No more separate buckets - a point is a point

[taffy19]

I went to an Enrolled Owner Webinar. It is a telephone conversation and all three Hawaiian resorts could hear it at the same time. There was a chance to ask questions and the point buckets came up.

There was a change made a few months ago and all points are treated equal now. The question was asked if that meant that Legacy week owners could visit future resorts too and the answer was yes.

If the salesman tells you otherwise then he is telling you a story just to make a sale (my words). I also found out that a Premier and Premier Plus member can use the Ritz-Carlton Club. I know that Puck was doing this already but it is in black and white.

I also found out where the Insider eNewsletter is archived because I wasn't receiving them. They said that the reason was that we must have opted out to receive their information.

We did a General Information tour. The price today is $11.64 per point and the maintenance fee is $0.43 per point. If you buy 2500 or more points, you get a 15% discount so the cost is $9.90 per point. The incentives get more generous the more points you buy.

Our week is going by way too fast but we really enjoy it. It is very busy on Maui and restaurants have long waiting lines again like it used to be in the past.

The Japanese visitors are back in droves again on Waikiki Beach and many are so young. I met a lady on a tour who takes her daughter shopping here three times per year. Even with the flight, it is cheaper to shop here than in Tokyo.

The construction has started next to the Lahaina tower. There is noise but it isn't bad if you close the windows and doors. We hear the waves and leave them open. They water down the dirt so there hasn't been too much dust around. It is amazing how much they do in a day. We were sad to see the palm trees go.

I went to find out if the sales office was open so that I could see the building plans but it isn't open yet. I hope that they will not change the original building plans because they wouldn't take too much view away from the condos on the side of our building. Time will tell.

We saw many pods of whales the last two days. We have a panoramic view from our condo so can see them in every direction. We also saw many dolphins today but no turtles yet. The water is too cold for me so haven't gone snorkeling yet.

If you have a question, let me know and I will get the answer. I just remembered that they are installing all new locks. This is a much safer key but without a magnetic strip. They also changed our sofa and two chairs.

 

[dougp26364]

Looks like we may just miss you. We'll arrive in Maui the end of next week but, we'll be staying at Ka'anapali Beach Club instead of the Marriott. In some ways I'm glad Hawaii's economy is getting back to normal but it was nice to not have large crowds when we've been in the past. It's also been nice to have relatively easy access and be able to find FF seats without issue. It might be time for us to put Hawaii on the back burner again and concentrate more so on area's of the mainland that are both easier and less expensive for us to travel too.

 

[taffy19]

Looks like we may just miss you. We'll arrive in Maui the end of next week but, we'll be staying at Ka'anapali Beach Club instead of the Marriott. In some ways I'm glad Hawaii's economy is getting back to normal but it was nice to not have large crowds when we've been in the past. It's also been nice to have relatively easy access and be able to find FF seats without issue. It might be time for us to put Hawaii on the back burner again and concentrate more so on area's of the mainland that are both easier and less expensive for us to travel too.

We'll be here until April 18 but not at the Marriott. We are staying two weeks at the Maui Sunset in Kihei.

 

[dougp26364]

We'll be here until April 18 but not at the Marriott. We are staying two weeks at the Maui Sunset in Kihei.

In that case, perhaps we can catch up with you and Peter. We arrive late on the night of April 9th and depart on the 16th. This will be our first trip to Maui, having been twise to Oahu and once to Kaui. As the snow finally completely melted just a couple of days ago and we've had a lot of things happen in the last few weeks, we're both looking forward to getting away for a little while.

FWIW, our last owners update, which is something we rarely do anymore but, I wanted to see the units at Oceana Palms, they were still selling the bucket idea. This was back in December. Perhaps the memo hadn't yet reached our salesman.

 

[SueDonJ]

I still say it's a matter of semantics and nothing more. With the way the DC Exchange Company is set up, Trust Members (owners of purchased DC Points) have immediate access to Trust and Exchange Company intervals, while Exchange Members (owners of enrolled Weeks which have been converted to Points) are only able to access Exchange Company intervals.

