Starwood Preferred Guest - Platinum Force Avail and use Award Night

I recently forced availability while staying at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco. I called 2 weeks in advance, but as usual the hotel was sold out. While forcing availability the agent told me that I was not allowed to use starwood points for an award night. After contacting the hotel a number of times directly, they allowed me to use the points (I stayed 100+ nights there in the last year). I couldn't find anything in starwood's Terms and Conditions that covered their supposed restriction.

Has anyone else had a similar problem?

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UA1K, SPG Platinum, Avis P-Select

Preferred Award nights (stays using your Starpoints) are based on availability of a standard room at a paid rate. In the case of Platinum forced availability, there are no rooms - standard or otherwise - available at any rate. The benefit in this case is to get our most frequent guests accomodations in a sold out situation. One of the conditions of this benefit is that avaiability may only be forced at Rack or Corporate rates.

If you have further questions, please don't hesitate to contact a Platinum Concierge at 1-888-625-4991. Thank you for your patronage, and we look forward to continuing to serve your hotel needs in the future.

Regards,

Terry Williams
Starwood Preferred Guest Member Services

Terry-

I, as everyone else here does, appreciate SPG's monitoring of this board. But are you sure you want to publish the platinum number?

i think the platinum # is already published on starwoods web site.

i understand that there are a lot of people here dont like to see the elite # published.

but i respectfully disagree. what will happen if elite phone # got published?

i didnt stay at Hyatt or marriott before.. but i can get there top tier level phone line if i wanted.. it is not top secret and it is not a confidential issue.

regards,

It may seems broad but I think this would also cover them.

10. All interpretations of these Membership Rules, terms and conditions shall be at the sole discretion of Starwood.



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axicano= A Chicano
Austin,TX Live Music Capitol of the World

If you call onto the platinum line, they can and will transfer you to the regular call center if you do not supply a platinum number. Then again, there are people in reservations that can handle platinum members (like the Luxury collection) and those numbers are not advertised as platinum numbers. If you call after hours, you get the Number to Sheraton Resorts. THESE people cannot transfer you, but Platinum can!