Starwood Preferred Guest - Important News About Participating in the Q1 & Q2 promotions

Starwood Preferred Guest would like to thank everyone for their interest in the latest series of promotions and clarify participation.

A number of unique offers were extended to members for travel this spring. Each member who was pre-selected received one offer, though through the magic of the Web and the creativity of Flyertalkers, members are now registering for multiple offers. Since these offers are not combinable, we will need to take the following steps:

1. Each account registered with two or more promotions will have all offers removed.

2. The deleted offers will then be replaced with a default offer of “Earn 5,000 Starpoints after every five nights, up to 20,000 Starpoints.”

If for any reason you wish to revert to your original offer, please contact us via email at starwood.preferred.guest@starwoodhotels.com and request a correction no later than March 11th. Please include your Starwood Preferred Guest account number and the original promotion code that was sent to you.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.


[This message has been edited by Starwood Lurker (edited 03-11-2003).]

I would be embarassed to work for SPG and have to come out and make these announcements. Put your act together SPG people!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by eyemd_2020:
I would be embarassed to work for SPG and have to come out and make these announcements. Put your act together SPG people! </font>
Without starting a flame, I think it is the RIGHT THING for SPG to make this announcement, in that the T&C of each offer probably says they aren't combinable, this is a "heads up" and courtesy for those who didn't follow the rules, and would you really prefer stunts like US Airways did? The only "fault" of SPG here is that their software didn't catch and deny the subsequent promotion signup.

Hi William,

Why not send out an email to all registered parties asking them to register again at the website with a choice of the offers?

That way there'll be less confusion and everyone gets the promo which they feel will benefit them the most.

It would also help if you could list the promos being referred to.

It's just a suggestion but I think it would help.

What do you think?

Actually, to my knowledge, the offers did NOT say they weren't combinable in the small print. Certainly the confirmation emails didn't say it.

It's true, Starwood needs to get it's act together. I'm wondering if they're trying to save money by not having their attorneys review their marketing.

It seems to me that Starwood needs to pay a price each time it blows it like this. Maybe when they pay a price, they'll start getting it right.

It's NOT RIGHT to send people confirmation emails and then unilaterally remove those promotions.

Bumping, my issue was answered.

[This message has been edited by SHADO (edited 03-05-2003).]

At least Starwood has point/free stay promotons at the moment.
only one other company HAS and it is not anywhere near these promos that Starwood has offered.!!!!!!

That promo is better than the one that I have which requires 10 nights for 10K points, 15 nights for 15K and 20 for 20K. William, how is the penalty better than my orginal offer?!

1) there was nothing in the terms and conditions that these offers weren't combinable.

2) i agree with aflyer: "It's NOT RIGHT to send people confirmation emails and then unilaterally remove those promotions."

we should start another thread predicting the date for the next starwood screw-up. ok, bora bora, not giving sufficient notice to point changes for award nights, not giving notice for 2004 qualification requirements for elite status, .... i am sure i am missing some.

but, i am a glutton. i like the properties and the customer care. when i need help with customer care, they are great.

but, this is truly laughable. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by fly co to see the yanks (edited 03-05-2003).]

Good job, SPG. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif How can anybody sign up for two or more similar "targeted" offers and then complain when they are removed? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

I can't believe you guys; you cry if they don't tell you; you cry if they do; you do something that you aren't supposed to do or know you weren't targeted for; they give you warning and a chance to revert to your original offer and you whine

UnF*believable

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by TrojanHorse:
I can't believe you guys; you cry if they don't tell you; you cry if they do; you do something that you aren't supposed to do or know you weren't targeted for; they give you warning and a chance to revert to your original offer and you whine

UnF*believable</font>

Somebody give me an AMEN!!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Starwood Lurker:
1. Each account registered with two or more promotions will have all offers removed.
</font>

Presumably they will all be getting emails un-confiming their participation in the offers...

...and yet another email confirming their participation in the default offer.

And all these emails will form an improtant document trail for the haggling with CS agents to come.;-)

[This message has been edited by arodin (edited 03-05-2003).]

[This message has been edited by arodin (edited 03-05-2003).]