Marriott IS ABLE TO and HAS BEEN funneling all kinds of inventory including Trust intervals through the Exchange Company such that for all intents and purposes, an Exchange Member does effectively have access to all intervals.

Also with the set-up, Marriott does have the ability to at any time in the future convey all intervals from a new resort to a separate Trust and then make that inventory available only to Trust Members. It's not happening now and there's no guarantee that it will ever happen, but the set-up would facilitate such a thing. I don't spend any time worrying over it because it's useless to worry over things that might or might not happen with resorts that might or might no be built.

Unless Marriott files new governing documents and/or amendments to the existing ones, it just can't be said that, "no buckets, a point is a point." But that's only if you're speaking of technicalities - functionally, effectively, the system works as if there are no buckets. And it always has.

 

[GregT]

I still say it's a matter of semantics and nothing more. With the way the DC Exchange Company is set up, Trust Members (owners of purchased DC Points) have immediate access to Trust and Exchange Company intervals, while Exchange Members (owners of enrolled Weeks which have been converted to Points) are only able to access Exchange Company intervals.

I agree with Sue -- I still think they are different because Legacy points can't directly access the Trust.

As an example -- there are two 3BR Lahaina Villa week 15s in the Trust. Today, when I look online for availability, I am only able to see the Sunday night of Week 15 available, the other days are not available.

It is possible that both of those weeks have already been reserved upon release, but I think it is much more likely that what I see is an orphaned day from some legacy owners Week 15 that they redeemed. I suspect the two Trust weeks are still sitting in the Trust, and waiting for some Trust Point owner to reserve them.

FT (or someone with Trust Points), can you check the availability for the week of April 12, 2014 online? I still believe there are two different buckets, and that Sue's explanation is accurate.

Thanks very much!

Best,

Greg

 

[GregT]

I still say it's a matter of semantics and nothing more. With the way the DC Exchange Company is set up, Trust Members (owners of purchased DC Points) have immediate access to Trust and Exchange Company intervals, while Exchange Members (owners of enrolled Weeks which have been converted to Points) are only able to access Exchange Company intervals.

I agree with Sue -- I still think they are different because Legacy points can't directly access the Trust.

As an example -- there are two 3BR Lahaina Villa week 15s in the Trust. Today, when I look online for availability, I am only able to see the Sunday night of Week 15 available, the other days are not available.

It is possible that both of those weeks have already been reserved upon release, but I think it is much more likely that what I see is an orphaned day from some legacy owners Week 15 that they redeemed. I suspect the two Trust weeks are still sitting in the Trust, and waiting for some Trust Point owner to reserve them.

FT (or someone with Trust Points), can you check the availability for the week of April 12, 2014 online? I still believe there are two different buckets, and that Sue's explanation is accurate.

Thanks very much!

Best,

Greg

All,

Update: Perhaps Marriott is changing the way they administer the Trust Inventory, in an owner favorable manner. I've been playing with the Maui Ocean Club inventory (2BR OF) and what I see is that 12-13 months out, inventory is broken/spotty.

However, at 11-12 months out, there is lots of availability. Perhaps Marriott is now giving the Trust Point owner a 30-day exclusivity on the Trust Inventory, and at 12 months out, putting it all into the Exchange, and making it available to Legacy Point owners.

I noted the same phenomenon at Kauai Lagoons (spotty in months 12-13, good availability 12 months out) -- where it all has to be from the Trust.

(It should would be nice to get confirmation from Marriott on what they are doing).

If this pattern continues, and we can become more confident on this, this would be a significant improvement in the system. Recall my frustration last year when I could not get a 9 night MOC reservation using points -- creating doubt on my ability to rely on the points system for a core/prime reservation.

However, the March inventory experience is very different from what I encountered last June. I will watch carefully in the next 60 days to see what June 2014 looks like. I would be very happy if this was, in fact, Marriott's new inventory management approach.

