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[Q=jimf41] Den, Just reserved 3 weeks in FEB 24 at a Marriott Caribbean resort. I called at 9AM exactly. If you call 15 minutes later you'll find nothing available. If you want a good week at a good resort you have to call in advance to find the 13 month and 12 month inventory release dates. Then you have be on the phone at exactly 9 AM. Yes it's a real hassle and it's a bit nerve wracking but it works. Trying to get what you want 6 months out is pointless. You'll be picking from what every one else didn't want. You have to plan 12-13 months out. Ocean Pointe in West Palm is a good example. The Platinum season there runs from DEC 15 to APR 30. Nobody wants to go in April, everybody wants to go in JAN-FEB. Most Plat owners own multiple weeks and snowbird there. I know a few who own 4 or more. Those owners can split their weeks into 1bdrm and lockouts and book 8 weeks in advance. A one week owner has little if any chance getting a week in JAN-FEB there. That said every week owner will get a week sometime in Plat season as long as it's booked before the season starts. Points owners don't have a good chance because this resort is mostly owned by weeks owners and unless they turn in their weeks for points there won't be any reservations available for points users. In order to get what you want in the Marriott system you have understand the system and how it works. All the resorts you mentioned are not that difficult to get, you just have to book them at least a year out. Some folks can't plan that far ahead and the Marriott system just won't work as well for them.[/Q] === I don't agree with you, but a salesperson would. One must distinguish between reservations for owned weeks and point reservations. For weeks, I own the week in the season and can book 13 mos out - I get what I want for great beach locations. For points, I find it difficult to book reservations at the better resorts for summer high demand weeks (weeks or shorter stays) at about any time, even 13 mos out. Certainly, this focuses many requests on a few reservations coming from the Trust coupled with week deposits from week owners. My point is that MVC is motivated to exercise ROFR's for the lower cost weeks (cheap inventory) and add other weeks on the cheap end - it's where the profit is. As point owners, we want better weeks at great resorts and think we paid for this by paying $16 per point for enough points to get a beach location for 4,500 points - an upfront investment of $72,000 plus pay annual maintenance fees. So, what do we do? Some of us out bid MVC by buying an OceanWatch for $15,000 or so in a perfect season with a perfect view. And we use these weeks or rent them out when we can't use them because simply put, we can get what we want, when we want it, at a deep discount (compared to using points). MVC is conflicted, they can enrich the shareholders, or they can take care of the customer - it's hard and it doesn't work very well for the customer. But, customers can benefit from this by playing the game to their advantage. Some may say the flexibility of the points system compensates for all this. But, if you can't get the points reservation "you want," who cares? What if MVC and the Trust committed to buy up 25% of the weeks at each of the resorts or to disclose their percentage ownership for each resort? I think the MVC points program would look pretty naked.