Please Post the Positive things You See with The New Points Program

[wuv pooh]

Benefits that I see

1. Relatively low buy in - $695 offset by 800 plus points which I should be able to recoup my costs by stretching my first trade or trading for 4-5 nights at a resort.

2. Lower fee for my current usage pattern:

Current - II - $89
lockoff - $75
2 internal trades - $218
Total = $382

System fee = $165

3. Option to convert weeks to the new points currency and stay less than a week, etc. A new flexibility that I do not currently have.

4. Continued access to new Marriott points resorts if I want it.

5. Ability to trade for new points currency if Marriott does begin to steal the prime weeks from II for the points system (although I do not believe this)

6. Ability to back out of the system every year if desired.

7. I will get an AC to compensate me for my current 1 year left in II.

8. I can now procure the view that I want, rather than being stuck with what the resort gives me through exchange.

9. Marriott will be working to make the points system succeed.


Things I do not like:

1. I did not get the points I wanted - But I guess no one did I am dissapointed that the value of points in arbitrary and not tied to a fixed pool of sold points. There seems to be some "missing" points.

2. Uptrades will be limited or disappear I currently take advantage of less knowledgeable owners. This will stop now that the prime week owners can convert to the new currency and get more equitable trades.


Bottom line is I do not see any real downside to joining, but large potential downside if I don't join and the program is very successful or Marriott chooses to game the system in favor of points owners. I will attend a sales presentation next week and see if they are offering any better incentives for comprehensive realignment of my ownership.

 

[KathyPet]

We own a MMC platinum and a GO Gold Oceanside. In the entire 14 years that we have owned our MMC we have never once stayed there. We have used to trade through II or trade for MR points. We do use our GO week just about every year. I would get 3325 pts for GO and 2375 pts for MMC. If I put the points together (5700) I would be able to use them for a week in a Ocean Front unit using 4000 points for a week with a Ocean Front view during our gold time or 5400 points for ocean front during platinum season. I have never had a ocean front view and that does sort of intrigue me. However, I cannot see any other use for this program

 

[mjkkb2]

I have posted some quotes in the opposite thread, I do see a benefit for my ownership at Oceana Palms.

There are four weeks that only require 2000 points to occupy. It's the hurricane season but I wouldn't mind going then so I figured I could geat one week plus 3 extra days for my 2625 points (gold OV).
Inventory should be plentifull as Marriott has yet to built the second tower. The only issue I have with this is what happens if nex year the four 2000pts weeks go away (at Marriotts discretion) and I don't have enough points for any of the gold season weeks (which typically are 2900pts right now.)

 

[thinze3]

I have an ongoing request with II for St Kitts during June of 2011 as we speak. If I were to trade in my Waiohai to the new club today, I would have enough club points to get a 3BR OV unit and be close to enough to get a 3BR OS unit.

I can also trade my BeachPlace for an OF 2BR at Oceana Palms for the same dates.
This is intriguing to me as well.

 

[mjkkb2]

I think it'll all come down to availability.

IF you look to trade into a resort that has a lot of unsold inventory and/or a lot of points members then it may be a wise choice to join. However, if you think about trading into sold out resorts and/or those than have just a few points mambers then you can have thousands of points and still not be able to get the unit you like because it's not available.

 

[walken1974]

conflicting statements via phone

I own aruba ocean club 1 bdrm resale . Owner services stated originally that my week could be traded for 88,000 marriott reward points however I could only convert 44,000 points per year. After asking what would happen to the other half she spoke with a supervisor. After speaking with the supervisor owner services rep stated that my unit would be worth 100,000 mrp's and that I could use all of those every year. She stated the original quote was only for new owners buying points. Does anyone know for sure what the true story is ? I am leaning towards buying in (although I don't like the system and how my platinum week won't even trade back for points to my resort) as an insurance policy for the future so that if I need to convert to points to get a trade I can.I also like the idea of basically converting my resale week to an owner week for short money. I would appreciate any ones thoughts or knowledge.

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

I own aruba ocean club 1 bdrm resale . Owner services stated originally that my week could be traded for 88,000 marriott reward points however I could only convert 44,000 points per year. After asking what would happen to the other half she spoke with a supervisor. After speaking with the supervisor owner services rep stated that my unit would be worth 100,000 mrp's and that I could use all of those every year. She stated the original quote was only for new owners buying points. Does anyone know for sure what the true story is ? I am leaning towards buying in (although I don't like the system and how my platinum week won't even trade back for points to my resort) as an insurance policy for the future so that if I need to convert to points to get a trade I can.I also like the idea of basically converting my resale week to an owner week for short money. I would appreciate any ones thoughts or knowledge.

My suggestion is to go to the Marriott website and ask this same question using the computer typed method so that their response is made to you IN WRITING.

 

[scrapngen]

In continuing to look at various aspects of the program, I found one good thing that seems to have been overlooked, or at least not mentioned much in the huge discussions, so I am posting it here.

Premier Plus definitely has great advantages. (this is a given - IMO)
Premier initially didn't look that different than the current 13 month reservation rule. BUT I've been looking from my own perspective and not the bigger picture. For me this holds as true as I have 2 fixed back to back weeks at one resort, and if I added more weeks it would be to mostly extend this timeframe further.

Here is the big advantage I see for Premier points:

YOu can now reserve at 13 months out as long as it is 7 or more consecutive days. You no longer need to reserve two weeks back to back to get that 13 month advantage!! This is actually great for those who have enough points to get to Premier. They can reserve one primo week w/out linking it with another week to get the 13 month window.

(While I still don't like the system, I am still looking at what you GET rather than only focusing on what you don't )