Original Message:
Re: Ripoff - Marriott Vacation Club Destinations Program - New Point System (by Kathryn M.):
Hello Everyone--
I've been following this blog for the past 9 months. My husband and I have owned 3 properties with MVC for the better part of 20 years now. We have loved the experience and have had many wonderful vacations--all at Marriott Resorts. No nasty surprises there--you always know what you are going to get. As we all know, the program has changed--and the biggest change to me is that it is really no longer a Marriott product--it only gets to use the Marriott name. My husband and I decided to buy into the Destinations Program as Legacy Owners, and not buy any Trust Points (way too expensive on a retiree's budget!). We have a total of 6500 points with our three properties. We realize there may be limitations, but we still have the option to trade every other year for a total of 330,000 MR Points--enough to still provide us a great world trip every other year. I talked to our "Marriott" Rep--really our MVC Rep!--who told us that when we do our trade for 6,500 points this year that they will not expire until December 31, 2013, but that we have the option to let them know by June 30th, 2013 so that we could roll them over for an additional year so that we can add another 6,500 for a total of 13,000 points--which would be enough for one of the World Traveler trips--or several pretty nice family trips with our kids and grandkids. No, it's not perfect, we don't have ALL possible choices, but the ones we do have still makes it good enough for us. We are both retired so we probably won't be taking these trips after another ten or twelve years, but our Marriott Rewards Points offer us plently of opportunities for travel and we have squirreled away over 200,000 air miles in two frequently flier accounts (thanks to Marriott Rewards Points). This April we will be going to Berlin and Munich and will be staying at Marriotts--all with Marriott Rewards Points. The point is, everyone needs to know where and how you want to travel and make the program work for you. Change is the only thing I am sure of in this world. There is a lot of ire going around out there about how this program has changed, with even the threat of a Class Action Lawsuit. But I will bet you that all of their bases have been covered over the year to insure that when the change did come there would be no grounds for a lawsuit. I heard from a sales rep about 4 - 5 years ago that Marriott was looking to end their relationship with II, so we saw this comin¨À but didn't know how it would all play out. My main complaint, if I have one, is that the sales reps are either a) not instructed very well in the fine points of this program or b) are a highly unethical lot that only want to make a commission! If it wasn't for g333s who participated in this blog, I would still be frustrated and in the dark about how to work my way through this program. So thank you once again, g333s!! I do understand everyone's frustration--I've been there--but we just came to the realization that it's time to swallow hard, take a deep breath, and make lemonade out of the lemons.