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I happen to agree with Carlin27. We've used the point system to great advantage. We happen to own at one of the highest valued resorts, so our trade value into other resorts is really good. For our 2 br ocean front in Maui, we got enough points for three units and a big family trip to Branson plus three additional weekend getaways to Marco Island, Singer Island, and Panama City. We were somewhat flexible but did not have too much problem getting the units we wanted at the times we wanted. I am not affiliated with Marriott in any way. Next year we are using our unit as purchased, but love that we have the flexibility when we want something different. I looked at adding points, but decided the annual fee's on the DC points are too high. It would be a better deal in the long run to buy another week somewhere and exchange to points. Yes the DC points owners get access to unsold inventory and as a weeks owner we do not, but available inventory has not been a big problem for us and we have to work around school schedules. If it doesn't work for you then you can always opt out and just use your unit as you purchased it. We find the point system much more flexible than Interval International (II) because we can use our points a few days at a time instead of a whole week at a time and spread our getaways out. Not possible with II. If we owned at a lower valued resort, I probably wouldn't want to exchange for points because a whole week in a lower value resort will only trade for a couple days in a higher valued resort on the point system, where on II a week is a week so II makes more sense in that case. To answer dennish144, we also own at Disney Vacation Club and my opinion is that without a doubt Disney is the best in the industry and the most flexible. The Marriott point system is trying to give some of the flexibility of the Disney system.