Best,

Greg

 

[dougp26364]

As to Legacy points can't directly access the trust, I don't believe it based upon recent experience. First we booked a a March ocean side unit at Oceana Palms 13 months in advance. This was easily available online. Later when we canceled our June trip to Park City (bringing home new puppies that need attending), we called an advisor, cancelled our ocean side unit and reserved an ocean front view at Oceana Palms with absolutely no difficulty.

It might be semantics but so long as it's a seemless transaction, who cares? I was able to easily and directly access what is certainly trust inventory online at a trust heavy Marriott resort. Essentially Marriott has made it so that a point is a point, just like all the other points based reservations systems out there.

Now if I were to believe the salesman we spoke with in December at Oceana Palms, both of our transactions, which fall in a heavy usage portion of the season, never would have happened with legacy points because, according to him, legacy points can't access trust inventory. Legacy owners are essentially locked out of trust inventory because a point is not a point. In my mind, our recent transactions prove him wrong and Marriott sales has lost a lot of credablity in my mind.

 

[windje2000]

All,

Update: Perhaps Marriott is changing the way they administer the Trust Inventory, in an owner favorable manner. I've been playing with the Maui Ocean Club inventory (2BR OF) and what I see is that 12-13 months out, inventory is broken/spotty.

However, at 11-12 months out, there is lots of availability. Perhaps Marriott is now giving the Trust Point owner a 30-day exclusivity on the Trust Inventory, and at 12 months out, putting it all into the Exchange, and making it available to Legacy Point owners.

I noted the same phenomenon at Kauai Lagoons (spotty in months 12-13, good availability 12 months out) -- where it all has to be from the Trust.

(It should would be nice to get confirmation from Marriott on what they are doing).

If this pattern continues, and we can become more confident on this, this would be a significant improvement in the system. Recall my frustration last year when I could not get a 9 night MOC reservation using points -- creating doubt on my ability to rely on the points system for a core/prime reservation.

However, the March inventory experience is very different from what I encountered last June. I will watch carefully in the next 60 days to see what June 2014 looks like. I would be very happy if this was, in fact, Marriott's new inventory management approach.

Best,

Greg

The only way I can see legacy and trust point based occupancy coming from one 'bucket' is if the trust is transferring 100% of the occupancy it owns to the exchange company.

Congrats on 3,000. I always read your posts and they always make me smarter.

 

[dioxide45]

I agree with others that it is semantics. MVCI is very likely doing large bulk banks of trust inventory in to the MVC Exchange Company. They can really do this at any time, even before the 13 month mark. I would expect Oceana Palms with a new glut of inventory to have lots of bulk banks in to the MVC Exchange Company, even at the 13 month mark.

The difference is that now with the new MVC Exchange Company, we don't have the transparency like we do in II. You can't go out on my-vacationclub.com and see large amounts of inventory like you can on II. I suspect if we could, we would see lots of trust inventory sitting in there.

So while there are still legal differences and a point isn't a point from an ownership perspective, as far as making reservations a point is pretty much a point. However, if the inventory in the trust was more level across the resorts, I think legacy owners would have a harder time getting trust inventory reservations as the bulk banks simply wouldn't happen because MVCI would be holding them back for trust owner reservations.

 

[SueDonJ]

As to Legacy points can't directly access the trust, I don't believe it based upon recent experience. First we booked a a March ocean side unit at Oceana Palm 13 months in advance. This was easily available online. Later when we canceled our June trip to Park City (brining home new puppies that need attending), we called an advisor, cancelled our ocean side unit and reserved an ocean front view at Oceana Palms with absolutely no difficulty.

It might be semantics but so long as it's a seemless transaction, who cares? I was able to easily and directly access what is certainly trust inventory online at a trust heavy Marriott resort. Essentially Marriott has made it so that a point is a point, just like all the other points based reservations systems out there.

Now if I were to believe the salesman we spoke with in December at Oceana Palms, both of our transactions, which fall in a heavy usage portion of the season, never would have happened with legacy points because, according to him, legacy points can't access trust inventory. Legacy owners are essentially locked out of trust inventory because a point is not a point. In my mind, our recent transactions prove him wrong and Marriott sales has lost a lot of credablity in my mind.

