Report Abuse

After reading your post about your preference with using the Marriott's point system, I just thought I would share a couple of things of points. (No pun intended.) First, even with buying points there is not always going to be instant availability. It will depend on when you book, what is available. Marriott still has a waiting list for those using points. This is the same with II. Right now because of the economy and the fact that many people are defaulting on their timeshares and not as many being sold as weeks, there probably is more inventory right now. However, not going through II you are really limiting yourself. II has other good resorts like Starwood, Hilton and Four Seasons. Also, as of now not all Marriotts are a part of the points system. The other point I wanted to bring out is that unless you are using Marriott Rewards Points (MRP) for one of Marriott's vacation packages that includes both air and hotel, you are losing great value for your MRP. If you are using them for airfare only and you have exchanged your timeshare for MRP, you have greatly devalued your timeshare value. The airfare you can get for much cheaper than your timeshare price and maintenace fees in most cases. The points are extremely expensive. 6000 points is about $60,000. Which is what it will probably take to go to any of the properties during any season including Hawaii. I have nothing against points. I have them with another company and love them. However, remember that regardles of what points system you use the most value you will get per point is through accommodations not cruises, airfare, and other goodies that are offered. Remember you will have paid thousands of dollars for those points so you will want to get the most for your dollars. I would suggest that anytime you are about to use your points for something other than accommodations that you go online or call the companies sponsoring the cruise or airfare or whatever and compare their costs for two to your maintenance fees for those points. That should give you some idea. Make sure you are comparing the same time of year prices too. For example, don't compare winter cruise prices with summer because summer prices will be much greater. Look at when you want to go and then compare the price during that time with the number of points you will need from Marriott.