I got final word from Starwood that they will NOT honor my 5* for the original points (559,000 SOs) even though I had a contract in process. They are saying that it is actually because of some "rule" that apparently my salesrep didn't know anything about and failed to obviously tell me about. It says that you can't get phantom SOs while upgrading a unit and retroing a unit. So I come up 30,000 SOs too short for 5* even under the old rules.
And because only Starwood knows about these little "rules" since they are written nowhere and communicated to no one (not even my sales rep), I have no recourse. As a matter of fact, I would not even know if they just made up that rule about 10 minutes ago -- there is no way to check. Even with proof that their website didn't update the 5* requirements until a week after their supposed rule change, they say no.
I have completely lost faith in Starwood and the way they treat us owners (as obvious by my posts these past few weeks). But I still like the idea of 5* and upgrading to suites and having the flexibiity to travel both via the TSs and the hotel system. As a matter of fact, for my family's lifestyle, the SPs work well (since we get more 3-4 days off than full weeks). So if I can put all of my bitterness aside, the trips have been and will be great.
The question is: should I throw in the towel and walk away or should I spend another $20,000 to get me to 5*? I am officially only 3* right now with 2 Fountains units and a platinum SDO in the SVN system. I have lots of resales that I could hang on to and use II, etc. but they would not give me 5* benefits or hotel points.
I'd appreciate any thoughts! I am very torn...
Katherine
And because only Starwood knows about these little "rules" since they are written nowhere and communicated to no one (not even my sales rep), I have no recourse. As a matter of fact, I would not even know if they just made up that rule about 10 minutes ago -- there is no way to check. Even with proof that their website didn't update the 5* requirements until a week after their supposed rule change, they say no.
I have completely lost faith in Starwood and the way they treat us owners (as obvious by my posts these past few weeks). But I still like the idea of 5* and upgrading to suites and having the flexibiity to travel both via the TSs and the hotel system. As a matter of fact, for my family's lifestyle, the SPs work well (since we get more 3-4 days off than full weeks). So if I can put all of my bitterness aside, the trips have been and will be great.
The question is: should I throw in the towel and walk away or should I spend another $20,000 to get me to 5*? I am officially only 3* right now with 2 Fountains units and a platinum SDO in the SVN system. I have lots of resales that I could hang on to and use II, etc. but they would not give me 5* benefits or hotel points.
I'd appreciate any thoughts! I am very torn...
Katherine
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