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advice on requesting Atlantis

W

wendywin

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I need to call Starwood and request dates for Atlantis for May-June of 2008.
I will be using my Westin-Kierland options. One glitch already is that American Airlines non-stop flights from Ohare/Chicago to Atlantis are already full on the weekends, Hmmmmmm.

Any advice on either of these issues????

Thanks in advance!

Wendy
 
I think May would be a much easier time to book vs. June. Atlantis is in the top 3 of hard to trade into properties, with the summer months undoubtedly being the hardest because kids get out of school in June and you'll be competing with family vacationers. You're running out of time to get a trade in at the 8 month window, so I'd call today and try to book something for May. It would be very nice if you'd report back here as to what kind of success you were met with.

I'd call AA and ask them about the weekend flights. It seems odd to me that all their flights would be sold out already, but perhaps some consolidator bought them up. At the very least I'd ask if there was any possibility that they'd release these seats in the near future.
 
wendywin said:
One glitch already is that American Airlines non-stop flights from Ohare/Chicago to Atlantis are already full on the weekends, Hmmmmmm.
Click to expand...
It's more than just weekends. It appears that, although the one-flight-per-day is on AA's schedule, they haven't released any seats for sale yet. It's possible that means AA is considering canceling that daily service.
 
Im sorry my comments about AA being full out of ohare was a little misleading
(it was 1:00 a.m. when I posted - please forgive me) What i was referring to was the AA AWARD flights, purchased with Award miles. Those weekend flights are booked thru, I don't know when.........., I stopped looking after mid June.

Dave M (moderator), AA had quoted me prices for nonstop flights from Chicago-Ohare to Nassau between $350 and $400.00. They must have those flights for sale then?????? right??? (hopefully my AWARD Miles will convert from Starpoints (starwood CCard) and I won't need to find all that out first hand).

And YES Lisa R, I will be more than happy to share how things work out with my May request--When I finally get all the details done and hopefully have good news to report. Thanks for your thoughts. We are lucky---our kids get out of school before Memorial Day weekend---However that weekend is the week there are not many flights avail. (from Ohare, anyway)
We are working on other options, will let you know.

Thanks again, to both of you:)
Wendy
 
my husband had to make the phone call to starwood on monday to request (at 8 months) to trade into harborside. he has never done this and has no idea how. so i wrote him out a script and i even prepped the elite services on friday so they would know exactly what i wanted. and low and behold i got it. we are having my mom's 85 th birthday down there and i got the 3 br l/o and the 2 br l/o for the event. so 18 of us will be able to celebrate together. yeah:cheer:
 
pointsjunkie said:
my husband had to make the phone call to starwood on monday to request (at 8 months) to trade into harborside. he has never done this and has no idea how. so i wrote him out a script and i even prepped the elite services on friday so they would know exactly what i wanted. and low and behold i got it. we are having my mom's 85 th birthday down there and i got the 3 br l/o and the 2 br l/o for the event. so 18 of us will be able to celebrate together. yeah:cheer:
Click to expand...

WOW, very nice! What an excellent place to celebrate your mom's 85th birthday. Congratulations on your successful exchanges!!
 
pointsjunkie said:
my husband had to make the phone call to starwood on monday to request (at 8 months) to trade into harborside. he has never done this and has no idea how. so i wrote him out a script and i even prepped the elite services on friday so they would know exactly what i wanted. and low and behold i got it. we are having my mom's 85 th birthday down there and i got the 3 br l/o and the 2 br l/o for the event. so 18 of us will be able to celebrate together. yeah:cheer:
Click to expand...
Wonderful! What a great resie you have made! :clap:
Enjoy your trip...
 
Yahoooooo!!!!
Just wanted you all to know, i was able to use our 81,000 side of our kierland arizona to book 11 nights:banana: at Atlantis May 31st thru June 11th. It was a breeze!!!:whoopie: We actually booked the weekend before but had to cancel (using the 24 hour window) because I couldn't get Award miles Non stop from Chicago to Nassau. Now have flights on hold during the week (nonstops!!) til my deluxe side Kierland Options to points transfere to Amer. airlines.

