I have wondered though about chasing my tail here on this. Rather then that, I think we should honestly, and without bias or stating any untruths, let people know what has happened here. I have no doubt that language in their program allow them to do this. However, I have told them clearly that I feel that what they have done lacks integrity. Regardless of your personal outcome, I feel strongly in not supporting them should they not reverse it, which is what I have urged them to do.
I have also spoken to a couple of senior resale agents in the community. What they just told me suprised me ... a lot. Their perspective is that SVO has a very bad reputation in the industry, just for this very reason. They are known as a company who is mismanaged at the top end, and don't care about their existing clients. As pointed out on this thread, they make changes to the program continuously, and don't really care about what you think. Contrast that to Hilton, who have a terrific reputation in their VO. They have cleaned up the mess on the resale market, established a RFR for all their units, so you don't see things like Vistana on the market selling for $100. They seem to be a well managed company. I personally own 2 weeks, but had not considered persuing Diamond status lifetime there because of my history with Starwood. It boggles my mind how I have been treated personally here. The best I can do is to communicate my dissatisfaction to senior SVO people, and the hotel people. I am not without relationships on the hotel side, and beyond saying SVO has done me wrong, and keeping this info current here, as indicated, they really don't care.
I am both Starwood 5* and Hilton Premier Elite which comes with Diamond HH for life. Before I purchased, Starwood was sort of on top of our list because we stay in their hotels at many specific locations. However at some other places we prefer Hilton/Conrad/Waldorf hotels (we bought into the hotel programs because of the hotels mainly - we always paid for the rooms prior to timeshares so to us this is a great deal.)
We still like the idea that we own "something" rather than just throwing money down the drain. I still enjoy PFL (we had been Platinum and Diamond for years before we purchased) and we do still enjoy Starwood properties but without a doubt, Hilton is now on top of our list. We never expected that to happen!
Never had any problems with their system - but you have to know how to work it. And although they have less timeshare resorts, the easyness and flexibility of the system is really great as well as their customer service. At least the Elite service knows what to do and they are very knowledgable and flexible - at least that has been my experience. Now - since I bought for hotel points mainly to use at hotels my view may be VERY different than that of most others here. But I do think that Hilton is a somewhat underestimated program.
I have been working for a week now to get 2 of my 08 Lagunamar weeks converted to SPG points. We were supposed to visit but plans changed. Points from 1 week are in my account now, but the points from the 2nd week are ....? Nobody knows where they went. Nobody seems to know what to do.
With Hilton, I simply do this conversion online and the HH points appear in the right account right away.
This year, I have had to speak to Platinum Concierge for quite some time to get a few nights on points - according to them, the hotel I wanted had blackout dates. There was a festivity going on in that city but the Starwood property did still show inventory online. Just could not do it on points and since the best available rate was 600 Euro, I did take the time to argue and in the end I got it - but I was told it was an exception and it did take a whole morning to complete the reservation. For another stay when the same problem occured I decided I didn't want to spend all that time so I called HHonors - the Hilton hotel in that city was actually sold out but as a Diamond I could still reserve 2 rooms, on points. No problem at all and took less than a minute. Now THAT's a true "without blackout dates" in my book.
I won't even start about the depositing of my resale event week and the number of SPG points which was deducted from my account for a hotel stay in 2 suites-which I never requested - I simply wanted 2 rooms on cash and points. 2 Suites of 24K points, for a stay of 14 nights. Points are still not back in my account and the rooms I did request for c/p are not available anymore. Booked them for cash now with owners discount. What should have been a simple online reservation in the first place (could not do it online but could see the c/p availability so I called), turned out to be an ongoing process of over a week.
Lately I have found myself talking to both SVO/SPG for hours per week, sometimes 2 hours per day - to get things the way I wanted, or I should say to get things the way they should be (at least I should be entitled to receive the SPG points for my Lagunamar week.) And although all people I spoke to are very nice and they are all really trying to be very helpful, they don't know what to do as soon as it gets a little more complicated (I cannot even blame them as there are so many rules and inconsistencies) and I feel I need another 24 hours a day when handling Starwood.
That's really not for me.
So, although I do not regret the Starwood purchases, I doubt I would feel the need to get more points with them. I recently purchased another resale week and planned to have it requalified with a Riverfront week, but now I seriously doubt we will do the requalification.
If I would have been close to 5* now, I most certainly would have sent a letter to Mr. Matthew E. Avril, president of Starwood Vacation Ownership to let him know that this lack of communication indeed doesn't show any integrity at all. (Re-new qualifications to become 5*.) However, I would not expect anything to happen at all, but I would have sent that letter to get it off my chest anyway.
I would still probably plunk down the money to actually get it, but only because I use the hotels MUCH more than the timeshare resorts and I do still appreciate the platinum benefits. And only if I would be very close to the 5*. If I was 3* now or not so close to 5*, I don't think I would purchase more points but I would purchase resale weeks I could use and maybe even simply purchase resale weeks which I could rent out easily - to still be able to stay in the hotels and achieve Platinum status.
We feel we simply "prepaid" hotel stays, which gives us the idea that we are not just throwing away money for these stays for which we would otherwise pay in cash. And that's why we bought in the first place - so we're still happy. And, we also only purchased weeks we would actually use if everything else would fall apart, which gives us a good feeling too.
If it is only that platinum card you want - there are cheaper ways to get it, if you stay in the hotels. (But of course the same is true for Diamond HH.)
If we were to buy more points, Hilton now would be our first choice.
(As far as I know, you can still purchase HGVC Flamingo without rofr - you would have to look at the HGVC board for the information.)
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). I really don't think a lot of this is in her control though. 