What I bolded - that dichotomy is exactly why we should care about how it all works and, more importantly, how to interpret what the sales reps say!

It's true, the system appears to work seamlessly. And, as Greg speculates, probably more and more inventory is available sooner through the Exchange Company now that they've had a few years to watch supply and demand. (By the way, I think all of that is by design and followed pretty closely along with the plan that Marriott developed for their Points system.) But just because it's seamless doesn't mean we shouldn't care about the technicalities, IMO. That's traditionally how some (many?) reps have handled sales presentations, by spouting "misrepresentations" (what some TUGgers just flat-out call "lies") that take advantage of owners and prospective buyers. In that respect it doesn't matter if they're selling weeks or points, or non-existent mythical creatures!

When they say to you that, "you cannot access existing Trust intervals with only Points from enrolled/converted Weeks," you can respond that you know the set-up allows you to do exactly that, "because all kinds of intervals are being and have been all along mingled in the Exchange Company where I can and have accessed them."

When they say to you that, "you will not be able to stay at new resorts without purchasing Points and becoming a Trust Member," you can say, "nothing in the existing docs supports a new resort's entire inventory never being made available through the Exchange Company, thus with access only by Trust Members, but I know the possibility exists for them to file new docs and/or amend the existing ones. But I'm not going to worry about it until they start building new resorts and change the docs."

When they say to you that, "a point is a point, there are no separate buckets," you can say, "the existing docs don't technically support what you say but I do understand, that's exactly how the system has been functionally designed and implemented."

That's why it's important to care about all this, IMO, because it makes you an informed consumer/user. Knowledge is power. And a good sales rep won't try to hoodwink you or misrepresent the product - the product is a good one and can sell itself (to an appropriate market, granted) if the sales rep gives due respect to his/her client's knowledge.

 

[taffy19]

All,

Update: Perhaps Marriott is changing the way they administer the Trust Inventory, in an owner favorable manner. I've been playing with the Maui Ocean Club inventory (2BR OF) and what I see is that 12-13 months out, inventory is broken/spotty.

However, at 11-12 months out, there is lots of availability. Perhaps Marriott is now giving the Trust Point owner a 30-day exclusivity on the Trust Inventory, and at 12 months out, putting it all into the Exchange, and making it available to Legacy Point owners.

I noted the same phenomenon at Kauai Lagoons (spotty in months 12-13, good availability 12 months out) -- where it all has to be from the Trust.

(It should would be nice to get confirmation from Marriott on what they are doing).

If this pattern continues, and we can become more confident on this, this would be a significant improvement in the system. Recall my frustration last year when I could not get a 9 night MOC reservation using points -- creating doubt on my ability to rely on the points system for a core/prime reservation.

However, the March inventory experience is very different from what I encountered last June. I will watch carefully in the next 60 days to see what June 2014 looks like. I would be very happy if this was, in fact, Marriott's new inventory management approach.

Best,

Greg

I hope that you are right, Greg. We went to see the Guest Relations Manager to see if she could do something about our pending exchange with II and she tried. II is getting a lot less inventory in this resort because many people use their own week or will use the points because of the high point value we are given here. We would do that too if we were planning to go to another Marriott.

The relationship with II is very strong and will continue. We have seen our unit next door mostly vacant this week except for two nights. The week may have been broken up because an exchanger used the short stay feature or something like that with points in II, I believe. In my opinion, it broke up a week that a regular II exchanger could have used. I know now that locking off and exchanging no longer works for us so we will not try anymore. Even the sales person didn't know that fixed week/unit owners are making an II exchange when we want to lock off and stay in their own resort.

The GRM also told us that the new company is listening to our complaints and is trying to fix some of the problems. They want the program to succeed so listening to their loyal customer base is a good advice.

We love our unit and the resort and most of all our view so spend a lot of time here watching the ocean and even the construction is interesting to watch.

