Ongoing Sales Incentive - Enrolling Post-6/20/10 Weeks [MERGED]

[jabberwocky]

Yes, weeks in the Caribbean or Spain are probably the best option. Something I learned in Aruba is if you have any Marriott.com reservation (points or cash) they will give you an additional discount. We had a single night reservation at an Element in Miami before we flew to Aruba. They would have given us something like $1,000-$1,500 (can't remember exact number) discount off the purchase. They just needed a confirmation number. It didn't matter that it was a free stay on Bonvoy points. Never go into a presentation with the intent to purchase without either an active Encore or Marriott.com booking. Just another way to squeeze a few cents out of the final per point cost. They will even do the same if you are on a reservation you rented from an owner.

I believe they call it a “linking credit” when we have done a presentation and it has always been $1500. If buying I wouldn’t mention it until after I was satisfied I had extracted the maximum incentives from them.

I do think the reservation has to be within 14 days of your purchase (and obviously your current timeshare stay won’t count).

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

They didn’t explain why it was available. We purchased and closed on that week a year ago, so it should be eligible.

I’d like to enroll our weeks and get another week as I think that would give me the weeks and flexibility I need to manage through high school and college trips. I’m not sure now is the best time as we have to pay for college, but I’m looking at options. You have a good contact for Aruba or Spain right? If so do you mind DM me with the contact?

You'd have to think long and hard before shelling out $41,000 to enroll a week. Is it really worth it? Are you finding you are not getting the trades you want in Interval International?





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[dioxide45]

I believe they call it a “linking credit”

That sounds about right. I think they might have used the term "linkage credit". Certainly a way to save a few extra bucks off a purchase. Do they do something similar on the Vistana side?

 

[RookWDW]

You'd have to think long and hard before shelling out $41,000 to enroll a week. Is it really worth it? Are you finding you are not getting the trades you want in Interval International?





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The flexibility to go for a couple nights a time is valuable to us. And to have the ability to bank for years we can use it. And I think we can use at least another week and eventually maybe another after the kids start having families. My real goal is to have enough to pay for the kids to bring their families so I can trap them into hanging out with us even when they grow up.

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

The flexibility to go for a couple nights a time is valuable to us. And to have the ability to bank for years we can use it. And I think we can use at least another week and eventually maybe another after the kids start having families. My real goal is to have enough to pay for the kids to bring their families so I can trap them into hanging out with us even when they grow up.

I don't know if you have points now or not, but if you do you can just go ahead and rent additional points for whatever you need. Renting points is a far better value than owning points as you won't tie up your cash.

One additional thing I may add: A lot of folks on TUG appear to be complaining of being unable to make their desired points reservations due to lack of inventory. This leads me to believe that the points system isn't as robust as Marriott would make you think.

At least with weeks ownership you can reserve a week in your designated season if you carefully plan well in advance.

Disclosure; I own points and weeks, and the weeks are far more satisfactory to me either with my home resort or using Interval International. It is far cheaper using weeks at any time versus the use of points.

You definitely pay for the points flexibility!





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[jabberwocky]

That sounds about right. I think they might have used the term "linkage credit". Certainly a way to save a few extra bucks off a purchase. Do they do something similar on the Vistana side?

Vistana has offered it for at least a few years. The first time I ran into this was at a presentation at the Westin Kierland in early January 2020. I had just come back from a trip to Shanghai (good timing right! ) and the salesperson was all excited because I could have used my stay at a Le Meridian hotel there to get a $1500 credit towards the purchase of a 2BR plat unit.

And you’re right on the term “Linkage”. When we were at our most recent presentation at the Lagunamar in March they wrote it down on a sheet of paper with their offer (I did grab a photo of it).

I’m pretty sure it came up at Steamboat Springs Sheraton last summer, but didn’t grab a photo of that since I was more focused on the Abound value that our Vistana weeks were being assigned.

 

[kozykritter]

Vistana has offered it for at least a few years. The first time I ran into this was at a presentation at the Westin Kierland in early January 2020. I had just come back from a trip to Shanghai (good timing right! ) and the salesperson was all excited because I could have used my stay at a Le Meridian hotel there to get a $1500 credit towards the purchase of a 2BR plat unit.