The fact remains that the original 3 offers said nothing about
1.) being targeted
2.) being non-combinable

I'm shocked, SHOCKED I TELL YOU, that these two very common, obvious disclaimers were not part of the T&C.

However, we all know the original Starwood intent was to give everyone at least 1 promotion. We're getting that. 20K + 500 pts. web booking bonus for 20 nights is a nice offer and I'll gleefully take it. If anyone cares to pursue legal action or get USAToday to write yet another story about how Flyertalk members get angry at a company decision, then so be it. But folks, no matter what, we're only getting one promo, and that's perfectly fair.

As many have re-iterated - SPG marketing has really been dropping the ball a few too many times in recent months and I'm sure Mr. Sternlicht and company are well aware of it. Hopefully, some oversight will be in order from now on.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by PHL:
Hopefully, some oversight will be in order from now on.</font>

did justin the intern go back to school (i.e., does he share a bus with the web/interactive marketing guru)?

So what about those of us who didn't "register" for ANY offers and were told by both Lurker and Platinum Concierge that we were registered for three offers?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif

Does that mean that someone got my account number and registered me without my knowledge?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

ooops

[This message has been edited by tazi (edited 03-05-2003).]

So are we talking about the earn up to 20k and the 5 stay 50k giveaway? Does this mean I am not signed up for any promos? Am I signed up for the 20k since this is the first I registered for? Starwood- please tell me. I was going to cancel reservations with other hotels and go for the 5 stay but now I'll just hold my horses and wallet. I'm lost with SPG.

How hard is it folks?

Let me try to translate cystal clear english for you...

"1. Each account registered with two or more promotions will have all offers removed.

(Translation...If you registed for more than one there all coming off)

2. The deleted offers will then be replaced with a default offer of “Earn 5,000 Starpoints after every five nights, up to 20,000 Starpoints.” For full promotion details, please visit spg.com/20K.

(Translation....They will put ONLY the 5 nights/5K point bonus back on)

If for any reason you wish to revert to your original offer, please contact us via email at starwood.preferred.guest@starwoodhotels.com and request a correction no later than March 11th.

(Translation....If 5night/5K is not the one you want then you have until next Tues. to contact them and change it. If not your STUCK with the 5 night/5K)"



[This message has been edited by DallaStarwooDelta (edited 03-05-2003).]

Thanks for the comments/questions thus far.

We sent promotions to folks who were invited to participate in either Y27 or Y28 or Y29, not all three. These segments have their own particular add-ons, which were added according to the promotion you legitmately registered for, so no one needs to be concerned about being registered for anything more than one of the above promotion codes. If you registered for more than one of these, however, you might want to send us an email with your Starwood Preferred Guest account number and indicate which offer you received from us. This will expedite the correction process for everyone.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

I don't recall whether I got one of the targeted emails or not so I went to the link posted and was able to register for this default promo. I am assuming that since it is posted here to correct problems arising from people being able to register for multiple promos because of information found here and elsewhere, that it would be intentional this time. Right??

In other words, this one is for everyone??? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Starwood Lurker:
Each member received one offer,</font>

Actually this Platinum member didn't receive any offers at all. But I just signed up for the 5K points for 5 stays deal thanks to reading about it here.

William,

how do other promotions fit in such as 50k Asia and double pts, etc.. Since the Asia was opened to everyone if someone registers for that and their targeted offer it become 2, thereby they could be screwed up?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by welookgood.com:
William,

how do other promotions fit in such as 50k Asia and double pts, etc.. Since the Asia was opened to everyone if someone registers for that and their targeted offer it become 2, thereby they could be screwed up?</font>

I have inquiries into the compatibility of the Asian 50K promotion with any targeted offers that were sent out. When I have a reply to those inquiries, I'll be glad to come back and update this thread and the other one.

Regardless, if you registered your account for the Asian 50K promotion, it will not be removed. If you have more than one of the above-referenced promotion codes on your account, however, and you don't email us to correct that situation, Y28 will be added after March 11th and the others removed.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

At a time when some were complaining about lack of promotions, Starwood has made a concerted effort to try and keep everyone happy with one kind of promotion or another.

