Bye bye to unlimited purchase of points for a penny each
Feb 27, 2007, 7:34 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Boston, UA 1K & MM
Posts: 1,114
Bye bye to unlimited purchase of points for a penny each
Buy now if you want to add to your account. The price goes up from a penny to 1.25 cents on March 8. And the limit changes to 50,000 points per year. From Marriott:
(Effective March 8, 2007)
Once points have been purchased or gifted, no refunds will be permitted
Points are purchased in increments of 1,000 points at the rate of $12.50 per 1,000 points
No more than 50,000 points can be purchased per account, per calendar year
Points purchase prior to March 8, 2007 are not counted toward 50,000 point cap
For purchase of points in increments less than 1,000 points, always round up to nearest thousand
Purchased points can ONLY be used for reaching an award level (up to a 10% deficiency) Members may not apply purchased points under any other circumstances.
Marriott Vacation Club International
310 Bearcat Drive
Salt Lake City UT 84115
800-239-5936
Once points have been purchased or gifted, no refunds will be permitted
Points are purchased in increments of 1,000 points at the rate of $12.50 per 1,000 points
No more than 50,000 points can be purchased per account, per calendar year
Points purchase prior to March 8, 2007 are not counted toward 50,000 point cap
For purchase of points in increments less than 1,000 points, always round up to nearest thousand
Purchased points can ONLY be used for reaching an award level (up to a 10% deficiency) Members may not apply purchased points under any other circumstances.
Marriott Vacation Club International
310 Bearcat Drive
Salt Lake City UT 84115
800-239-5936
Feb 27, 2007, 8:01 am
#2
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Elsewhere
Programs: MR Plat, HH Gold, Hertz Gold
Posts: 79
That's too bad. That was one of the elements that made MR more attractive than say HH.
Feb 27, 2007, 8:15 am
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: London
Programs: BA, VS, HH, IHG, MB, MR
Posts: 26,871
Deleted .
Feb 27, 2007, 8:21 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Freeload Univ. Where are you sitting?
Posts: 14,818
Well, I think we all knew it couldn't last. It was too good a deal.
Feb 27, 2007, 9:13 am
#5
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: St. Petersburg, FL
Programs: Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium Elite
Posts: 453
So the question remains, is this change exclusive to the points.com website, or also if your call the plat line to purchase points...
Feb 27, 2007, 9:40 am
#6
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Belper, Derbyshire, United Kingdom
Programs: Marriott Rewards Silver, Starwood Preferred Guest Plus, Hilton HHonors Gold
Posts: 967
Are these new rules just for MVCI though?
Feb 27, 2007, 9:57 am
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Boston, UA 1K & MM
Posts: 1,114
No. The communication came from MVCI, the arm of Marriott that has been aggressively trying to get the current policy changed. However, the rule change will apply to all.
The unlimited penny-per-point policy made MVCI's offer of incentive points for a timeshare purchase less valuable. More importantly, it made somewhat meaningless the limitation that only timeshares purchased directly from Marriott could be used to exchange annual timeshare use for Marriott Rewards points. Making this change should significantly enhance MVCI's sales pitch when touting the MR aspect of a timeshare purchase.
Within days of the loosening of the points purchase policy, MVCI sales personnel were predicting the quick demise of the new policy, claiming that Marriott hadn't considered the potential adverse impact on MVCI sales. It appears they were correct!
The unlimited penny-per-point policy made MVCI's offer of incentive points for a timeshare purchase less valuable. More importantly, it made somewhat meaningless the limitation that only timeshares purchased directly from Marriott could be used to exchange annual timeshare use for Marriott Rewards points. Making this change should significantly enhance MVCI's sales pitch when touting the MR aspect of a timeshare purchase.
Within days of the loosening of the points purchase policy, MVCI sales personnel were predicting the quick demise of the new policy, claiming that Marriott hadn't considered the potential adverse impact on MVCI sales. It appears they were correct!
Feb 27, 2007, 10:15 am
#8
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Posts: 148
MVCI was not the only department that was upset by the new point purchase procedure, and anticipated its change/removal.
Feb 27, 2007, 12:00 pm
#9
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: ORD, MKE, MDW
Programs: Marriott Lifetime Platinum, AAdvantage Gold, Air Canada Elite, Avis Pref Select, Hertz Gold,
Posts: 1,844
I certainly don't blame Marriott for acting quickly to close a loophole that was causing problems for the company or certain properties.
It would be nice if they were this nimble to fix "defects" in the MR program that sometimes make things a little tougher for their best customers. As has been discussed by me and others, why not a "platinum override" (at least on a one time annually basis) for "Stay Anytime" MR stays?
Or, failing that, and along those lines, why not a points premium for just one or two nights on some of the longer-term or "hopper" EEO certificates? This would provide a nice break for someone who's hard-earned standard or hopper seven night cert is useless because one or two nights during his/her vacation is on "Stay Anytime".
