Officially an owner!

[Joshadelic]

I just wanted to thank everyone for their time and valuable advice over the last few months. We ended up with 2 weeks and a total of 162,800 Staroptions and 105,000 bonus Starpoints. Here's the short version of how we did it...

Bought PGA 2br LO plat (81,000 SO's) for $650 resale.
Bought SDO sm 1br TRUE plat (67,100 SO's) for $700 resale.
Bought SVV Bella phase 2br LO plat (95,700 SO's) directly from Starwood for $29,900.
The PGA week was upgraded and gave us $19,900 towards the SVV purchase.
The SDO week was requalified into SVN at the same time.
We also had an Explorer Package that gave us $1000 credit towards the $10,000 net developer purchase...leaving us only $9,000 left to pay.
Along the way, I had bought one too many resale weeks, so I got lucky and made a $2500 profit on the week when I re-sold it.

Our total out of pocket including what we paid for the resales, the Explorer Pkg and the developer purchase (and what we got back from selling the extra week) was about $9,500. We now have 3* too, which is a minimal bonus.

The only thing I'm bummed about is that this all took a really long time. I really wanted to have everything wrapped up by last November or December so I could use all of our SO's to book a week in August at Harborside exactly 8 months out. However, it just didn't work out that way. I'm a little confused about what to do with all of our time this year since we don't have much time left to book anything decent, but I'm sure we'll enjoy it.

Again, thanks everyone for your help!!!

~Josh

 

[LisaRex]

Most awesome, Josh. Enjoy your timeshares!

 

[SDKath]

YAAAY! You finally did it! Congratulations!!!

I was wondering what took so long. But it is all worth it in the end. You can try to convert to SPs this year perhaps and just use the points for free FF miles for your trips next year?

Katherine
(still processing paperwork for 5* so I know what you mean about looooong waits...)

 

[Joshadelic]

You can try to convert to SPs this year perhaps and just use the points for free FF miles for your trips next year?

What is the best way to do that? Do you convert to FF miles for a specific airline or do you use the SPG flights? SPG flights seems to be expensive.

Thanks to you especially Kath! You provided me with some good therapy over the last few months!

 

[tomandrobin]

Very nice!! Congratulations!!!

Have you called to see what is available in August?

I thought that someone had posted there was availability in August. What about Lagunamar?

 

[dakotafamily]

Can someone tell me what an Explorer Package is and does SVO give out bonus StarPoints with most every upgrade/resale purchase? We are in the process of doing this also and we have asked but our salesperson won't give us anything for bonus.

 

[Kildahl]

wow!
Retro'ed both PGA and SDO? Kildahl

 

[grgs]

wow!
Retro'ed both PGA and SDO? Kildahl

The SDO unit was retro'ed; the PGA unit was traded in for the SVV Bella unit.

Great job!

Glorian

 

[DeniseM]

What is the best way to do that? Do you convert to FF miles for a specific airline or do you use the SPG flights? SPG flights seems to be expensive.

It's usually a better deal to convert Starpoints to award miles. With most airlines it's 1:1. Note that you get 25K miles for every 20K Starpoints so you want to transfer your points in increments of 20K Starpoints. More info. at SPG.

 

[tlpnet]

The only thing I'm bummed about is that this all took a really long time. I really wanted to have everything wrapped up by last November or December so I could use all of our SO's to book a week in August at Harborside exactly 8 months out. However, it just didn't work out that way. I'm a little confused about what to do with all of our time this year since we don't have much time left to book anything decent, but I'm sure we'll enjoy it.

Again, thanks everyone for your help!!!

~Josh

Congrats Josh!

Don't give up. I traded into HRA 3-4 months in advance last year, and there was a good bit of availability. I would think with the economy as it is, that you should be able to do the same. Have you called to check availability?

-tim

 

[Ken555]

Congrats!

So, what are your annual MFs for those weeks?

 

[Joshadelic]

I did call to check availability yesterday and I was told that they do have some weeks in September available at HRA, but we only have a small window for a summer vacation this year because my wife is in grad school during the summer. We have to go between August 15-22 (give or take a day or two). This won't always be the case since she's finishing school next year.

The MF's for SVV are around $1300 and for SDO around $575.

Maybe we will convert those SP's to FF miles. It seems like a good deal when they give you the extra 5k FF miles. That would be plenty to get our family of 4 to Hawaii!

 

[longboarder39]

Found the answer to my own question....heehe

 

[pointsjunkie]

What is the best way to do that? Do you convert to FF miles for a specific airline or do you use the SPG flights? SPG flights seems to be expensive.

Thanks to you especially Kath! You provided me with some good therapy over the last few months!

congratulations, that is great.
if you decide to convert your units to starpoints it must be done by 3/1/09.
you can keep the starpoints in your account until you decide what airline you want to use for a future flight.once they are transferred to an airline account they cannot be changed back to starpoints.

you can also put them in II so you have more time to use them.

