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Purchase 80K SPG points for $1550, plus 4K bonus

YYJMSP

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Just got an email ("as a new Owner at WLR", ha ha, we bought there back in 2009) offering 80K SPG points, plus a 4K SPG points bonus, for $1,550, offer valid to Mar 22nd as an extension to their previous offer (which I don't recall getting for this property).

1. SVO needs to get their systems sorted out, so that they aren't welcoming people as new owners 3 years after they bought

2. SVO needs to get their systems sorted out, so that they aren't extending offers that they never made

3. SVO needs to get their systems sorted out, for I'm sure other reasons...

What frightens me is that I think the system may be worse off than I ever thought. I got a reference to it as "an outdated DOS based system" the other day.
 

Ken555

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Perhaps this is a direct result of SPG believing you are a new 5* elite, due to their poor record keeping, as you stated in the other thread.
 

YYJMSP

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I just got multiple copies of a similar email (80K for $1550, no 4K bonus) for WDW, which we did actually buy last year. This one just says for a limited time, but no date.

At one time, we weren't able to get any emails from their system, unless a person actually forwarded them. Then we used to get 4 copies of every email they sent, up until last summer. I hope that whatever they did to fix my status didn't unfix that bug in the process. :confused:

At this rate, I'm now anxiously waiting for the next message welcoming me to WKORV, where we bought 7 years ago...


I should volunteer to get my gang of merry software elves to write them a new system.

Time for more coffee.
 

Sea Six

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I just got the same e-mail. I also got the same offer last December. I may have to take them up on this again! Use the AMEX card and get even more points!

And Starwood, if you're in here, I have a concern about STAY credits. I stay at the Westin Kaanapali ONE night and get ONE STAY credit. I stay at the WKORV-N for two full weeks, and only get one stay credit. I wish I would get a stay credit for each full week I stay at a resort. That is all!!
 

YYJMSP

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And Starwood, if you're in here, I have a concern about STAY credits. I stay at the Westin Kaanapali ONE night and get ONE STAY credit. I stay at the WKORV-N for two full weeks, and only get one stay credit. I wish I would get a stay credit for each full week I stay at a resort. That is all!!

Back-to-back reservations at the same property count as a single stay.

If you want it to count for more, you either have to leave at least one day between check-out and check-in, or you have to stay at multiple properties (i.e. first week at WKORVN and second seek at WKORV).

I assume that this was a SPG points or cash stay (or cash+points)? Otherwise, you shouldn't have earned any stay credit if they were through your ownership...
 

Sea Six

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StarOptions.
 

jarta

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Sea Six, ... The number of extended options you qualify for depends on the options granted when you bought your developer week. It may be 4 or 6 and not just 1. Ask when/if you call. I was pretty surprised when I called to exercise 1 option and was allowed to exercise 6 for 480K+ Starpoints.

Also, IIIRR, StarOption reservations at SPG member timeshare resorts now count as SPG stays under the recent SPG changes related to earning SPG Gold or SPG Platinum For Life or SPG Suite Award nights.

As I posted on the other thread, I still believe YYJMSP's problem is that he has 2 separately numbered SPG accounts and not enough stays under the earlier hotel stay account (created before any timeshares had even been purchased) to qualify for SPG Platinum this year. Under the SPG number linked to his multiple SVO ownerships, YYJMSP became 5 Star Elite last year and SPG Platinum automatically comes with 5 Star Elite. YYJMSP, have you checked by calling the Starwood Elite Phone number to see if you are recorded as 5 Star Elite and, if so, whether you might have 2 SPG accounts that have not been combined or linked? ... eom
 
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ketamine

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'Got the same offer 80K starPOINTS for $1550.

My question is "is that a good value?"
We do use starpoints, in fact just used some this past week-end.

Any opinions for a point user.
Thanks,
 
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bizaro86

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'Got the same offer 80K starPOINTS for $1550.

My question is "is that a good price?"
We do use starpoints, in fact ust used some this past week-end.

Any opinions for a point user.
Thanks,

YMMV, but that's a pretty good price for starpoints. If you have any use for them, it's probably a good deal. I've bought starpoints at 3.5 cents per point for specific reservations and come out ahead, so 1.9 cents per point (what that works out to) could be a great deal. I also tend to use them for high value stays (IE Thailand beach over Christmas, Venice at Easter).

If you're going to convert them to 100k airline miles, that may not be great value.

I would look at your upcoming vacation plans, and see if starpoints work for any of them at a good price. I'd also look at your "dream" vacation list, and see if a good deal on a bunch of starpoints could allow you to take a trip you might not be able to manage otherwise.
 

jarta

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bizaro, ... "If you're going to convert them to 100k airline miles, that may not be great value."