Maybe they shouldn't have run them concurrently, to avoid confusion, but I think it's wrong to take advantage of what is essentially an oversight.

The promotions have caused some confusion but I feel that this has been cleared up very quickly. I don't think there is any cause for complaints.

I think in the sense of fairness, the 5 stay, 50k asian promo clearly says and has always said, it is not combinable with any other offer. I think SPG should not be honouring anything other than 1 offer OR the other, not both.

[This message has been edited by kawoh (edited 03-05-2003).]

I think in the sense of fairness, the 5 stay, 50k asian promo clearly says and has always said, it is not combinable with any other offer. I think SPG should not be honouring anything other than 1 offer OR the other, not both.

THIS IS the wrong view. there are many other side offers which arent target (stay at new york hotel, get extra bonus) etc.. Do we have to become lawyers when deciding to take an offer on the home page knowing it can invalidate a targeted one?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by techgirl:
So what about those of us who didn't "register" for ANY offers and were told by both Lurker and Platinum Concierge that we were registered for three offers?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif</font>

I had a Plat Concierge who offered to sign me up for all three as they were in my file and she said I was eligable. I said why not?

I just got off the phone with another Plat conceirge and she said they had not been made aware of the needing to choose only 1 promo when they were launched.

Might not be the answer you want but you weren't the only one it happened to. Hope that helps.

You know, I can live with only getting one promo. When they offered me all three I wasn't going to say "no" but I also wasn't going to be surprised if they didn't all post.

I would love to have gotten 30k + 1 free night for 10 stays of 1 night each (with on-line booking bonuses, amenity bonuses and actual earned points) but that's just not realistic in my mind.

I just drained my account down to 7k after booking my summer vacation in Europe this summer and could really use those points. I'm going for 10 nights and will likely take the 5k/5nights promo. That's a pretty good deal in my mind.

Did Starwood screw up? Yep. Am I upset? Nope.

I may not be popular but Thanks Starwood. I like the promo I'm choosing. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

"Each member received one offer, though through the magic of the Web and the creativity of Flyertalkers... "

just a question to clarify William's comment: did each member get one of the offers (ie. something for everyone) or did targeted members only get one offer from the menu, (only targetted members got one of something)

Just trying to figure out if I should be looking for an email or post card. There doesn't seem to be anyway to garner from the web account which promos are registered.



PS of course, everyone does get something with the new Asia promotion ... as well as a great stay whenever they choose to check in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

PPS I appreciate the proactive stance taken to clarify troubling issues, William. Well done. Yet again.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Avalanche:
"Each member received one offer, though through the magic of the Web and the creativity of Flyertalkers... "

just a question to clarify William's comment: did each member get one of the offers (ie. something for everyone) or did targeted members only get one offer from the menu, (only targetted members got one of something)

Just trying to figure out if I should be looking for an email or post card. There doesn't seem to be anyway to garner from the web account which promos are registered.



PS of course, everyone does get something with the new Asia promotion ... as well as a great stay whenever they choose to check in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

PPS I appreciate the proactive stance taken to clarify troubling issues, William. Well done. Yet again.</font>

The first posting I made on this thread that begins with "Each member..." should be read as anyone who we targeted and I will change it to read that way.

You are welcomed to call the Customer Contact Center and ask what is on your account now. In a good many cases, the three main promotions (Y27, Y28, and Y29) were pre-enrolled requiring that nothing be done as far as enrollment is concerned. If you are one of these, I am sure that you will be fine as long as there is not more than one of these three on your account. There may be others, but as long as it is not a combination of these three, nothing is going to have to be fixed.

Hope that helps. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

[This message has been edited by Starwood Lurker (edited 03-05-2003).]

If this is not posted on the site and at the page for sign up for the promotion then nothing posted on this thread holds any value. I can argue that there was no mention of these conditions on the homepage.
This is so bogus. If they let me signup on the page with my starwood number then I have signed up. I never saw any notice on the page that states that my new promotion overrides my previous promotion.

I can tell already that there are going to be a lot of disappointed people come March 12th.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

William,

Just in case you haven't figured it out already, YOU...we love! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif It's those knuckleheads a mile away from my house that we're having problems with. Or is it Austin?

