Sheraton Flex Purchase

[eakhat]

My husband and I made a Sheraton Flex purchase and a trade that takes us from no status to 4* Elite and adds points to our collection. These are the details:
*Deeded back our mandatory Platinum 2 bedroom EOY lockoff Westin Kierland. Received value of purchase from developer of $24,900.
*The purchase price of 101,000 annual Bonvoy Points with closing fee was $41,050 (a reduction of cost per point to just under 40 cents per point instead of the current 52 cents per point. We purchased an Explorer package and did presentation in October 2017, and they honored that price.)
*Explorer package credit of $2695.
*Cash paid = $13, 455 ($41,595 - $24,900 - $2695 = $13,455)

*4*Elite: Our 2 bedroom EOY WKORVN was "retroed" and our 1 bedroom Platinum Kierland was "retroed." In addition, they gave us 30,000 each for three timeshares we own in Hawaii that are outside of the Marriott system for an additional 90,000 points that brought us to the 4* elite level.

Will the Sheraton Flex give us the same availability at 8 months? Our past experience has been to get additional weeks at WKORVN with our 2 bedroom EOY Kierland at 8 months.

Is the loss of the 2 bedroom Kierland worth the cost to get 4* Elite and Bonvoy Points? I realize that the 2 bedroom Westin Kierland will probably have a better resale value than the Flex Points.

I'd appreciate your feedback.

Elaine

 

[CalGalTraveler]

@eakhat Are you still in the rescission period? If so, rescind now so you can research this purchase. That deal will still be there if you change your mind later.

IMHO...I think they are hornswiggling you. Retroing and some of this funny math sounds like they are trying to get $13k out of you for something you already own and have access to for free. Sheraton Flex is an inferior product to a deeded WKORVN and WKV. Not sure what you get by retroing mandatory properties other than trading for Bonvoy points; not a good value and rapidly devaluing. Elite is not worth it either.

Retroing is usually used for enabling voluntary properties purchased resale to have SO points. You already have SO points at 8 months with what you own.

Both WKORVN and WKV are mandatory properties and have some resale value. Sheraton Flex has almost zero resale value because it is voluntary and may be difficult to dispose of i.e. your resale buyers will not have access to Staroptions whereas your WKORVN and WKV resale buyers will and that's why there is value for resale.


If you are seeking Hawaii, Sheraton Flex won't get you there at 12 - 8 months because it is limited to Sheratons. Why not Westin Flex which includes the Westins in Hawaii at 12 months?


Rescind now while you can to research this. It's a 5 day window or you are stuck.

 

[DannyTS]

I would rescind right away for the following reasons:
- you traded WKV that has value for Sheraton Flex that has none. You have probably lost 6-8k (the value of the WKV) plus the cash paid
- Sheraton Flex is the weakest of the 3 Flex programs and many deeds are starting to show up on Ebay. Because this is still a new program, I expect the resale market to be flooded in a few years.
- Sheraton Flex has higher MF per point than WKV

 

[DeniseM]

+3 This is a bad deal. Rescind!

 

[SteelerGal]

+4. Rescind.

+3 This is a bad deal. Rescind!

 

[jabberwocky]

+5 Rescind if you can.

Here is what the market value of a Sheraton Flex Plan is:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SHERATON-F...893408?hash=item2cfe1d4a20:g:5f4AAOSwupVd6FZ6

You mention 101,000 annual Bonvoy points, that is not correct as I believe you purchased 101,000 Sheraton Flex. Was there an aspect to 4* elite that appealed to you?

Retroing in mandatory properties generally makes no sense unless you want them to count for elite status or to convert to Bonvoy points. Otherwise they are meaningless.

If you are looking at adding time to your WKORV-N week then it would have made more sense to buy Westin Flex as you would get priority for the 8-12 month period. Sheraton Flex doesn't add anything to what you already have.

If you must own Sheraton Flex you could pick up the 148,100 eBay auction for $1 and then retro that in for $11k in new money (assuming you use your explorer package to buy the smallest Westin Flex available - 67,100 EOY). This would leave you with 150k more StarOptions per year (another week in Hawaii) than what you have right now for less than what you have purchased. This would give you 3* elite (which does have the extended banking window and reduced banking fee which is worth something to me at least - 4* doesn't really add anything). Note that I would NOT do this myself and it is pretty bad strategy in terms of MF - but it is much better than what you were sold.