Starwood grants a 20% bonus on the transfer of Starpoints to airline miles. So, 80K Starpoints nets 100K airline miles.

Normally, US Air is a 1:1 Starpoints to Dividend Miles conversion. Almost every year - for a limited time, US Air gives a 50% bonus on conversion from Starpoints. So, if you pick when to convert to US Air Dividend Miles, the 80K Starpoints can net 150K Dividend Miles.

The Star Alliance points chart shows a business class ticket to Europe as 100K Dividend Miles. (Same rate for South America.) So, your expenditure of $1,550 to buy 80K Starpoints can buy 1.5 business class tickets to Europe. That works out to $1,000 per round trip business class ticket to anywhere between London and Istanbul from anywhere in the mainland US.

IMO, $1,000 per round trip ticket is a great value to avoid a coach seat on a 6-10 hour flight. Not everyone is looking to fly business class to Europe. But for those that are looking for those types of tickets, I think the value is there. It's sort of like using SDO in II to trade into Maui or WSJ or Harborside. lol! ... eom
 

YYJMSP

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As I posted on the other thread, I still believe YYJMSP's problem is that he has 2 separately numbered SPG accounts and not enough stays under the earlier hotel stay account (created before any timeshares had even been purchased) to qualify for SPG Platinum this year. Under the SPG number linked to his multiple SVO ownerships, YYJMSP became 5 Star Elite last year and SPG Platinum automatically comes with 5 Star Elite. YYJMSP, have you checked by calling the Starwood Elite Phone number to see if you are recorded as 5 Star Elite and, if so, whether you might have 2 SPG accounts that have not been combined or linked? ... eom

jarta, you're partially correct, but I don't think it was the right answer.

We scanned through by name earlier today, and yes, there are two SPG accounts under my name.

The first is the active one, created back in 2000, showing SPG Platinum, SVO Five Star Elite, and it is linked to the SVO units.

The second was created by AMEX 2 days ago. It has no activity on it, doesn't show any status at all (SPG Preferred), and is not linked to SVO. I don't see how it could have generated the downgrade to SPG Gold, as it is not at that level. This is likely AMEX not paying attention to the SPG number I gave them on my new account with them, and going ahead and creating a new SPG number.

So, there is no second account inadvertently created by SVO along the way, which would have potentially explained what happened, short of SVO screw-ups not coding things correctly and/or some IT issues at SPG...

We scanned through by address, and there is an account in my wife's name created back quite a few years by me under the SPG Small Business program, but it has no activity on it, nor is it linked to the SVO units. It has no status (SPG Preferred), and it is not linked to SVO.

SVO shows me as Five Star Elite. The SPG account that they have is the correct one. SPG shows me as SPG Platinum on that account, and they see the SVOM attribute indicating Five Star Elite.

I can't comment on what it looked like almost 3 weeks ago when this fun started, nor yesterday when they "fixed" it a second time.

All I know on that front is that the last email from SPG said I'm Platinum to Feb 28, 2014. We'll see what happens after that. Until then, anything else that happens is obviously someone else's fault. :)
 

YYJMSP

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The Star Alliance points chart shows a business class ticket to Europe as 100K Dividend Miles. (Same rate for South America.)

Some member airlines, such as Air Canada, might have different redemption rates.

For example:

A Star Alliance redemption from an Aeroplan account for a Business ticket to Europe is either 95K (western Europe) or 105K (eastern Europe).

A Star Alliance redemption from an Aeroplan account for a Business ticket to South America is either 75K (northern South America) or 95K (southern South America).

If you can get a seat on Air Canada planes, their ClassicFlight redemption rates for Business tickets can be even less (85K vs 95K and 100K vs 105K for Europe).
 

Sea Six

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Also, IIIRR, StarOption reservations at SPG member timeshare resorts now count as SPG stays under the recent SPG changes related to earning SPG Gold or SPG Platinum For Life or SPG Suite Award nights.

Yes, they do. I guess not everyone got that e-mail. I just wish I got stay credit for each full week I book. Only seems fair to me. I think I will at least call, as you said.
 

spencersmama

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I just wish I got stay credit for each full week I book.

They also only give you one stay credit per room. Last year we had two or three instances where we booked 3 rooms for multiple nights and it counted as one stay credit. The nights of only the first room were credited on the nightly stay count. The most annoying part is that we missed making platinum by two or three nights last year, but were too busy in December to take an extra weekend trip away to add the stays. I guess we'll have a better chance this year with award nights counting throughout the whole year. I'd love to be platinum when we go to Europe next summer, 2013.
 

YYJMSP

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They also only give you one stay credit per room. Last year we had two or three instances where we booked 3 rooms for multiple nights and it counted as one stay credit. The nights of only the first room were credited on the nightly stay count.