 

[taffy19]

In that case, perhaps we can catch up with you and Peter. We arrive late on the night of April 9th and depart on the 16th. This will be our first trip to Maui, having been twise to Oahu and once to Kaui. As the snow finally completely melted just a couple of days ago and we've had a lot of things happen in the last few weeks, we're both looking forward to getting away for a little while.

FWIW, our last owners update, which is something we rarely do anymore but, I wanted to see the units at Oceana Palms, they were still selling the bucket idea. This was back in December. Perhaps the memo hadn't yet reached our salesman.

Doug, we would like to meet you again too. You tell us where to meet as your time is very limited. We are meeting a few other TUGgers too during our stay but have been in touch privately.

 

[taffy19]

What I bolded - that dichotomy is exactly why we should care about how it all works and, more importantly, how to interpret what the sales reps say!

It's true, the system appears to work seamlessly. And, as Greg speculates, probably more and more inventory is available sooner through the Exchange Company now that they've had a few years to watch supply and demand. (By the way, I think all of that is by design and followed pretty closely along with the plan that Marriott developed for their Points system.) But just because it's seamless doesn't mean we shouldn't care about the technicalities, IMO. That's traditionally how some (many?) reps have handled sales presentations, by spouting "misrepresentations" (what some TUGgers just flat-out call "lies") that take advantage of owners and prospective buyers. In that respect it doesn't matter if they're selling weeks or points, or non-existent mythical creatures!

When they say to you that, "you cannot access existing Trust intervals with only Points from enrolled/converted Weeks," you can respond that you know the set-up allows you to do exactly that, "because all kinds of intervals are being and have been all along mingled in the Exchange Company where I can and have accessed them."

When they say to you that, "you will not be able to stay at new resorts without purchasing Points and becoming a Trust Member," you can say, "nothing in the existing docs supports a new resort's entire inventory never being made available through the Exchange Company, thus with access only by Trust Members, but I know the possibility exists for them to file new docs and/or amend the existing ones. But I'm not going to worry about it until they start building new resorts and change the docs."

When they say to you that, "a point is a point, there are no separate buckets," you can say, "the existing docs don't technically support what you say but I do understand, that's exactly how the system has been functionally designed and implemented."

That's why it's important to care about all this, IMO, because it makes you an informed consumer/user. Knowledge is power. And a good sales rep won't try to hoodwink you or misrepresent the product - the product is a good one and can sell itself (to an appropriate market, granted) if the sales rep gives due respect to his/her client's knowledge.

They are not supposed to say this anymore but a few still do. It even came up at the meeting. The problem is that there is a clause in the contract that only the written documents count and not what the sales force tells you. It is our job to read the contract during our vacation and ask questions if something was mentioned that wasn't in the contract. I wished we had done this ourselves when locking off and making one week last two was pitched. It worked for many years but was never included in the contract. I am positive that the program will change again in future years and hopefully for the better.

 

[dioxide45]

I wished we had done this ourselves when locking off and making one week last two was pitched. It worked for many years but was never included in the contract.

Are you saying that you aren't able to lock off any more, or just that it isn't guaranteed?

When we went to our first MGV presentation, we were told the lock off option was only to those that bought the day of the presentation. Another tactic to get people to buy on impulse.

 

[taffy19]

Are you saying that you aren't able to lock off any more, or just that it isn't guaranteed?

When we went to our first MGV presentation, we were told the lock off option was only to those that bought the day of the presentation. Another tactic to get people to buy on impulse.

We can lock-off all we want but making one week last two weeks at our own resort was never guaranteed nor anywhere else. It wasn't in the contract but it was pitched by most sales people everywhere. It worked great for many years but not for us since the start of the DC Club. Our first exchange worked great and was filled within 24 hours because Marriott had a lot of inventory themselves and gave it to II. They are not getting that anymore and we have to deal with II for our second week.

