Starwood Preferred Guest - Japan Airlines vacuums Starwood Points

Anyone remember the topic "Instant Gold" here in February? It involved opening a Japan Airlines FF account.

Well, I did it to receive the gold benefits (esp. the 50% bonus). (Please no flames about diluting elite levels, this topic got real nasty back in Feb.)

I had not checked my Starwood statements lately. Today I found out that JAL removed about 6,000 points and converted them to miles.

Starwood Customer Service was not able to help me convert them back. I talked to JAL CS and the rep is going to look into it and get back with me.

No one could tell me why this happened. I did not deliberately take a choice to make any conversion that I know of.

Has this happened to anyone else? Do I have a good chance at getting points back? Your thoughts please?

[This message has been edited by paradocs (edited 08-15-2001).]

paradocs A question please. When JAL took
your points and gave you miles did you get
1-1 or 2-1. I have been wanting to fly JAL
in F for some time. Not wanting to pay I
thought of using points. The SPG website and
SPG P Concierge say conversion is 2 Starwood
points for 1 JAL Mileage Bank point. This
does not seem like a good deal. Please
advise on conversion factor. Thanks

Could the JL deal be a Direct Deposit promotion?

I don't know the details of the JL deal, but AA, UA and some other airlines had run similar deals in the past where your points are directly converted to airlines miles. You will not be able to convert them back, if that was the case.

RTWSTARALLIANCE,

I think it was better than 1:1. Help me do the math. JAL took 5556 points. In my JAL account there are 7,778 miles from this transaction. They list it as:

STARWOOD POINT 2,778
STW BONUS MILE CAPN 5,000

TERRYK,

Thanks for the help! On Starwood account they do say JAL DD. So, I suspect you are right about a DD. Since I didn't ask for a DD, why can't it be reversed?

Maybe Starwood Lurker can help please.

paradocs, this is an almost impossible situation to rectify once Starpoints are transferred to an airline. Only in the rarest of circumstances have I ever heard of an airline agreeing to it. I can check on your behalf, but the results are anything but certain.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Specialist, E-Communications Department
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by paradocs:
TERRYK,

Thanks for the help! On Starwood account they do say JAL DD. So, I suspect you are right about a DD. Since I didn't ask for a DD, why can't it be reversed?

Maybe Starwood Lurker can help please.</font>

Signing up for DD was part of the deal, at least for the AA, UA deals which I saw. You do get more bonus than you would normally get, however.

BTW, that was the reason why I did NOT sign up for the AA, UA deals after I read the fine prints.

William,

Thanks for the offer to look into it. I would appreciate your help. It was not made clear to me at all when I opened the JAL account.

With appreciation, paradocs


<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Starwood Lurker:
paradocs, this is an almost impossible situation to rectify once Starpoints are transferred to an airline. Only in the rarest of circumstances have I ever heard of an airline agreeing to it. I can check on your behalf, but the results are anything but certain.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Specialist, E-Communications Department
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com </font>

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by paradocs:
Thanks for the help! On Starwood account they do say JAL DD. So, I suspect you are right about a DD. Since I didn't ask for a DD, why can't it be reversed?
</font>

I'll bet whatever offer came from JAL said it would be for direct deposit. The same offer was made to Qantas frequent flyers a couple of years ago too.

paradocs, JAL contacted us and asked us to cancel the Direct Deposit transaction. This has already been done by our affinity department. Congratulations. You are one of only handful of people that I know to have done this successfully.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Specialist, E-Communications Department
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Thanks STARWOODLURKER for looking into this. Your presence on this board is truly valued! I did receive a call from the JAL rep I initially contacted. His name is Frantz and he was so efficient and friendly. He called me back within 24 hours to tell me he could help. I need to write JAL superiors and praise him for his concern and follow through.

I will be more careful to read all the fine print in the future. I don't remember it being carefully spelled out but I guess this is where I must have failed in this promo. I am grateful to have my Starwood points back!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Starwood Lurker:
paradocs, JAL contacted us and asked us to cancel the Direct Deposit transaction. This has already been done by our affinity department. Congratulations. You are one of only handful of people that I know to have done this successfully.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Specialist, E-Communications Department
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com </font>