Another suggestion to Marriott would be to at least give us a reprieve so we have a few more months to book the old awards (think of it like a stay of execution of our points :D - ok that's a little extreme rhetoric, sorry), not making us have to try to dump them all in such a short time frame. The time frame is too compressed for me to find a really good solution to this problem.

Marriott Concierge, speaking as someone who is not going to leave Marriott over this but is hurt significantly by the travel package point increases I can completely understand why for some, this would cause them to change their loyalties. I for one am not sneezing at the other enhancements, but for me, the package flexibility losses and devaluations that come with the enhancements are just too great to make it a net benefit. I truly believe it is in Marriott's best interest to provide some give back on this that can be announced in the next few weeks. Don't know if there is too great of a corporate intertia that went into development / implementation of the changes (actually a significant overhaul of the whole program) to get some modifications approved in this short of a time frame, but I certainly think you should try.

Wondering whether it is worthwhile to start a separate thread with a rollcall of members feelings on whether they are happy with the changes as is, or, if not, on what modifications would be most likely to keep them happy-
* 5 night packages
* Bring back some reduction in points per night for the 7-night packages
or ??

Yes. Inventory for Christmas week 2009 (Dec 20-27) is suppose to be available for booking sometime on Sunday January 4, 2009, and New Years week (Dec 27-Jan 2) should be available for booking sometime on Sunday January 11, 2009. Whether you will be able to find award inventory for those weeks is another story. Certain hotels don't release inventory on time. JW Marriott Orlando doesn't release inventory, paid or awards, until about 8 months out. Vail Marriott generally won't release award inventory that early either. Those are the only 2 hotels I am personally familiar with that deviate from the standard 50 week out award availability, however, there may be others. Good luck.

thanks for the data

at least I have a chance, albeit probably small.. I'll still give it the ole college try

+1

Hurting Their Most Loyal Customers
 

Hurting their best customers, Marriott is doing everything they can to drive us away. We are owners at the Maui Marriott Vacation Club. Owners at Marriott Timeshares purchase because of trust in the Marriott name. That trust has not been justified as Marriott changes the Marriott Rewards parameters, but does not change the point value exchange for our Marriott timeshare property. When we first purchased, the points we received for our one week were equal to what it would cost to stay in any Marriott worldwide. It was sold to us as a terrific deal from Marriott for our purchase and something that would benefit us in our retirement when we did not have as much income. Now our timeshare point exchange will not even get us the same amount of time equal to what we own at our home resort. And every Marriott Rewards Program change just decreases the value of our property even more. Rather than reward their most loyal customers, they are penalizing them. There should be a way to grandfather customers out. As a business practice, this is terrible. We plan to dump our Marriott timeshare as soon as we can. We do not like doing business with such a disloyal company and we no longer hold Marriott in high esteem.

And this is also now a significant disincentive for me to buy a Marriott timeshare. If these changes stick as is, I will have absolutely no confidence that the exchange value of my timeshare will be maintained in the future.

One of the possible solutions to this that works reasonably well for all Marriott customers to also give the 7th night half-price for packages and then upgrade the points earned for timeshare owners to the weekly level along with an apology letter out to their timeshare owners for their previous oversight on this matter. So, for example, the award structure after Jan. 15 for a category 7 or 8 would be:

Cat. 7:
5 nights @ 140,000 points
6 nights @ 175,000 poiints
7 nights @ 193,000 points (package)
7 nights + 120,000 AA miles (example) @ 293,000 points

Cat. 8:
5 nights @ 160,000 points
6 nights @ 200,000 poiints
7 nights @ 220,000 points (package)
7 nights + 120,000 AA miles (example) @ 340,000 points

Timeshare owners would get 220,000 points for their week (assuming they have a deal that their week is worth 7 nights at any Marriott), allowing them to book at even a category 8 property and a promise that they'd always be given enough points to purchase a week at any Marriott property worldwide.

I've deliberately set this proposal at a level that still hurts significantly at the high end (category 8 is still a big increase from what it was previously), but reduces the sting. Personally, I'd prefer to have the 7th night also completely free if and only if it is part of a package, that would take a lot more of the sting out of this. But even the above proposed changes would help me a lot and take away some of the urgency of now trying to burn as many points as I can. I also like the idea of 5 night packages instead of the 7-nighters, but then you still have to figure out something to do for the timeshare owners.

Marriott Concierge, I know you probably can't say anything about whether management is seriously considering anything like this, but can you please let me know that this has been taken and presented to those who might have the power to make such changes as this?

Also, is there anything else we should be doing to voice these concerns to make sure we're heard loud and clear? I'd like to have the confidence that we have been listened to, even if it turns out in the end that Marriott Rewards decides to go forward with these changes as is.

