This is what Marriott Rewards sent to me on February 27, after I wrote to ask for confirmation of the info I had received from MVCI:

This might seem a little obvious, but I'm new to the Marriott program and am wondering how you purchase Marriott points...can someone provide a link for me?

They may be making quite a little short-term profit on it.

https://buy.points.com/marriott/init.do?method=buy

Absolutely, but, one would think, if short-term profit was the motive, they'd have a big ad link emblazoned on the home page

Pat

. . . I think Marriott should have left the uncapped buying facility unchanged for genuine loyal customers . . .

Yes, that would have been nice, but Marriott would be creating a perk for one group and not another while also diminishing the overall value of the MRP. They still could raise the ante on the bonus stay points for plats or other levels if they want to reward loyalty.

As Dave notes, One of the early foundations of the MVCI timeshare product has been the ability of MVCI owners to convert a TS week into a specified number of MRPs in return for giving Marriott use of their week. This arrangement is formally codified in the deed that an owner receives for each week they purchase. This recent move to turn MRP into a commodity had the effect of diminishing the value and credibility of the TS product. With over 250,000 MVCI owners and sagging sales, MVCI was looking at a huge headache.

We own several MVCI weeks and we were glad to see Marriott set this problem straight. I do however hope that folks were able to jump in and build a cache of MRP for some future travel of their own.

Barry

First time poster, long time lurker. (Finally had a question of my own )

Any thoughts on whether or not the limit of using only 10% purchased points towards an award will be applied to points purchased before March 8th? I realize the points purchased will not count toward the 50,000 annual limit you can purchase after March 8th, but if they applied the 10% rule retroactively, that would leave those of us who have purchased points in good faith in a bad spot...

Excellent first post! I was wondering the same.

Seeing that one can buy a really nice trip to Europe (two first class plane tickets plus 2 weeks in category 7 Marriotts) for $5,400 using this deal, I'm not surprised that it's being shut down. It's just too good of deal at the higher award levels.

prepare to have alot of credit cards at your disposal if you are going for bulk accumulation. The 'buy points' internal software declines your credit card after the fourth or fifth purchase, even though your creditr card might have tons of credit left. Both my Amex and Visa told me that I had no 'declines' showing up on their system, yet Marriott (actually points.com operates this site) showed a decline message.

BTW, effective March 8 means that last purchase is actually by midnight March 7!

Just bought a batch. Got enough to up my travel package to get 120,000 miles and a seven-night stay.

So how long before The Great Devaluation?

Just grabbed 20,000 for fun... Hope to use them some day!!

Within the next 12 months IMO, if travel patterns and/or the economy don't change dramatically for the worse.

Pat