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Marriott Vacation Club updates Covid cancellation policy
Marriott Vacation Club is Marriott’s Timeshare division and they’ve gone through a series of program changes. Many owners still retain their exact week deeded to their home property which even entitles them to an exact unit. Others have a guaranteed category of week, like Platinum, at their home property but without a unit or exact week guaranteed. Others yet only participate in the program through their latest roll out: Vacation Club Points. As you can see…it can be complicated. If you’re a part of the Vacation Club Points program, or just interested in some of the uses, I’d suggest checking out our Best Uses of Marriott Vacation Club Points that highlight the program and ways we’ve extracted value other than the tradition week by week usage associated with Timeshares. All of these various ownership levels have varying cancellation policies…so let’s take a look.
When you log into your account you’ll see:
It’s broken into two types of reservations you’re looking to cancel
- Vacation Club Points
- Ownership weeks
Vacation Club Points
More than 60 days from arrival
The updated terms aren’t really anything different from normal cancellation terms
If you are seeking to cancel your reservation booked with your Vacation Club Points and are due to arrive more than 60 days from the day you cancel, you may do so without penalty. Your usage will be returned to your account and will be accessible for use upon completion of cancellation.
Within 60 days of arrival
Here’s where things are becoming more lenient. Typically, if you use your Vacation Club Points to book a property, let’s say Mandapa in Bali. 6 weeks before you’re arrival you want to cancel. You may do so, but the big caveat is that you can only then use those points to book a trip within 60 days of check-in. Meaning if you wanted to use those points and it was September 1st, you could only book properties in the 60 days following September 1st. That 60 day window is doubling to 120 days. Personally, I would have like to have seen these points become deposited and fully re-instated, but it’s at least a bit more lenient. Often times families will plan a year in advance around school schedules, and suddenly those trips planned a year ago have been cancelled due to not fault of their own. That means they won’t be able to use those points to book again next year, but instead are bound by 120 day window.
They have pushed the expiration to 12/31/21
If you are seeking to cancel your reservation and are due to arrive 1 to 60 days from the day you cancel, your Vacation Club Points will be returned to a Holding Account; however, the Points Premium (if any) will be forfeited.
- For Vacation Club Points expiring anytime in 2020 or 2021 and placed into a Holding Account, the expiration deadline will be extended through December 31, 2021, and can be used for a villa reservation or select Explorer offerings within 120 days of arrival instead of the previous 60 days of arrival. The December 31, 2021 extension will be made to your account within two weeks.
If you are seeking to cancel your reservation on the date of arrival or while staying at one of our resorts, Vacation Club Points will not be returned.
Ownership Weeks
Arrival before May 14th, 2020
You will receive an Interval International week that will be deposited into your Interval International account within the next 10 days for future use. The Interval International week will have a reduced exchange rate of $99 and will expire on December 16, 2021. You will be able to check availability up to 120 days prior to your desired arrival date.
Arrival after May 14th, 2020
My Scheduled Arrival Is 60 Days or More from My Date of Cancellation
- Your usage will be returned to your account and will be accessible for use upon completion of cancellation without penalty. If you don’t plan to use your ownership week, you may also deposit your week with Interval International as a full deposit, usable for travel up to 24 months after the check-out date of your deposited week for the reservation you are canceling.
My Scheduled Arrival Is 59 Days to 14 Days from My Date of Cancellation
- While cancellations are not permitted, your week can be deposited with Interval International for a Late Deposit. You will have two years from the check-out date of your deposited week to travel and can check availability up to 59 days before your desired arrival date.
My Scheduled Arrival Is Less Than 14 Days from My Date of Cancellation
- While Cancellations are not permitted, you may be eligible for a Short Notice deposit through Interval International on a very limited basis. Please contact Owner Services to check availability. If accepted by Interval International, you will have two years from the check-out date of your deposited week to travel and can check availability up to 30 days before your desired arrival date.
- Please note that only full villas/units (no lock-offs) are eligible for requesting Short Notice deposit.
No word on Banked Points from a prior year
Marriott Vacation Club allows members to bank points that would have otherwise expired. The chart below shows the rules depending on status, but these deadlines haven’t been extended to my knowledge. This is something that needs to be addressed and points extended.
Helpful numbers to call
- Rental reservations 1-800-936-6824
- Preview Package 800-782-5410
- Encore Package 888-357-9227
Recap
I think this is a step in the right direction, but there should be an extension to cancellations within 60 days through the next calendar year, not just 120 days. Many people’s travel plans have been utterly destroyed and simply don’t have the luxury to only plan within 120 days. Additionally, I would like to see something done on the extension of banked Vacation Club Points seeing as though several months of booking eligibility have been simply wiped. For instance, if you had used banked points to travel in May and those points expire either in July or December…you may not have any way of actually utilizing your cancelled reservation. If they were to be extended by a year or even 6 months, I think you’ll give members the ability to use points they’ve paid for and banked.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 60k points after $4k spend in 3 months
- Worth $750 in Chase Travel℠ and way more if you maximize transfer partners
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2024
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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