Thrilled for pooints junkie as well!!!!:cheer: I really thought this would be much more difficult, why do you think things are open there.......did a new Phase in the t/s open??? Is everyone trying to get the new stuff, Cancun, etc.???

Our one glitch is that we have to fly in on wed may 28th. we will need to find a place to stay for the 3 nights before we can check into Harborside
I know there is the Comfort Inn and of course the Atlantis Hotel, Reef, etc.
Were not concerned about having access to Atlantis those days, what about the PARADISE ISLAND HARBOR RESORT/ALL INCLUSIVE!!!!!! Did you catch that ALLL INCLUSIVE!! Has anyone stayed there??. Would it be ok for the 3 nights. Since everyone mentions the expense of food. That would give us a few days to make it the market and check things out, right? Its only $220 Per night.... on Expedia, for 4 people (from what i can tell) Is it a dump? We just need something comperable to the Comfort Inn, a cheap clean, reasonable place.

Any advice?????
Thanks in advance!!!

Wendy
 
we will be there from 5/24 -5/31. i have stayed at the comfort suites before TSing. it was fine and you get to use the atlantis.
 
Pointsjunkie,
How funny, we will be checking into Harborside on the 31st. Thanks for the thoughts on Comfort suites.

Wendy
 
wendywin said:
Yahoooooo!!!!


Thrilled for pooints junkie as well!!!!:cheer: I really thought this would be much more difficult, why do you think things are open there.......did a new Phase in the t/s open??? Is everyone trying to get the new stuff, Cancun, etc.???

Wendy
Click to expand...

They did build new units, that have floating weeks. I think there is more availability when the weeks float because an owner doesn't have to give up their specific week for a week to be available. If the floating weeks have not been completely reserved at the 8 month mark, then the units are up for grabs for other Starwood Owners. It's the float week system that creates availability for others. I'm really pleased that they have float weeks now at Harborside.
 
chemteach said:
They did build new units, that have floating weeks. I think there is more availability when the weeks float because an owner doesn't have to give up their specific week for a week to be available. If the floating weeks have not been completely reserved at the 8 month mark, then the units are up for grabs for other Starwood Owners. It's the float week system that creates availability for others. I'm really pleased that they have float weeks now at Harborside.
Click to expand...

I agree that the float week system creates additional availability, but these September and October weeks hadn't yet made it to the 8-month mark. Starwood's historical records must indicate lack of SVN requests for that period. I was a new owner this year and the previous owner failed to "hold" the late May gold week I bought, but I had no trouble booking a silver week at less than the 8-month mark.

Also, I'd like to think that some of the recently deposited weeks were unsold inventory and coded as "developer gifts/rentals to II." Otherwise, why did some end up in Getaways???? Surely, II wouldn't try to get away with calling them excess inventory (a page from RCI's book!). I've never forgotten the RCI scandal from a few years ago when an Embassy Maui owner was able to confirm that a bunch of prime weeks in RCI's rental pool were in fact member deposits. You couldn't pay me to do business with RCI after that. I have no problem with the concept of exchange companies renting weeks that are truly "historically unused." But, if I found II renting member deposit weeks at a highly demanded resort like Harborside -- even if during hurricane season -- I'd drop that membership too and never look back.
 
JerseyGirl, I'm trying to understand your position here. So the RCI scandal was that they RENTED owner deposited weeks at high demand locations vs. offering them for exchange??
 
LisaRex said:
JerseyGirl, I'm trying to understand your position here. So the RCI scandal was that they RENTED owner deposited weeks at high demand locations vs. offering them for exchange??
Click to expand...

Yes, Jerseygirl is right about that. Timeshare owners could not get an exchange request filled, but could rent the desired week from an RCI affiliate. In many cases the rent was less than the amount of the HOA dues paid by the owner who deposited it. RCI didn't care, because the rent was more than they would have received from an exchange fee.

The uproar was so intense it was one of the issues which prompted Cendant to divest itself of RCI. Cendant had its hands full dealing with other serious legal matters. In fact its former chairman was sentenced to 11 years in prison for irregularities several months before.

Thus far there is not even a hint that I.I. has engaged in such practices.

RE: Harborside, a Tugger just reported a successful I.I. trade of a 1 bedroom Mountain Vista into a 2 bedroom Harborside.
 
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