Dan

When the time comes if the result is doesn't match the offer I signed up for. I will simply move my business to Hyatt, Shangri-La, Mandarin, Pennisula or Ritz Carlton. In Asia we have plenty of selection for good hotels and by no means am I tied to Starwood. I give them my business because they provide a very good level of service. The second I feel that they are lacking in integrity and fail to live up to their offers I will jump ship. I am sure that many other Asia based travellers feel the same.

I agree that William has done and outstanding job and thanks for giving us the heads up. These policies are set by the powers above.

[This message has been edited by tfong007 (edited 03-05-2003).]

Hey William,

I'll keep it short and simple. If we got an email targetting us for one promotion, and we registered for that one promotion and got a confirmation, are we all cool with SPG?

Thanks. I think the resolution is pretty fair considering that some people who registered for all three when they got none; they still end up with one (probably the most lucrative one).

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Starwood Lurker:
I can tell already that there are going to be a lot of disappointed people come March 12th.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today. </font>


I got a confirmation letter when I signed up for the promotion. Am I or not?

------------------
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin

The default offer sounds better; however the targeted offer also gave 500 online booking points and a free night after 25 stays. The free night is valid until year-end.

If you know you will staying at least 10 nights and have the option, go for the targeted promo.

NB, I am Platinum and was not targeted for any promo. One of my employees who I talked into joining Starwood and who is a basic member got targeted with the one that gives the 500 booking points + the extra night at 25 nights.

Wish I were targeted, still like Starwood.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by PHL:
The fact remains that the original 3 offers said nothing about
1.) being targeted
2.) being non-combinable

I'm shocked, SHOCKED I TELL YOU, that these two very common, obvious disclaimers were not part of the T&C.

However, we all know the original Starwood intent was to give everyone at least 1 promotion. We're getting that. 20K + 500 pts. web booking bonus for 20 nights is a nice offer and I'll gleefully take it. If anyone cares to pursue legal action or get USAToday to write yet another story about how Flyertalk members get angry at a company decision, then so be it. But folks, no matter what, we're only getting one promo, and that's perfectly fair.

As many have re-iterated - SPG marketing has really been dropping the ball a few too many times in recent months and I'm sure Mr. Sternlicht and company are well aware of it. Hopefully, some oversight will be in order from now on.</font>

The offers said nothing about being targeted and nothing about not combinable. William also said in a previous email to watch for the promtions and that almost all SPG's would receive them. I didn't receive any but did find the links via the SPG site. The fact that I found them, signed up and received a confirmation email saying I was enrolled is emough for me to say that I should get all the promotions I enrolled for.

GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER. EVERY Frigging week there is another mess up.

And for the record, Hilton Diamonds just received a great offer for stays March 1st to May 31st. With all the bonuses its triple points.

Bigshaker

my earlier post was a bit harsh so i want to clarify. while i believe that the default promotion is fair and good and makes sense (i.e., its a promotion that drives business), i just can't believe how sloppy starwood has been in the past four months or so. who's running the show over there?

i mean, i recently tried to register for a Delta promotion that a friend sent me. when i entered my skymiles number, delta told me to get lost.

but, for starwood, i have confirmation letters saying i was in. and, there wasn't any mention of promos. can't overlap. why wasn't there a simple filter in place not allowing non-targeted spg members to register?

so, while i am very happy with the default offer, i am a bit perplexed on how starwood could keep screwing up.

edited to add: of course i am not taking a shot at the messenger. william (and his participation in this forum and starwood paying for his participation in this forum) is one of the reasons i stay a loyal starwood customer.

[This message has been edited by fly co to see the yanks (edited 03-06-2003).]

I'm emabarrased and ashamed to be part of this community. Come on folks, if you registered for more than one because we all discussed it, and SPG said, no, you can only have one and if you registered for more than one, you are going to get this one, but you can still contact us and have your original offer, what the heck is wrong with that?