Your post raises a very pertinent point that I had not considered. Thank you for making it.

I would be interested in hearing additional views (from all posters) regarding the relative worth of Marriott timeshares in light of these changes.

I own Marriott timeshares and bought them (resell) to exchange to other properties. The system has worked very well for me so far (they are sending out a survey about a possible switch to a point based system).

I have never traded in my timeshares for points. It's not a tempting exchange and never has been. You don't get enough points (125,000 max., most properties are around 100,000) to make it worth trading your 7 nights at a 2 bedroom, 2 bath villa with kitchen, living room & washer/dryer for 5 nights in a Courtyard.

However with these new enhancements to the MR point system, I worry about the changes to the timeshare program.

the new structure would be 90,000 points for 7 nights at a category 3 property, 120,000 for category 4, 150,000 for cat. 5, 180,000 for cat. 6, 210,000 for cat. 7, and a whopping 240,000 Marriott Rewards points for 7 nights at a category 8.

I don't know the details of how the timeshares are marketed, but 100,000 points sounds like a very poor exchange rate for any but the cheapest of the cheap Marriott timeshares - seven nights at any Marriott category 3 property worldwide isn't normally something to be very excited about. :( So I don't think I'd be excited in the least about point exchanges at such levels.

Regarding timeshares, all I can do is thank my lucky stars (and Mrs crazyhorse :D) for resisting the sales pitch.
Maybe I'll do more of the preview packages to get the 15K bonus points they throw for wasting 90 mins of my life. Actually, it may be an interesting experience to screw with the sales guy's head about point devaluation.

GrizShel-your post is really wonderful,and bless you for being so forward thinking and constructive.
I now know I am not alone in holding hope that MR will see how very hurtful these changes will be to their most loyal customers.The changes are just too strong.And the timing just could not be worse as croperate travel budgets are being axed and personal discretionary spending is plummiting.

The current offer of the 5 night packages might be more attractive to me If they were offered accross the board.Most level four properties are locatated in places I would not want to be for 5 nights.

Did I miss something? I thought the TPs were staying around, but they are getting more expensive. I did think there was a good suggestion of changing them to fit the new "5 day" award structure rather than keeping them with 7 days only.

[edited to add]
Are you talking about the Hotel Sampler packages by chance? If so, it might be nice if a variation of those maybe with 2 hotels covering 5 nights for the price of 4 nights could be added.

That may be what bigguy is referring to.

Yes, allowing 5 night packages + miles is one very simple, clean solution that would help significantly take the sting away from the redemption level changes without Marriott having to give back at all on the entire revamped point redemption structure they announced. Still somewhat painful, and it does make me worry about a string of future point devaluations coming; but it at least takes care of the majority of my CURRENT concerns about the changes.

For the time share owners I suppose they could could start offering enough exchange points to redeem for 5 nights at any Marriott worldwide; although that does present a semantics / conceptual challenge for their marketing of timeshares ("Why do I only get 5 hotel nights in exchange for my 7 nights at my timeshare property??").

You are right-they are staying around.I think this has been corrected on the FAQ's regarding the changes because it reads differently now from when I first looked at them

I will edit my post to reflect this.

European MVCI Owner - Marriotts deception
 

I am an extremely very unhappy European MVCI owner having bought my weeks(!) with one the promises being the option to redeem my weeks to enable stays at Marriott Hotel and Resort destinations around the world. I can’t even redeem my platinum weeks for 7 nights in a cat 4 hotel.

Marriott must listen to its owners and increase redemption levels at the same rate as the increase in points required for hotels (based on 7 nights). I have no doubt that once all owners become aware of this situation MVCI will have a massive drop on referral sales which I am sure make up a large proportion. We have several friends who have purchased 10 weeks ($$$$) between them on our recommendations....never again!!!!!

During our last visit MVCI were actively selling ‘point generators’ for worldwide travel....these are weeks which allow annual redemption for points. A very excited couple of owners we met at our home resort in July decided to jump on board...they must be extremely bitter with Marriott’s deception as a result of these so called ‘enhancements’.

I have been an extremely loyal Marriott customer since purchasing my 1st weeks, always staying at their hotels and reached Platinum for a number of years (and now Gold) but I’m finished with them and will sell my weeks for whatever I can get. There complete disregard for loyal customers who have invested considerable amounts of hard earned money into their MVCI product is disgraceful!!!

It is not surprising that as an MVCI owner we have not been formally advised of these ‘enhancements’. It will be interesting to hear how the salesmen/vacation advisors are spinning the changes to existing owners.