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[Q=dennisn36] Well, BULLY FOR YOU, davidn247. I think the only reason you made an appearance here is to brag about how you became a Marriott owner. Who gives a flying ****? You got into the system and Marriott loves people like you. They'll continue to take your money as they did the "direct buy" owners. The key word here is "take" because they're in it only for the money and obviously don't care if they skim from loyal customers or provide worthwhile services. Rather than live up to the words they gushed to entice people to buy they do just the opposite and do many a disservice under the guise of this lousy program. You bought into it so you're not as smart as you think you are and I'm not impressed with your reasoning. Ignorance is bliss as they say. Have a great 2011 everyone.[/Q] Wow, dennisn36, did you have a few too many before you wrote your rude response last night - a couple hours after the new year? I like the discussion on this board and have learned a lot, but have also gotten tired of the anger and rudeness expressed by some, such as you dennisn. PLEASE, let's keep this discussion going with facts and information that will be helpful, not sarcasm, rudeness, or anger. Oh, and by the way, I happen to agree with davidn257 (and have no clue who the guy is) and I'm one of those "ignorant" ones in your book. At first, after reading these blogs, I was 100% against purchasing and was quite angry at Marriott, and as of two weeks ago, we paid the fees and joined Destinations. While I agree there are parts of it that I don't like, we figured if someone had offered us the ability to trade our resale weeks in for Rewards points (one week at Maui Marriott and one week at Kauai Marriott) for an extra $1300 TOTAL for both (plus the $600 for our "direct buy" Marriott), we would have JUMPED at the chance when we purchased. The ONLY thing that made our first Marriott purchase (Grand Ocean on Hilton Head) different from the others is that we could trade for Reward Points when we wanted to do so, and we have owned for SIXTEEN years, so we know how to use the program very well. I have argued with Marriott sales people for years that it did not make sense for me to spend an extra $10-20,000 per unit to buy it from Marriott instead of the resale market just to be able to trade for Rewards Points. Now I have the best of both worlds - We saved a ton on our initial purchase and can now trade our resale weeks (Marriott weeks not bought through Marriott) for points when we can't use them for some reason. It's easier than trying to rent them. I've already booked my 800 "freebie" points for an extra night in Kaui and two extra nights in Florida over spring break, which took our airfare way down because we will fly home on a Tuesday instead of a Sunday. As I said, there are definitely parts I don't like, as there was when Marriott revalued the Rewards Points a few years back, but it came down to being a decision that I thought was best for us. As I said, our entire reasoning was that we are now able to trade for points if we want (we have used them for one extra night in DC to an entire trip to Australia). I don't think this is for everyone, but being 55, I know that at some point in the years ahead, the trip to Hawaii from the midwest may not be too far for my bad back and this gives us more options. Hopefully, we can continue an intelligent, professional, and polite conversation in which we can each learn if this program is for us or not. I think it is a different answer for everybody, depending on the individual circumstances.