I'll tell you .. the only wrong with that is that we tried to scam the system and couldn't. And because of the confirmation emails you think that the scam is on? Sorry, it is not. And rather than shooting the messenger the only thing we should be telling the messenger is "thank you for the heads up, William, I appreciate it", and then, if you have any question about which one you were targeted for and which one you going to end up with, contact SPG or William before the cutoff date, and remember to thank him for actually allowing us to choose between two offers.

-David

Interesting response from Starwood…and a few FTers…

So the Bora Bora resort makes a huge mistake (multi-million $ liability) and all here (apart from 3 posters, myself included) feel it’s wrong to pursue the matter, as it is clearly a mistake… result: STW offers huge discount to those who went ahead AND 5000 points for an email mistake.

Promotions sent, with no reference at all to whether or not they are combinable (= they are by default), yet unilateral decision from STW to cancel confirmed registrations and reassign a set promo (or an option to change yet, which is fair enough)… and yet some FTers have the cheek to take a righteous stance…

Without taking a pot shot at any particular poster, how is it consistent to state that the BBN rate should be honoured (when it’s clearly a mistake) and then criticize people here for having simply taken advantage of a widely (i.e. not restricted / linked to a SPG number) set of promotions?

On a personal note, I don’t mind the change – will revert to my original offer – but what I find rather unpalatable is the way these matters are handled… seems to me that the goalpost is moved constantly – rules have as many meanings as needed.

UnF*believable indeed.


Edited for typo

[This message has been edited by Canista (edited 03-06-2003).]

What's unbelievable is that we all knew these were targetted offers, and that people were being targeted for one offer only. A glitch in the system may have allowed some of us to register for more than one, and get an incorrect and ridiculous (if you believed that SPG would allow us to simultaneously earn all three offers at once) email confirmation and then complain about it when the clarification comes. Especially when we discussed it openly here.

Many people got offers that reinstated the online booking bonus. What's wrong with that? Any complaints there? No, I didn't think so, but now that we find out that we can't simultaneously participate in all 3 targeted bonuses, and yet, SPG is still allowing us to choose from the default or the one that we were chosen for, we still complain about it, waving the incorrect confirmations around like a flag.

This has turned into one sorry ... forum. Shame on all of us.

-David


[This message has been edited by LIH Prem (edited 03-06-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by LIH Prem:
A glitch in the system may have allowed some of us to register for more than one, </font>

i don't think it was a "glitch in the system," particularly when many people said they called the platinum concierges and the PCs allowed them to enroll in all three. it's more likely that starwood allowed this to happen and then crunched the numbers and changed their minds.



[This message has been edited by fly co to see the yanks (edited 03-06-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by fly co to see the yanks:
allowed this to happen and then crunched the numbers and changed their minds.
</font>

Nah, I think it was more like the folks at Starwood who designed this promo didn't anticipate that the private sign-up link would be shared on the Internet with uninvited and untargetted SPG members. I don't think it's too far fetched to believe that the marketing wiz's who designed and implemented this promo were not espcially technically savvy, and didn't envision the abuse that could and did occur. Thus, they didn't take measures to ensure that only targetted members could sign up.

IMHO, Starwood is plugging up an unintended hole in the promo, so I don't think anyone has any grounds to complain beyond the inconvenience and irritation of maybe having to make inquiries and having to re-register.

[This message has been edited by anthonyanthony (edited 03-06-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">
Nah, I think it was more like the folks at Starwood who designed this promo didn't anticipate that the private sign-up link would be shared on the Internet with uninvited and untargetted SPG members. I don't think it's too far fetched to believe that the marketing wiz's who designed and implemented this promo were not espcially technically savvy, and didn't envision the abuse that could and did occur. Thus, they didn't take measures to ensure that only targetted members could sign up.
</font>

Not likely. I haven't accumulated spg points for long, but unless this is the first time that spg has done targeted promotions, I'm fairly certain that those who design these kinds of promos are fully aware that 'promo codes' are shared in this and many other industries. This phenomenon is hardly news. Not stating that these aren't combinable and valid only for those that were targetted is either a MAJOR, boneheaded oversight, OR someone had a change of heart after the fact.

Even worse, the fact that everyone with multiple promos will end up with the same 'default' promo suggests that Starwood doesn't even know who they targeted with what, otherwise, why not just flag the account with the appropriate 'targetted' promo.