Floating week owners can lock-off and make reservations through the Marriott system for both halves of the unit. The difference wasn't explained to us and I am sure that our sales lady didn't know this fact either. The Lahaina tower wasn't even built yet when we bought and fixed week/units hadn't been sold for awhile, I believe.

 

[dougp26364]

We can lock-off all we want but making one week last two weeks at our own resort was never guaranteed nor anywhere else. It wasn't in the contract but it was pitched by most sales people everywhere. It worked great for many years but not for us since the start of the DC Club. Our first exchange worked great and was filled within 24 hours because Marriott had a lot of inventory themselves and gave it to II. They are not getting that anymore and we have to deal with II for our second week.

Floating week owners can lock-off and make reservations through the Marriott system for both halves of the unit. The difference wasn't explained to us and I am sure that our sales lady didn't know this fact either. The Lahaina tower wasn't even built yet when we bought and fixed week/units hadn't been sold for awhile, I believe.

I was lost until you said floating week, then I realized you own a fixed week, thus you have to exchange your studio lock-off for a week other than what you own.

At Ocean Point our sales lady told us that we could lock-off our unit, stay in the ocean front master suite on our usage year, then use the studio lock-off the next year AND it would still be ocean front. Yea, not so much.

This is really the first example I've read where the DC is perhaps affecting I.I. inventory. It could still just be that the resort is closer to sold out than it was before, thus inventory for I.I. is less. It could also be that the economy has improved enough that owner occupancy is up. If owners had exchanged for something closer to home the last few years there could be pent up demand, making inventory every less. I have always seen fluctuations in inventory for different regions. What was once an easy exchange becomes difficult. Sometimes what was once a difficult exchange becomes easy. Sometimes a resort has very high owner occupancy it's first several yeas only to see it drop off as the resort matures. Availabiliy through I.I. has always been an iffy proposition if your wanting a specific resort at a specific time.

 

[gblotter]

They are not supposed to say this anymore but a few still do.

Yep - they still do.

We just returned from Ko Olina yesterday. While there we attended a sales presentation.

As an owner of five weeks (two weeks enrolled), we told the salesman that we have more weeks than we can actually use, so no way we are buying trust points.

That's when our salesman took the deep dive into "two buckets" and we "won't have access to new resorts with our legacy points" (even though he couldn't name a single new resort that is planned - only expansions of existing resorts).

We told him that we understood the legal difference between legacy points and trust points. We also told him that Marriott had assured enrolled owners that all points would be made functionally equivalent through the exchange company, and this was confirmed though our own experience making reservations with points.

He continued the high-pressure pitch about no access to new resorts, so we told him point blank that we didn't believe him and that we thought he was only saying such things as a way to scare us into buying trust points.

The presentation ended shortly after that. Out in 30 minutes with our 15K Marriott Reward Points.

 

[Clemson Fan]

This thread is a prime example of why I personally lost interest in learning the new Marriott DC points system, and I'm a premier plus member albeit with all legacy weeks/points.

Buckets, skim, date of deed yada yada yada. What a complex mess!

 

[pipet]

They are not getting that anymore and we have to deal with II for our second week.

Floating week owners can lock-off and make reservations through the Marriott system for both halves of the unit.

You need to own a second floating week! LOL. Seriously, though, it is pretty darn sad you can't get back into your own resort using II, and I assume your skim for is pretty bad if you go the DC route (plus having to deal with the reported view problems when using DC). It won't help with your current week in II, but for the future, have you thought about trying for a private exchange with another MOC owner who is having trouble exchanging back in?

 

[dougp26364]

This thread is a prime example of why I personally lost interest in learning the new Marriott DC points system, and I'm a premier plus member albeit with all legacy weeks/points.

Buckets, skim, date of deed yada yada yada. What a complex mess!

While the underpinnings are somewhat complex and the additional options take time to study, understand and manipulate to your best advantage, it's really not to complex. It's just like all things timeshare. It takes a little effort to figure it out. There's enough water under the bridge that the program is reasonably well understood at this point. We all have a little different expertise and/or opinions but, you can get the best, most accurate, information here on TUG. It's unfortunate that the most unreliable information typically comes out of the mouth of a Marriott salesman, but then again, they typically don't own or use what they're selling.

