This Just In: Price Increase To Enroll in Destination Club

[SueDonJ]

Susan:

Thank you.

I'm concerned that we would not have the time to use the 800 points. I was thinking of signing up during the first week of April when we use our Las Vegas week in order to get some Marriott reward points, which we collect. Planning to go to Europe in the summer of 2013.

Can I sign up over the phone so we can wait until the last possible date?

I resent the loss of several hundred dollars in my II membership.

I know that you can enroll online at http://myvacationclub.com so I assume you can probably do it over the phone as well by talking to a VOA.

don't play the lottery by calling the II 800 # which you would normally call to make an exchange request...

Try this #:
(800) 252-5121

I don't see it that way. I joined DC in July of 2010 with more than six years remaining on my II membership. I received an AC when I joined which I used for a 2BR at MMC. This year I will get another AC for a 2BR unit. Once I use that I will still have 4 years left on my II membership and I can wait another two years for my third and final AC or I can choose to get a refund for my four years which will still be remaining at that point. I don't see a loss. I see a pretty good value and I get to choose which way to receive it.

(combining a bunch of posts, hope it's not too confusing)

Steve, about your II remaining years - Boca's experience with the AC's issued in lieu of getting a refund may work for you, too. But the AC we were issued expired because we didn't have many opportunities to use it, and the grid was so restricted that there was no availability anyplace we wanted to go when we were able to go. I didn't mind so much losing out because the timing for us worked - we didn't have a lot of time left on our II account when we enrolled. Your situation is different, you have a few years plus you say you may not have extra vacation time, so it makes sense for you to look for a refund instead. You should mention to the Marriott VOA when you enroll that you're going to be looking for a refund from II, and then follow that up with a call to the II phone number that Winger gave you. Probably the more times you mention it, the better luck you'll have in getting them to cancel your old account as of your enrollment date and give you a refund.

Now about the enrollment process - you can enroll online, over the phone or by printing out the docs and mailing them in (not sure what the benefit is to mailing it in but it's an option if you want it.) The telephone number for all DC-related business is 800-845-4226. I enrolled online and then printed out all of the docs from the website so that I'd have a copy if ever it's needed. The question about when to enroll depends more on your schedule than anything else - if you were looking for the II AC's I'd say try to time it so that you can fit the first one (that will expire a year from the issue date) into your vacation schedule. Since you're not looking for the AC's, I'd say time your enrollment for whenever your bank account can take the hit. The enrollment date really doesn't matter for the future because a) the Use Year (and all usage deadlines based on it) of any DC Points from enrolled/converted Weeks is always the calendar year, 1/1-12/31; and, b) the due date for future years' Club Dues is the same for every enrolled member, sometime early in the year in January or February.

I think there's a possibility that they'll be offering mini-presentations with a focus on enrollments at the onsite Sales Offices in the few months prior to the deadline. With your upcoming April stay you might want to watch the boards here to see if they do offer them, and then you may have a chance to earn a few Marriott Rewards Points by attending one of those.

(* an aside in reference to Marriott Rewards Points - if you use the Chase Marriott VISA to pay your enrollment fees, you will get any bonus points for MR status.)

The only thing I would suggest for anyone who's contemplating enrollment now that there's a deadline which involves a price increase, is to not let it go until the absolute last minute just in case they have IT problems. They had a few such issues already with different DC-related deadlines that were a headache for some of us - for example, the first day they could take DC reservation requests was a nightmare with telephone wait times of up to three hours. So, I'd want to get the enrollment ball rolling at least a week before the deadline.

 

[byebye]

Total Fee for all

I contacted an owner services rep at MVCI and had an online chat with her about the initiation fee and this was our conversation:
Customer: I have a Beachplace Platinum that I purchased through Marriott and a Gold Aruba Surf Club that I purchased as a resale through a 3rd party. I purchased the Surf Club before June,2010. What would be the total cost to me if I wanted to enroll into the points system?
Lisa M: When did you purchase the Aruba week?
Customer: It was April of 2010.
Lisa M: Ok, the cost because of the external purchase, would be $1995.
Customer: Now, I understand that you are raising the initiation fee in a few months - what would be the cost then?
Lisa M: We were recently told it will be going up to $2395 for everyone.
Lisa M: As of June 14th.
Customer: would that be the total for both?
Lisa M: Yes, at that point, it will be regardless of internal or external purchase and how many weeks an owner has.
Customer: one more question - If I enrolled now would it be possible to purchase a few hundred additional points? and what would that cost?
Lisa M: You can purchase extra points, but I believe there is a minimum purchase number required. And since we don't have anything to do with sales, we aren't told the amount, cost or the purchase incentives given.