[This message has been edited by acesfull (edited 03-06-2003).]

[This message has been edited by acesfull (edited 03-06-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by West Coast 1K:
That promo is better than the one that I have which requires 10 nights for 10K points, 15 nights for 15K and 20 for 20K. William, how is the penalty better than my orginal offer?!</font>

Same for me... no complaints... I love those punishments http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by anthonyanthony:
Nah, I think it was more like the folks at Starwood who designed this promo didn't anticipate that the private sign-up link would be shared on the Internet with uninvited and untargetted SPG members.
</font>

wrong. spg "gurus" weren't born yesterday. of course they know promo codes are shared on the Internet.

My original offer was for
10,000 points after 10 nights
15,000 points after 15 nights
20,000 points after 20 nights
1 free night after 25 nights
500 starpoints for each booking at spg.com

Is this not offer Y29? Nobody else has mentioned the booking bonus for this offer, do I have something different? I emailed customer service telling them that I would rather have my promotion than the default one that they changed my account to, but have not received a reply.

All I can say is that this IMHO is fair and equitable.

If in doubt (as I was)as to what you have/could have, I would suggest that you send email to the address William gave at the top of this thread. I even forwarded my invite email from SPG (makes it pretty easy for SPG to see what I was invited to) with the question that they please confirm that I am "properly" registered/enrolled.

If you think SPG "owes" you more then I humbly suggest you think about why they owe you more. Simply a case of values-- mine say they do not "owe" me anything beyond a room I pay for and the rest is about keeping me loyal (yes quirks like this can drive loyalty or drive you crazy when not properly done).

To each his own, but I do not feel like SPG did anything incorrect here.

In fact I respect that SPG sent a message (via William) to the one place where people likely found out ways to circumvent (note not cheat) the intended system. Alerting people that might have unintentionally circumvented the intended system that they would not get unintended benefits and doing it BEFORE anyone could incur any real costs makes total sense. Now if SPG sent this notice after the promo that is a different case.

Other than allow me into every targeted promo (ones that were never intended for you and you were not invited to), what do people want, expect?

As others have said above-- Unbelievable

William,
like others have mentioned, we absolutely respect you and your efforts to keep up on track. On that point I am resolute and sincere. Still - its gets old when starwood marketing manager(s) can't seem to get their act togther...and make these seemingly-sophomoric mistakes, over and over and over. And then you have to come to this thread to clean up their mess. Shame on them.

Though taken independently, this announcement would not bother me so much if any; but considering the several screw-ups in a row, since last fall that we've experienced, starting with Bora Bora, through the point devlauation w/ no notice, continuing through the elite level changes (no notice again)...sure gets old.

I read an interview last spring w/ the starwood VP-level marketing manager that loudly proclaimed how successful the spg program was compared against other major chain hotel affinity programs. Believe it or not, I considered that article validation of my choice to shift all of my efforts to start accumulating spg points. Your presense on this thread also counted in my decision. And, let us not forget those super nice properties in the starwood chain. And, no doubt, I personally feel 2002 was a banner year for spg, and in large part dampened the adverse effects of this current recession for the entire starwood chain, but I must admit as the blanket gets jerked out from under my feet time and time again in recent months...even as I try to set a strategy to earn my points, and stay w/ spg as much as possible (even hitting the internet to see if you had a property in Abilene, and this this coming weekend in Arlington, TX, (no to each http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif ), I feel like spg has somehow lost focus to our collective (the consumer) detriment. If not lost focus, at least lost some sense that SPG's marketing screwups should not penalize WE, the consumer.

No, not onerous enough at this point to kick me out of bed and make me go back to HHONORS or whoever...still, the once-bright platinum (pardon the pun http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif ) "edge" is dulling some. Sad to see to be honest.

William - please continue your solid, uplifting performance - it definitely lessens the impact of these repeated spg goofs.

But I wonder to myself if it might be time to replace a VP of marketing, or his immediate underlings who put these programs into play ? This "after the fact" stuff has got to stop IMO.

Is it combineable with the pretty old, but still running (till March 15) "Explore Europe, earn 1000 bonus points per stay" promotion?

