5infam is correct. Having access to something doesn't necessarily mean you can book it as a reservation system. Access < Direct Access.
I "have access" to 3000 resorts via II... I still need to make an exchange. That verbiage is misleading and I dare say it is misleading on purpose. The average owner will never realize that they don't have direct access to the trust.
I guarantee Marriott dropped at least enough points into the exchange company to satifsy all exchanges on Monday and the entire next few months. So what? That doesn't change the way the system is structured...
When REAL points owners will get what is going on and will complain that they don't want to compete for trust reservations at their "home resort" with converted weeks owners, that charade will stop...
Very true.
In readying through the above posts no one else seemed to highlight the direct access versus access verbiage (sorry if I missed it while skimming through). From Dave's post:
"The inventory that owners of the new points product have
direct access to at any resort consists of weeks that are actually owned by the Trust. Any other occupancy by owners of the new points product at a resort, is of inventory that owners of weeks have elected to place into the new points exchange program.
Owners of Marriott Vacation Club weeks continue to have
access to inventory at their home resort and Interval International exchange inventory, as they have in the past. Owners of Marriott Vacation Club weeks who enroll in the points product and elect to exchange for Vacation Club points have
access to Marriott Vacation Club Destinations inventory and Interval International exchange inventory."
The only people who have direct access to inventory in the trust are, as expected, owners of the new points product.
This was a legally crafted document, purposefully written for reprint on Tug. It delineates what inventory each group has access or DIRECT access to, and I think was purposefully crafted so as not to imply what will likely be going on behind the scenes. Access is equivalent to exchanging and direct access is equivalent to being able to directly reserve, subject to availability.
In reality, everything is subject to availability- with some things being more available than others, and more available to some people than others. Trust point owners may theoretically have first crack at trust inventory, but that may be mitigated by Marriott having transferred some of those units into the destination club pool in exchange for non-trust inventory (ex.-enrolled weeks traded for points). So, as Greg stated above, this may be a seamless distinction and there may be enough to go around for everyone.
Until a substantial amount of the trust is actually sold, I have no doubt that this won't be an issue. That's why I think all the "let's see what happens on June 26th" is a meaningless determinant of how the system will really run down the road. The impact of trust point owners having first crack at all the inventory won't be felt for years to come, because at the onset Marriott will assuredly be putting trust inventory in the general club pool.
I think it will be years before we really know if trust points>legacy points will have a real functional difference. It is clear from Marriott's refusal to specifically address the questions that Dave presented, proffering a generalized response instead which outlines what each group has access (or direct access) to, that at least legally trust and legacy points are not equivalent.