And you’re right on the term “Linkage”. When we were at our most recent presentation at the Lagunamar in March they wrote it down on a sheet of paper with their offer (I did grab a photo of it).

I’m pretty sure it came up at Steamboat Springs Sheraton last summer, but didn’t grab a photo of that since I was more focused on the Abound value that our Vistana weeks were being assigned.

Do you remember the qualification to receive it on the Vistana side? My memory says it has to be immediately before or after your stay at the timeshare resort and it has to be a paid reservation, not points. It's been known to be faulty, though

 

[jabberwocky]

Do you remember the qualification to receive it on the Vistana side? My memory says it has to be immediately before or after your stay at the timeshare resort and it has to be a paid reservation, not points. It's been known to be faulty, though

You’re assuming my memory is better!

I don’t know the technical details - for some reason the number 14 sticks in my head. Now whether that is 14 days before or after the stay or presentation I’m not sure (or perhaps it could be 7 days before and after?).

It definitely did not have to be immediately adjacent. For our March presentation at Lagunamar they used my stay at a Sheraton in Hong Kong where I checked out on the 21st. Our Lagunamar check-in date was the 25th. I didn’t have another Bonvoy reservation until April 12th (my next hotel stay following Lagunamar was at a Fairmont).

Most of my stays are paid through work so unsure whether a Bonvoy redemption would work for Linkage (I’ll hit Titanium through nights next week).

 

[Superchief]

At MGO today and received the following offer (roughly, I didn't snap a picture):

Buy 3000 points to enroll one week; 4000 for two, etc with a max of 6 weeks allowed to enroll.

Cost for 3000 was like $13.80 / pt = $41,000 ish
Cost for 4000 was like $12.80 / pt = $51,000 ish
Plus received credit for the cost of our encore week of $1799
Plus 12,000 one time use points to be used in two years at 4000 pts. I think it was 6000 if you bought 3000 pts

But ... I was told that our MGC week was not eligible for enrollment; which wiped out any interest. The MGO Gold Ocean side they said was worth 3200 or 3400 range for enrollment. I mentioned Spain / St Kitts / Aruba and they gave me all these reasons not to buy those (its foreign land, it's right to use and not perpetual, etc. etc.) and said they can't sell those anyway so I'd have to call those resorts directly.

Just to clarify, would you be buying 3000/4000 Abound points in addition to having your weeks enrolled, or will they be taking ownership of those weeks? How many points would you receive for each enrolled week that you enroll.

 

[RookWDW]

Just to clarify, would you be buying 3000/4000 Abound points in addition to having your weeks enrolled, or will they be taking ownership of those weeks? How many points would you receive for each enrolled week that you enroll.

It was points plus keep my weeks and they get enrolled. The MGO week was spike 3300 pts and MGC is 3500 ish. I don’t recall exactly. But over the 10k pts needed for presidential. But again for some unexplained reason they said I couldn’t enroll MGC.

 

[frank808]

At MGO today and received the following offer (roughly, I didn't snap a picture):

Buy 3000 points to enroll one week; 4000 for two, etc with a max of 6 weeks allowed to enroll.

Cost for 3000 was like $13.80 / pt = $41,000 ish
Cost for 4000 was like $12.80 / pt = $51,000 ish
Plus received credit for the cost of our encore week of $1799
Plus 12,000 one time use points to be used in two years at 4000 pts. I think it was 6000 if you bought 3000 pts

But ... I was told that our MGC week was not eligible for enrollment; which wiped out any interest. The MGO Gold Ocean side they said was worth 3200 or 3400 range for enrollment. I mentioned Spain / St Kitts / Aruba and they gave me all these reasons not to buy those (its foreign land, it's right to use and not perpetual, etc. etc.) and said they can't sell those anyway so I'd have to call those resorts directly.

$51k-$8.4 (12000 bonus points value at 70cents each)=$42800 to enroll 6 weeks is the best I have seen in the past few months. Works out to about $7100 a week. Cheapest I have seen lately not including Grand Residence fractionals.