I'm missing something here.

Are you saying that Starwood is giving SPG stay AND night credits for SVO bookings (home resort or via SO's)?

I was under the impression you only got SPG credits on an "eligible rate" -- you used SPG points to book the property or paid cash or used cash+SPG points, all directly through Starwood (i.e. through the hotel side of things), not through your ownership (i.e. through the timeshare side of things).
 

LisaRex

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They also only give you one stay credit per room. Last year we had two or three instances where we booked 3 rooms for multiple nights and it counted as one stay credit. The nights of only the first room were credited on the nightly stay count. The most annoying part is that we missed making platinum by two or three nights last year, but were too busy in December to take an extra weekend trip away to add the stays.

I believe it's S.O.P. to only count the first night on a multi-night stay. Some people on Flyertalk report that they check out of one hotel and into a sister hotel every night of their multi-night stay, in order to have each night count towards platinum status.
 

Fletcher921

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What frightens me is that I think the system may be worse off than I ever thought. I got a reference to it as "an outdated DOS based system" the other day.

We are talking about the Mexico property, yes? Communication with Mexico is usually a bit behind the times :zzz:
 

Sea Six

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I'm missing something here.

Are you saying that Starwood is giving SPG stay AND night credits for SVO bookings (home resort or via SO's)?

That's EXACTLY what we're saying. That change was made last year. I keep saying I only wish we got a stay credit for each full week SVO we book. If you book two full weeks together, you only get 1 stay credit. I still don't get how they calculate nights, though. For example, I stayed one full week at WSJ, two weeks at WKORV, and one night at the Westin Maui hotel. I ended up with 3 stay credits and 6 night credits.
 

YYJMSP

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That's EXACTLY what we're saying. That change was made last year. I keep saying I only wish we got a stay credit for each full week SVO we book. If you book two full weeks together, you only get 1 stay credit. I still don't get how they calculate nights, though. For example, I stayed one full week at WSJ, two weeks at WKORV, and one night at the Westin Maui hotel. I ended up with 3 stay credits and 6 night credits.

Hmm, I checked with SPG, and they said that they DON'T count -- "it is an external marketing program" and "it will count only if you are using Starpoint or pay a rate to stay"

That seems consisent with the SPG T&C about nights/stays only counting when paid at eligible rates. It only counts if you booked using some combination of SPG points and/or cash and booked through Starwood directly (i.e. the hotel side of things).
 

YYJMSP

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I believe it's S.O.P. to only count the first night on a multi-night stay. Some people on Flyertalk report that they check out of one hotel and into a sister hotel every night of their multi-night stay, in order to have each night count towards platinum status.

That sounds like hotel stays, not timeshare stays...
 

jarta

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YYJMSP, ... "Hmm, I checked with SPG, and they said that they DON'T count -- "it is an external marketing program" and "it will count only if you are using Starpoint or pay a rate to stay""

So far this year I've stayed at the Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica in February on Starpoints and cash and at Lagunamar in January using StarOptions and at WMH in February using StarOptions. My SPG Platinum account shows 3 stays this year so far. (Currently at WKORV for my 4th.)

As recorded on SPG:

"JXXXX RXXXXX Platinum Preferred Guest
(My Account|My Benefits) Starwood Vacation Network Elite • Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card Member Member #:7XXXXXXX4
Starpoints®: 1392280
3 stays ytd / 6 nights ytd"

I don't know who you talk to at SPG and SVN but they consistently seem to give you bad information. ... eom
 

Sea Six

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3 stays ytd / 6 nights ytd"

So, how did we both end up with 6 nights?? Mathematically, it looks like we're getting 2 nights per stay, even though one of my stays was only one night. Good grief.
 
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Henry M.

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You get 2 stays and 5 night credit every year just for having the Starwood AmEx. That is in addition to whatever actual stays/nights you have.

However, there is some other confusion in the system. I stayed 1 night on points at the Sheraton LAX and 14 nights on StarOptions at WKORV and now have 5 stays and 11 nights credit.

I should have only gotten 1 stay for the WKORV stay because I was not gone from the property for more than 24 hours between the two weeks (I changed rooms between one week and the next, so checked out and back in one day). I should only have the AmEx night credits because the StarOption and StarPoint stays should only increase my stay count and not my night count. Even if they did somehow count as nights, then there would be more than 6 nights.

So far I'm ahead and it really doesn't matter to me because I'm lifetime Platinum anyhow. There is something strange going on though.
 

YYJMSP

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So, how did we both end up with 6 nights?? Mathematically, it looks like we're getting 2 nights per stay, even though one of my stays was only one night. Good grief.

Do either of you get the annual "bonus" of a couple of nights/stays associated with the US-based SPG AMEX?
 
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