Why not just let the guest pay an extra points premium for the nights in question instead of having to cough up an entire week's premium? This should be simple enough to do.
And puh-leeze, if a "string is attached" to a standard reward in the form of cash, keep it reasonable. $200 for each night of a stay while also burning points typically isn't much of a "reward"! But in some circumstances, $200 over the course of a week's reward might stay might be reasonable....or a preferable option to a 50% points penalty.
It would be nice if they were this nimble to fix "defects" in the MR program that sometimes make things a little tougher for their best customers. As has been discussed by me and others, why not a "platinum override" (at least on a one time annually basis) for "Stay Anytime" MR stays?
Or, failing that, and along those lines, why not a points premium for just one or two nights on some of the longer-term or "hopper" EEO certificates? This would provide a nice break for someone who's hard-earned standard or hopper seven night cert is useless because one or two nights during his/her vacation is on "Stay Anytime".
Why not just let the guest pay an extra points premium for the nights in question instead of having to cough up an entire week's premium? This should be simple enough to do.
And puh-leeze, if a "string is attached" to a standard reward in the form of cash, keep it reasonable. $200 for each night of a stay while also burning points typically isn't much of a "reward"! But in some circumstances, $200 over the course of a week's reward might stay might be reasonable....or a preferable option to a 50% points penalty.
Last edited by cyberdad; Feb 27, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Feb 27, 2007, 3:40 pm
#10
Join Date: Feb 2005
Programs: Marriott Lifetime Titanium (former PP), Hilton Silver, UA Silver, AS Member, Hertz 5*
Posts: 3,906
Before the new policy, it used to be a penny a point with a 10 % cap of the amount required for an award. I guess Marriott sees an opportunity to make some extra money, and maybe they don't want to encourage people to buy points. Still, it would be nice if they let gold and platinum members buy points at the old rate.
Feb 27, 2007, 4:00 pm
#11
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: MAN
Programs: F
Posts: 2,898
Before the new policy, it used to be a penny a point with a 10 % cap of the amount required for an award. I guess Marriott sees an opportunity to make some extra money, and maybe they don't want to encourage people to buy points. Still, it would be nice if they let gold and platinum members buy points at the old rate.
Mar 1, 2007, 5:22 pm
#12
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Caerdydd
Posts: 1,987
It has certainly caused some concern over on the BA Board...as I'm sure you are well aware!
I e-mailed the Marriott Rewards team and they could not provide any confirmation of this change to the T&C's...I'm mucking fuddled.
Mar 1, 2007, 6:02 pm
#13
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Posts: 148
I've searched the Marriott website and cannot find any reference to this...can you provide some additional guidance as to the veracity of this statement?
It has certainly caused some concern over on the BA Board...as I'm sure you are well aware!
I e-mailed the Marriott Rewards team and they could not provide any confirmation of this change to the T&C's...I'm mucking fuddled.
It has certainly caused some concern over on the BA Board...as I'm sure you are well aware!
I e-mailed the Marriott Rewards team and they could not provide any confirmation of this change to the T&C's...I'm mucking fuddled.
Mar 2, 2007, 12:25 am
#14
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: UK
Programs: Marriott Platinum Premier
Posts: 379
It is difficult to keep anything secret on the web ! The information came out via a MVCI ( Marriott timeshare) source.
I have to say I am astonished that the new policy has not been implemented immediately, unless Marriott want hundreds of millions of points bought in the last 10 days of the old rules !.
I have so many earned points myself that the change won't really affect me in the long run, but the offer was so good I have taken personal advantage of it whilst it was available.
I think Marriott should have left the uncapped buying facility unchanged for genuine loyal customers ( say platinums), and totally stopped it for the people who were joining Marriott Rewards just to buy points and then flush them out quickly as redemptions into other loyalty programmes. (Marriott must know who they are !)
By the way thank you to Rewards Guy for his posts over the last 6 months they have been very illuminating.
Tom
I have to say I am astonished that the new policy has not been implemented immediately, unless Marriott want hundreds of millions of points bought in the last 10 days of the old rules !.
I have so many earned points myself that the change won't really affect me in the long run, but the offer was so good I have taken personal advantage of it whilst it was available.
I think Marriott should have left the uncapped buying facility unchanged for genuine loyal customers ( say platinums), and totally stopped it for the people who were joining Marriott Rewards just to buy points and then flush them out quickly as redemptions into other loyalty programmes. (Marriott must know who they are !)
By the way thank you to Rewards Guy for his posts over the last 6 months they have been very illuminating.
Tom
Mar 2, 2007, 1:45 am
#15
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Caerdydd
Posts: 1,987
Thanks for that...although I'm not sure it makes me any happier! 