I'm new to this forum, I came across it this weekend when doing some research after an owners update I attended. My husband and I purchased a week at Sheraton Vistana Villages directly from Sheraton back in 2005. My husband travels a lot for work, or at least did prior to Covid, and the points from our credit card accumulation along with our weekly timeshare always allowed plenty of vacations for our family with minimal out of pocket expenses. Over the last 15 years it's been very easy to bank our options and book at other resorts through Vistana, we have never had a problem with availability. This past week we were in Orlando at our home resort and I asked to attend a presentation about the new program, we both wanted to understand how it worked, when it would be launched, how our week would be integrated, etc....We were both very excited to have access to new resorts that previously weren't on the program (I understand I could have banked in the past with Interval and booked the Marriott resorts, but it was always just easiest to work within the Vistana network).
In a nutshell, this is what we were told during what turned out to be a 2.5 hour presentation. He said that the new program was expected to launch in August or September. We were told that since we owned a fixed week and never integrated to the Flex program, that we would not be able to join the Abound program. I asked if I could join for a fee and to have our week valued at some sort of conversion rate, the answer was no. He said we had two options, the first was to buy more flex options at $20k for 51,700 options or $30k for 81,000 options. This would put us into the Abound program as well as give us lifetime platinum status and the ability to book any resort in the program 12 months out. The second option was to do nothing and not be able to join Abound. He said once Abound went live, they were completely doing away with the Vistana site and our week would be integrated with Interval International and we would only be able to book our home resort 12 months out and non-home resorts 8 months out (which is what it is now). However, he said that 97% of owners had already committed and paid the extra $$ to be a part of the Abound network, therefore, that inventory would likely never go to Interval and we wouldn't have access to them. He said it would be harder for us to book outside our home resort if we were a part of Interval. I asked him about a quote from Lori Gustafson at the Marriott Worldwide Investor Day on June 16th where she said "if Sheraton owners wanted to avail themselves of the Abound opportunity that it was additive and there would be no incremental cost to an owner". His answer was that this was only the case for owners that had converted to the Flex program years back. To me an owner is an owner, especially if we bought direct and not on the resale market. He never even talked about how the new program would work, it was really just a sales pitch to buy more options.
As people who really enjoy the flexibility of the program and vacationing at various resorts throughout the network, we said we would buy the 51,700 options but had to come in the next day to fill out the paperwork and sign since we had time-sensitive plans. They allowed us to go with the plan of coming in the next morning. Our fear was we would be left for dead in Interval and vacationing in Orlando for the rest of our lives (no offense to Orlando). The entire day it nagged at me and I spend hours out of my vacation looking on various sites and doing research. It seems there aren't official guidelines listed anywhere and that everyone is getting different information. My gut told me not to do it and I canceled the meeting and told them we weren't purchasing. It also rubs me the wrong way that I have been a dues paying owner for 17 years and they are not going to let me into the "club" unless I pay another $20-30k. My husband and I are just going to sit tight and see what actually happens when the program officially rolls out.