 

[longboarder39]

Congrats that is awesome! I’m considering a similar path and I have an explorer package as well. However, in my contract it states that I must purchase unit in California (where I went to my presentation) and also that the Explorer Package may NOT be applied to any upgrade of an existing interest, only a new purchase.

Do you know if that was in your contract as well and they just worked around it? And/or does anyone know if they are sticklers on these conditions or if there’s a possibility I can find a salesperson to work with me?

In general, I was leaning toward purchasing a unit to trade and not even joining the SVN. However, if I have this $1,695 that can be used toward an upgrade and do a retro at the same time…I feel like I might be throwing away a good opportunity to get into the SVN with a lot of options for a great value. We really don’t need that much usage right now, but hopefully we could rent out some of our weeks for a few years in order to recoup MF’s expenses.

Many thanks!!

I can’t wait to put my research and all of your help to work and make my first purchase…

All the best,
Scott

 

[lily28]

I though PGA's sister resort is vistana resort. Is vistana village a sister resort too so a ts at PGA can be upgraded to either vistana resort or village?

 

[Joshadelic]

I though PGA's sister resort is vistana resort. Is vistana village a sister resort too so a ts at PGA can be upgraded to either vistana resort or village?

Starwood allows upgrades between all of the Florida resorts...for now.

 

[Joshadelic]

I can’t wait to put my research and all of your help to work and make my first purchase…Scott

Scott...I sent you a PM.

 

[Joshadelic]

Do you know if that was in your contract as well and they just worked around it? And/or does anyone know if they are sticklers on these conditions or if there’s a possibility I can find a salesperson to work with me?

I'm not sure exactly what it said...I don't have it in front of me. I do know that it said I could only use it in Florida, but at one point I was considering purchasing at WLR in Cancun and they told me I could use it for that.

 

[Joshadelic]

congratulations, that is great.
if you decide to convert your units to starpoints it must be done by 3/1/09.
you can keep the starpoints in your account until you decide what airline you want to use for a future flight.once they are transferred to an airline account they cannot be changed back to starpoints.

you can also put them in II so you have more time to use them.

What airlines do you usually use? I've been on their various sites getting a feel for how many miles they charge for a couple of trips I have in mind and they seem to be charging a crap-load of miles. Is it normal to have to pay 50k FF miles to get from Boston to SFO? Or 97,500 miles for Hawaii? Are the airlines that only give the 2:1 conversion a better deal?

 

[longboarder39]

Thanks for the help Josh!

 

[pointsjunkie]

What airlines do you usually use? I've been on their various sites getting a feel for how many miles they charge for a couple of trips I have in mind and they seem to be charging a crap-load of miles. Is it normal to have to pay 50k FF miles to get from Boston to SFO? Or 97,500 miles for Hawaii? Are the airlines that only give the 2:1 conversion a better deal?

i use, delta, american, jetblue, usair,southwest. basically anywhere i can use my FF miles. you cannot use starpoints to convert with jetblue or southwest.

i do not use united because they are 2:1 and that means 2 starpoints to 1 mile, not a good deal.

i very rarely convert starpoints to FF miles. i acquire them from using their mall sites and the dining out programs. and i play the credit card game but in todays world it might not be a good idea unless you always pay your credit cards in full.

the card of choice is starwood amex and my jetblue. use those now that delta took away their double on everyday purchases benefit.

i give classes on how to earn the most miles so people can fly for free.

 

[LisaRex]

The last time we went to Hawaii, I couldn't find Saver seats on Delta even at 331 days out. After about 6 weeks of waiting, I finally booked Choice coach seats (70,000 miles) because there were 4 of us flying and retail price for the seats was $1100! I kept checking after that and Saver seats were never released. I did find Saver First Class seats on the return trip for 75,000, or 5000 miles more per person, so I switched to that. It cost me a few hundred dollars in change fees and $700 more on the one seat I had to purchase outright, so it ultimately cost me $2300 to get the four of us there and back.

I have since switched my spending from Delta to United because when I checked United saver seats were available, and remained available for weeks after I booked my Delta itinerary. United reportedly owns 60% of the Hawaiian market so if you're looking for award seats, it's your best bet. You can also pay upgrade from coach to E+, which gives you an additional 5 inches of legroom for those of us schleps who can't routinely afford FC seats.

congratulations, that is great.
if you decide to convert your units to starpoints it must be done by 3/1/09.

Are you sure? I thought it was 3/31/09 but MSC is down so I can't verify.

 

[jarta]

Lisa, ... October 1 deadline for converting to Staroptions to Starpoints if you are 4 Star or 5 Star Elite. If you are 3 Star Elite, July 1 deadline. ... eom

 

[tomandrobin]

Lisa, ... October 1 deadline for converting to Staroptions to Starpoints if you are 4 Star or 5 Star Elite. If you are 3 Star Elite, July 1 deadline. ... eom

Beat me to it.