now knowing that resales don't enroll points automatically. Marriott fees will probably make it not worth it to enroll in the destinations.
At times my wife and I would only be traveling alone.... Whats nice is I am a virtual employee, so my schedule is open. My wife is a nurse, but currently is home and not working since the kids are relatively young.
Don't give up too fast. Many things are possible with a little creativity. This is a timeshare site, but I'm going to veer off a bit to show you another travel idea. There will be a lot of opinion in this comment, so view this as just one possible idea for the type of travel you desire. And please remember that there is no free lunch. The goal is not to get to zero cost, but rather to save enough money to make this worthwhile.
If I understand, you were thinking that you could use Marriott Destinations Club (DC) points to convert into Marriott Rewards (MR) points and then make hotel reservations.
In my opinion, that may not be the best use of Marriott DC points. The cost for you would be the annual fee Marriott charges on the DC points you own. Here's an example from my own situation. I bought my Marriott timeshare week direct from Marriott in 2004 (and before I found TUG). Because I bought direct, I can trade my timeshare usage every other year for 110,000 MR points. In the early years of my ownership, trading for points was useful for me. We used the MR points for Marriott travel packages to get airline frequent flyer miles and a hotel stay. We had some fabulous trips. But there has been
category inflation at Marriott hotels, and the hotels we were once able to stay at for a small number of MR points now cost a lot more points. So a few years ago I realized that I was paying my annual timeshare maintenance fee but not getting sufficient dollar value in return if I traded away the timeshare usage and converted into MR points. I no longer trade the timeshare week for MR points. Now I'd rather stay at a timeshare.
Let's first look at visiting Pittsburgh. The new Marriott hotel program is slated to go into effect in August. On this page you will find the points required and the category assignments for Marriott hotels under the new program:
https://points-redemption.marriott.com/category-change
If you type Pittsburgh into the search box on the web page I gave you, you will see that EVERY hotel in the Pittsburgh area is initially going to be category 5 or less. Aha! But I used the word "initially" - there could be category inflation in the future, and perhaps some of these properties will move into a higher category. Also, Marriott has told us that in 2019 there will be peak pricing for hotel redemptions using MR points. In other words, the Renaissance Pittsburgh, which is listed as a category 5 hotel (35K points per night) might be 40K points per night if you were trying to reserve a room using points during a peak demand period. (I have no idea when the peak demand periods will be. It would be a shame if you wanted to visit your family at Christmas but that was a peak period. You'll see why I say that in a moment.)
There are a number of credit cards that will reward you with an annual hotel night certificate that you can use for a one night stay at a Marriott hotel that requires up to 35K points per night. These include:
- the Chase Marriott Premier Plus personal card
- the Chase Marriott Premier business card (soon to be converted into the Chase Marriott Premier Plus business card)
- the AmEx Starwood personal card
- the AmEx Starwood business card
So, let's say you and your wife have
separate credit card accounts, and you either already have some of these credit cards or can
strategically go about gradually acquiring them. Each card has a $95 annual fee. But in return for the annual fee, what if you could use that annual certificate for a one night stay at a nice (and expensive) hotel in Pittsburgh. For example, if you and your wife had a total of 5 of these credit cards, you would pay $95 x 5 in annual fees, but perhaps you could reserve 5 nights in a row when award pricing is not at peak at your Pittsburgh hotel. I am not promising that this will work, but my wife and I often do this when we travel internationally. This year we had 4 hotel night certificates from Chase. We plan to visit Bangkok later this year. I reserved 5 nights at a Marriott hotel in Bangkok, 2 in my Marriott account and 3 in hers. We covered my 2 nights with Chase certificates. We covered 2 of her nights with Chase certificates and the final night with her MR points. In 2019 we plan to visit the Galapagos, and we will also stay in Quito, Ecuador at the JW Marriott Quito. We will play the same game for Quito, covering our nights at the JW using our annual certificates. I am still effectively paying $95 for each hotel night, but I am saving some money compared to a cash stay. Your savings are of course greater if you can redeem at a hotel with a high cash rate.
I think it might be harder to play this same game in Los Angeles. Go back to the Marriott hotel page I gave you above and type Los Angeles (or a surrounding city you might be interested to visit). Many of the nicer hotel properties come up as higher category hotels. And if it looks like the above credit card idea might not work for LA, maybe you need a different strategy for Southern California visits, possibly with a timeshare purchase. Just understand that the Marriott timeshares in Southern California that you might be able to purchase resale are not in LA proper and not near Glendale. There are several in Palm Desert and there is one in Newport. They are nice properties, but you would have to travel if you want to visit LA (and the traffic is a bear). Again, there is a cost. You will pay an annual maintenance fee for your unit, but in return you will be getting nice accommodations for you and your wife or for your family when you bring the kids.
Anyway, I'm just trying to offer ideas. Maybe a hybrid strategy (credit cards for Pittsburgh nights and a resale timeshare for Southern California or other locations you might wish to visit) might be useful.
