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Re: Marriott Going to Point Syst (by L M.):

We have been multiple week owners with Marriott since 1997 and have been very happy and satisfied with our investment... Or should I say we were, it is up for question as of late.

We decided to participate in the Vacation Club system to allow us more options in the long term of our ownership. I will go on record right in the beginning as saying in our opinion the new system is not good, balanced or very owner friendly. This is our opinion.

We did purchase a small amount (the minimum of 1,000 at the time) to put us into the "premier plus" level. We own 5 deeded properties and we were only 475 points away from that level but the minimum we could purchase was the 1,000.

We were trying to look at the long term of the ownership that we had invested in and thought this was the best option for us at this time based on our future travel needs.

We have tried several times over the last several months to use the points we were "given" as part of our purchase/enrollment and what we have purchased. Yesterday we made our first reservation using the new Vacation Club points system.

In our opinion we are not very happy with the results that we have but feel we were in a position that we had to make some sort of reservation because of the expiration situation. So, here is the summary of our transaction, personal experience and our opinion.

We had: * 1,100 points that are the incentive points - (they expire by December 31, 2011) a use or lose situation * 1,000 points that we purchased - use is 2011, these can be banked until December 2012 if banked by June 2011 * 1,000 points that could be drawn on from the 2012 year use

Here is what we did: We reserved 5 nights in an ocean side, 2 bedrooms at the Oceana Palms on Singer Island, FL. This reservation cost 425/night (because we chose the Sunday through Thursday stay) total of 2125 points.

Of these points only 850 could come from the "incentive" points because they have to be used first and only in whole night increments. Those points could not be combined with the "titled points" to make the balance of the third night. We have 250 of these points left that will expire in December now.

This is why our opinion is that this is a poor transaction/system: * Seven days of one of our platinum deeded weeks ranges from 2150 to 2775 (2125 was for only five days and none of which included a weekend). This seems like there is far too much of the "breakage" in Marriott's favor. We should be able to at least get an equal for an equal.

* We could not get where we actually wanted to go or the view that we actually wanted (I know it is always based on availability), that doesn't mean we have to like it. :-) (There is inventory based on Marriott's website - just not points inventory)

* We now have 250 points that are going to expire and there are very few places that 250 points even equal one night stay

* We were told that the "incentive points" were given to us anyway and it shouldn't matter. To that our opinion is; no, we paid for those points by paying for more "titled points" and by enrolling in the new program. There is nothing that was free or given to us, everything has a price.

We used all of the 2011 points (that is good... I guess) but we also had to tap into our 2012 year points (that seems bad since we only need 25 and they could have used the incentive ones). So, clearly they can and do track all the points, where they came from and when they expire AND they will not necessarily pool them. There are some cases where they will but it is for a single night stay.

In the long run we will use our deeded weeks for stays or exchanges and the points that we purchased to augment those stays. That is what our plan is anyway. But our opinion is that is a not a well done new system.

PS: It took at least two phone calls to get this done. The wait time to talk to someone to make the reservation was over 25 minutes each time.