SPG Points for Incidental Spending

[dioxide45]

We just completed a stay at Lagunamar for 13 nights. While we didn't spend a lot at the resort, we did have $6827 Peso spending at different food and beverage outlets on property (Duna, Viento, Oceano) and $30 Peso spending at the Tierra Marketplace.

It looks like the SPG points have posted and we only received 296 base points. That means they are only crediting us with $148 for what they categorize on the SPG site as "Food & Beverage" in My StarPoints Activity.

Looking back at the charges on our folio, it looks like they are only counting spending at Oceano in as qualified spending for SPG points. That doesn't seem right. Everything we spent at Viento and Duna was also food and beverage. All of it pool side.

Has anyone ever tried and had success in challenging what they categorize as eligible spending for SPG points?

 

[VacationForever]

Did you charge directly to the room? If so, the charges / SPG points should be credited correctly, including bonus.

 

[dioxide45]

We did charge everything to the room. I do see the bonus 50% points for being gold also, but it is all based on the $148 Food & Beverage spend.

 

[VacationForever]

I wonder if Viento and Duna are 3rd party vendors. Recently at Marriott's Ko Olina, they were pretty clear that any spending at Longhi's did not count, but then we had to use our CC directly at Longhi's instead of billing to the room.

 

[canesfan]

Now that you bring it up, I went back to my statements. We hardly got any points at WKORN when we should've gotten more. And they put in points for my WLR stay but then took them out.


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[cubigbird]

Whenever I've had drinks at Viento or Duna or food at Oceano and charged it to the room I've received 2X points. I'd call AMEX.

 

[Sea Six]

We got the full 50% bonus points for every dollar we charged to our room. To put it in perspective, we charged $684 and got 684 points for that plus 342 bonus points. I put the value of the bonus points at about $6.84. I estimate you were shorted around 150 starpoints, worth about $3

 

[Fredward]

We just completed a stay at Lagunamar for 13 nights. While we didn't spend a lot at the resort, we did have $6827 Peso spending at different food and beverage outlets on property (Duna, Viento, Oceano) and $30 Peso spending at the Tierra Marketplace.

It looks like the SPG points have posted and we only received 296 base points. That means they are only crediting us with $148 for what they categorize on the SPG site as "Food & Beverage" in My StarPoints Activity.

Looking back at the charges on our folio, it looks like they are only counting spending at Oceano in as qualified spending for SPG points. That doesn't seem right. Everything we spent at Viento and Duna was also food and beverage. All of it pool side.

Has anyone ever tried and had success in challenging what they categorize as eligible spending for SPG points?

 

[Fredward]

We checked out of Lagunamar on May 13th. I just checked our SPG AMEX account shows the charge as $305. We received 304 Starpoints (plus 152 bonus points)
We also had lots of charges at Duna and poolside, so it sounds like there might be an issue with your SPG account credits. I'm not sure if the Tierra Marketplace spending counts as food/bev. but we didn't spend more than a couple of dollars there.
I'm not following how you are coming up with the 296 base points accounting for $148 in spending though. If your bill was 6827 pesos, using our exchange rate, you would have received 365 base points (-Tierra spending). I'm not having one of my better days though so I'm probably missing something

 

[dioxide45]

This wasn't related to the points earned from Amex. We paid with our Marriott Rewards Chase credit card. The numbers I am referring to is the points as posted to my SPG account.

Per the SPG website, I think I should be earning 2 points per dollar plus an additional 1 point as the 50% bonus.

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/account/starpoints/get/index.html?language=en_US

Members at the Preferred Guest® level earn two Starpoints for every eligible U.S. dollar spent at over 1,300 participating hotels or resorts booked through Starwood Web sites, hotels, call centers and their travel agent or corporate booking tool. Gold Preferred Guest® and Platinum Preferred Guest® members earn three Starpoints for every eligible U.S. dollar spent under the same booking criteria. Even without a stay, all members may earn Starpoints for eligible spend on food and beverage at participating hotels or resorts.

I earned 296 points plus 148 bonus points.

Here is how our spending broke down;
Hospitality Tax: 894.66
Viento: $3385
Oceano: $2670
Duna: $746
Tierra: $30

The hospitality tax is calculated at a rate of 18.7. Though I don't know if SPG points are posted at the same rate. The 18.7 seems to be a calculation based of of the value of the week based on the MFs to determine how much each guest pays when staying at the property.

Since the 296 is 2 points per dollar, that would mean we had $148 in spend that somehow counted to the 296 base points.

The closest number that comes close to that is the $2670 from Oceano. If I base that on the 18.7, it comes out to about $143.

 

[Sea Six]

Dioxide - now that my AMEX statement is closed for May I have more details for you. Here is a summary of the StarPoints I got for my incidental spending at Lagunamar, as stated on the SPG website:

5/19 (I checked out on 5/18) - 684 starpoints "Lagunamar". I don't get it - I only charged $635.
5/19 SPG 50% bonus - 342 starpoints
5/25 (statement closes 5/24) - 635 starpoints "base spend consumer". I got 1 point for every $ charged to my entire bill
5/25 SPG Rewards - CSR spend - 635 starpoints - double points for the amount I spent at Lagunamar.

Total Starpoints for $635 charge - 2296. That's roughly 3 1/2 points for every dollar charged. Worth roughly $46.00.

 

[dioxide45]

Dioxide - now that my AMEX statement is closed for May I have more details for you. Here is a summary of the StarPoints I got for my incidental spending at Lagunamar, as stated on the SPG website:

5/19 (I checked out on 5/18) - 684 starpoints "Lagunamar". I don't get it - I only charged $635.
5/19 SPG 50% bonus - 342 starpoints
5/25 (statement closes 5/24) - 635 starpoints "base spend consumer". I got 1 point for every $ charged to my entire bill
5/25 SPG Rewards - CSR spend - 635 starpoints - double points for the amount I spent at Lagunamar.

Total Starpoints for $635 charge - 2296. That's roughly 3 1/2 points for every dollar charged. Worth roughly $46.00.

Thanks for the details.

I suspect that the exchange rate used by Amex vs that which is used to calculate the points is different. Amex is going to use the intraday trading rate which is usually the best rate you will get for foreign exchange.

However, if perhaps SPG is calculating your spend at $684, shouldn't you have received 1,368 base SPG points on the first item? 2 points per dollar. Then your gold 50% bonus should have been 684 points on the second item.

 

[dioxide45]

Just to follow up on this. I sent an email to SPG and they adjusted the posted points based on the total food and beverage spend. 2 base points per dollar and 1 bonus point for gold status. They didn't explain why there was a discrepancy.