Originally Posted by
McFlyPHL
For a current example see the London thread during Olympic time with all the shenanigans - cancelled stays, denied rememptions. It shouldn't be that way.
Just to update on my situation for the Olympics. SPG did have numerous system problems when I tried to book the Olympics. The following are a couple of the issues:
1. SPG normally allows paid bookings before award bookings. This is due, I believe, to the possibility of category changes. For the most part this is not normally an issue because people do not book 15 plus months ahead.
2. SPG has, I believe, 2 different reservation systems. In my case, one system said there was availability when, in fact, there were not. Not a good thing for SPG IT.
3. Specifically Park Lane, the hotel that was showing availability, was changing categories so this cause some confusion in the system. Specifically, SPG reservations could not book an "upgrade" room because of the cat change. This, however, is not a real issue because upgraded award room reservations are not really a "baseline" benefit (until 5 days before arrival).
That being said, I was finally able to talk to the proper people at Starwood and they were able to work around the system problems and get me the reservation that I was looking for. I give great kudos to the Starwood people who made it happen.
Hope this helps to clear things up for people.