IMHO, what's most important is how seamlessly it works for owners. How Marriott gets me there just isn't important yo me. One bucket, two buckets, I don't care so long as I can make reservations or exchanges throughout the system effortlessly. So far I've been able that's been the case for us.

 

[m61376]

I was noticing something a little curious, and I wonder if it relates to this. I am hoping to book multiple units for the end of June, but only have 60 day points. Anyway, when I call they tell me there is availability for the entire month of June (as of now) with multiple units. Yet when I check online for early June (which is within the 60 days) nothing is available.

Is it possible that the online reservation system shows weeks in the so-called exchange pool, but when I call in my legacy points will book trust weeks? Is anyone else noticing a discrepancy between what they can see online and what they're told is available on the phone?

Impatient to hit the 60 day mark for what I want, I've been checking every couple of days and each time there seems to be a gap. And it also seems that while the availability isn't there at the 60 day mark, it is about a week later online.

Thoughts?

 

[Bogey1]

Two bucket question

Interesting reading the posts on the whether there are two buckets or not. Here is my experience to add to the mix. I tried to book a Shadow Ridge week for next mid Jan or Feb. I tried every week(Sat-Sat) and had sufficient points to cover the week. None were available. I have a friend who has both Legacy week converted points and Destination points. He allowed me to access his account and see what was available for the same time period. I saw availability for every single week that I checked for the mid Jan/Feb time period. It would take a combo of both Destination and Legacy points to book the week. So for this example, it appears that there are different buckets and a "supercharged" account of Legacy & Destination provides access over straight Legacy points.

I agree that at some point, Marriott may move inventory from one bucket to another but it is not one seemless bucket.

 

[GregT]

Interesting reading the posts on the whether there are two buckets or not. Here is my experience to add to the mix. I tried to book a Shadow Ridge week for next mid Jan or Feb. I tried every week(Sat-Sat) and had sufficient points to cover the week. None were available. I have a friend who has both Legacy week converted points and Destination points. He allowed me to access his account and see what was available for the same time period. I saw availability for every single week that I checked for the mid Jan/Feb time period. It would take a combo of both Destination and Legacy points to book the week. So for this example, it appears that there are different buckets and a "supercharged" account of Legacy & Destination provides access over straight Legacy points.

I agree that at some point, Marriott may move inventory from one bucket to another but it is not one seemless bucket.

Can you check again, the system can be funky? (but I still think there are two buckets)

I do see inventory available for 2BRs in Shadow Ridge for both Jan/Feb, with pure legacy points.

I check single days (Flexible box checked) that shows me a week stretch at a time (3 days on each side of the single day), because sometimes I don't have enough points to check a full week at a time and it tells me No Availability.

Just curious if you can see it that way?

Thanks!

Greg

 

[GregT]

I was noticing something a little curious, and I wonder if it relates to this. I am hoping to book multiple units for the end of June, but only have 60 day points. Anyway, when I call they tell me there is availability for the entire month of June (as of now) with multiple units. Yet when I check online for early June (which is within the 60 days) nothing is available.

Is it possible that the online reservation system shows weeks in the so-called exchange pool, but when I call in my legacy points will book trust weeks? Is anyone else noticing a discrepancy between what they can see online and what they're told is available on the phone?

Impatient to hit the 60 day mark for what I want, I've been checking every couple of days and each time there seems to be a gap. And it also seems that while the availability isn't there at the 60 day mark, it is about a week later online.

Thoughts?

I think it's not showing you the available stuff because you are checking with restricted points -- but that is my guess. I have found instances, however, where calling revealed more inventory than what I could see online.

Dioxide and I called a VOA together to get him a 3BR at KL, and the online inventory showed nothing, but the VOA found space (presumably in the Trust, and got it released to the Exchange Inventory).

I hope you get your space!!!

Best,

Greg