As you can see the total cost in actuality is only going up $400 for Marriott and resale purchases. The benefit is for people who have many Marriott TS's.
I think I'm going to hold out a lilttle longer - maybe something better will come along.

 

[pwrshift]

*Weeks that were purchased and recorded after June 20, 2010 are not eligible for this offer. Offer is valid to U.S. residents only. Offer valid for U.S. and Caribbean weeks only.

Canadians are banned. Fantastic...I guess I can't join even if I wanted to (not)!

 

[dioxide45]

Canadians are banned. Fantastic...I guess I can't join even if I wanted to (not)!

This is odd, as I don't think this exclusion existed in the past. I wonder if this isn't just to satisfy a legal requirement that they can't market it to people outside the US. Though if you willingly go to the website you can probably sign up on your own accord.

BTW, Canadians are not banned. I am Canadian and I joined, though I am a US resident.

 

[m61376]

As Spiker posted above, Customer Advocacy has also stipulated that all eligible weeks will have the same joining fee as of mid June. They expect to get slammed June 1st to 14th. Clearly they are giving all of us on the fencers a big push to enroll and expect it to work. Afterwards, it will likely be a benefit of buying additional points, so will conceptually lower the purchase cost and could be a great sales tool.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see a Fall push to get pre 6/10 resales to join by a later announcement that the rate to join will increase even further and/or that they will only be eligible for enrollment until a certain date. I hope I'm wrong, but I think they are trying the shove people to join who have been hesitant to do so (likeme).

 

[pwrshift]

Don't you think it's a losing battle long term for Marriott?

Every member who eventually sells their legacy weeks on eBay, etc., is a huge increase in non-members joining another 200,000 current non-members who bought resale and cannot or will not join (former sales rep estimate). Sure looks like Marriott realizes this and is going after the short term kill as they need to get the 'numbers up' to eventually sell MVCI and get out of the timeshare biz.

 

[Art]

Don't you think it's a losing battle long term for Marriott?

Every member who eventually sells their legacy weeks on eBay, etc., is a huge increase in non-members joining another 200,000 current non-members who bought resale and cannot or will not join (former sales rep estimate). Sure looks like Marriott realizes this and is going after the short term kill as they need to get the 'numbers up' to eventually sell MVCI and get out of the timeshare biz.

Except that with the spin off of Vacation Club, Marriott has already sold MVCI and left the timeshare business other than licensing the Marriott name to Vacation Club.

Art

 

[Steve A]

Thanks again Sue.

I'm planning on joining probably when we go to Las Vegas the week of 3.31 so we can get some Marriott Reward Points. We will not be buying any DC points. Four weeks is quite enough and we can stretch it to five when we split up the MGC two-bedroom lockoff unit. It will save us money because because we trade between 2-3 weeks every year. I will try and get my money back from II. Thanks Winger for the telephone number. AC's are useless to us. Even if they were any good, we do not have the time to use them nor do our relatives. I'm not sure that I will be able to use the 800 plus points during the year after I sign up although we are going to Ocean Watch in October so maybe we can extend the vacation for a few days.

 

[BocaBoy]

Every member who eventually sells their legacy weeks on eBay, etc., is a huge increase in non-members joining another 200,000 current non-members who bought resale and cannot or will not join (former sales rep estimate).

I believe there are about 400,000 owners in total. If that is correct, there are way fewer than 200,000 who bought resale outside of Marriott.

 

[SueDonJ]

Thanks again Sue.

I'm planning on joining probably when we go to Las Vegas the week of 3.31 so we can get some Marriott Reward Points. We will not be buying any DC points. Four weeks is quite enough and we can stretch it to five when we split up the MGC two-bedroom lockoff unit. It will save us money because because we trade between 2-3 weeks every year. I will try and get my money back from II. Thanks Winger for the telephone number. AC's are useless to us. Even if they were any good, we do not have the time to use them nor do our relatives. I'm not sure that I will be able to use the 800 plus points during the year after I sign up although we are going to Ocean Watch in October so maybe we can extend the vacation for a few days.

Just want to mention, Steve, that if you're comfortable with renting out your Marriott Weeks, you can do the same thing with the 800 Bonus Points. They can't be banked into the next Use Year or transferred to another DC Member the way points from Enrolled/Converted Weeks can be, but you can make a reservation with them and then rent that out to anyone who wants it. It might be an option to keep in the back of your mind if you have no other use for them.