Or better yet if you are wanting more Hawaii time just buy an OF WKORV-N EOY for $14k and get the 176k SO and recoup some of the money by selling your WKV EOY 2BR Plat unit (probably easily get $7-8k).

 

[needvaca]

OMG, Rescind
Never ever give up a platinum WKV. It is the best property/ staroption generator in the whole Vistana system.
And especially don’t trade for Sheraton flex which is near worthless on resale.

 

[SteelerGal]

This is the 2nd person who was told that SHeraton Flex includes Westin and Sheraton properties.

 

[jabberwocky]

This is the 2nd person who was told that SHeraton Flex includes Westin and Sheraton properties.

somehow I think this is an understatement of epic proportions.

 

[SteelerGal]

I know it’s greater but I am wondering if they the Flex’s are to be ultimately merged. It made zero sense to have 3 separate ones.
Would be interesting to see if ppwk actually listed all Vistana properties.

 

[jabberwocky]

I know it’s greater but I am wondering if they the Flex’s are to be ultimately merged. It made zero sense to have 3 separate ones.
Would be interesting to see if ppwk actually listed all Vistana properties.

If they are merged it will likely be through some sort of Marriott DC tie up. I don’t think they will merge through Vistana because of the potential arbitrage that is possible with the current SO system where points aren’t necessarily tied to market as some other systems (ie compare the VSN Maui charts to MVC for MOC and you’ll see what I mean). You will have a lot of upset WFlex owners is they give SFlex same booking priority in Maui.

When flex was first rolled out we were told that we could use it to book Hawaii as well. Technically this was true (at 8 months if we bought developer) but extremely deceptive.

I think part of the problem is most locations can only sell Westin Flex or Sheraton Flex. As a result I think most SFlex is sold to those who really want what is in WFlex but don’t realize it exists. A few sites can sell both. I found my most informative presentation ever was at SDO where the sales guy was able to walk me through a comparison of both systems. We probably would have bought WFlex that day except they couldn’t put together the deal on acceptable terms.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

IDK. I can understand enrolling a deed in MVC points. I can understand augmenting with MVC DC points because you can rent them out or rent more if needed. You get unfettered access to the entire MVC system. Flex makes no sense to me because it is a subset of the SO system and you cannot rent points. Except for a few small corner cases such as @jabberwocky's situation why would anyone buy this?

I wouldn't be surprised if MVC consolidates and integrates it into MVC DC system just to simplify.

 

[eakhat]

Thanks to all of you for your input. Tug is a great resource. I will work on rescinding tomorrow. I’ll look for information on tug on what needs to be done.

 

[jabberwocky]

@TUGBrian and @Grammarhero it looks like another $13k has been salvaged!

 

[SteelerGal]

If they are merged it will likely be through some sort of Marriott DC tie up. I don’t think they will merge through Vistana because of the potential arbitrage that is possible with the current SO system where points aren’t necessarily tied to market as some other systems (ie compare the VSN Maui charts to MVC for MOC and you’ll see what I mean). You will have a lot of upset WFlex owners is they give SFlex same booking priority in Maui.

When flex was first rolled out we were told that we could use it to book Hawaii as well. Technically this was true (at 8 months if we bought developer) but extremely deceptive.

I think part of the problem is most locations can only sell Westin Flex or Sheraton Flex. As a result I think most SFlex is sold to those who really want what is in WFlex but don’t realize it exists. A few sites can sell both. I found my most informative presentation ever was at SDO where the sales guy was able to walk me through a comparison of both systems. We probably would have bought WFlex that day except they couldn’t put together the deal on acceptable terms.

I didn’t realize that all locations could not sell Westin Flex. Clearly a disadvantage.

 

[mrichards]

Ugh, I got suckered in to buying in to the Flex program years ago, as I was already an owner at Atlantis, but now have 3 children and was convinced that the additional points would allow me to upgrade my 1 bedroom villa. Honestly, I have been able to upgrade to a 2 bedroom on a few occasions, so it has not been for nil, but I am looking to potentially get rid of both my Harborside and Flex ownership. Since the Flex is essentially valued at nothing, what happens if I just stop paying my annual fees (which is now at $600 annually!)? Thanks!