Hmmmm....

Let me put it this way.

I am happy to get a promotion. I originally got the stay 6 nights, get a free night one. Like I said, I'm happy to get that one.

It's not nearly as good as Free Weekends, which apparently are gone for the indefinite future.

That being said, I have no problem with SPG not making them combinable. That's their perogative. I would rather they were, but so be it.

Here's my problem with this, though.

I have many friends who don't read FT. I told them about the various promotions and how to register. I don't view it as my job to be their babysitter, but I don't see how they will find out about the new rules without my telling them.

And let's be frank...

SPG's computer brainwizards don't exactly have a stellar track record. I doubt that they will be able to track everyone who signed up for more than one, and remove them from the promotion.

But, assuming they can do this, how hard would it be to send a courtesy e-mail to those people letting them know about the change? Not very...

So either

A) This is an idle threat,

or

B) SPG is choosing to be very rude and not inform people of a material change, which they could easily do.

I think SPG really has an obligation to give people notice some other way than FT. Who knows how many people were forwarded these e-mails, and registered. Given that at the time, the promotions said NOTHING about being non-combinable, and NOTHING about being non-transferrable, or non-targetted, I think SPG should tread kind of lightly here.

They are not doing so, IMO.

I'm not saying they need to honor all the promotions, but I do think this a further evidence of a pattern of failure to communicate well with the general membership.
We here are lucky to have William, but the program encompasses a lot more people than just those who view FT.

Let's review-

SPG snuck by a bunch of material program changes, and gave people no notice that they were doing so. Justin the intern promised better communication, yet the changes in the T & C's have NEVER BEEN, and apparently NEVER WILL BE, communicated affirmatively to the general membership. Now, this change will not be, either.

I don't think this is particularly well-played, and once again, William is forced to defend a decision that he likely would have handled or communicated differently.

Ok so I have been away for awhile and I am now reading about all these promotions...my question is this: I was not targeted for any promotion - can I sign up for one of them? The default one would be fine, I'm not picky. But I can't find any way to sign up for any promotions at spg.com - am I too late? Thanks everyone for your help in advance!

-Mike

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by fly co to see the yanks:
wrong. spg "gurus" weren't born yesterday. of course they know promo codes are shared on the Internet.</font>

And maybe the truth is in between. Maybe the marketing wizs knew that some people would share the sign-up links, but didn't think it was worth the time and programming manpower to plug the hole, becuase they thought only a handful of people would exploit it. Little did they estimate the power of Flyertalk, and boom kapow (yes, that's a technical term), what they thought would only be a trickle of multiple promotion sign-ups turned into an avalanche of thousands.

[/end idle speculation]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">And maybe the truth is in between. Maybe the marketing wizs knew that some people would share the sign-up links, but didn't think it was worth the time and programming manpower to plug the hole, becuase they thought only a handful of people would exploit it. Little did they estimate the power of Flyertalk, and boom kapow (yes, that's a technical term), what they thought would only be a trickle of multiple promotion sign-ups turned into an avalanche of thousands.
</font>

Wouldn't be very defensible in my opinion. Would be the equivalent of someone offering a sale on something and then arbitrarily refusing to honor it with the excuse 'oops, didn't think it was going to be that popular.' Laziness isn't an excuse.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Dampflok:
Is it combineable with the pretty old, but still running (till March 15) "Explore Europe, earn 1000 bonus points per stay" promotion?</font>

Yes. They are considered to be promotions unto themselves. Usually when we say not combinable with other offers we don't mean our own.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

So...if I registered under the old promo(s) and then made a reservation two days ago, will that reservation automatically be credited to the new promo (including the 500 point bonus for using the Starwood site), or do I have to cancel and rebook it?

Thanks.

What I cant understand is why do WE have to pay for Starwoods mistakes? Why do I have to call them to find out what I am enrolled in? If they messed up they should call me and tell me what I am enrolled in.

It seems to me that everytime Starwood makes a mistake we pay for it. Its not a privilige that we have promotions available to us. Every other major hotel chain has promotions for their frequest stayers. So for all of you who think you are extra special and that Starwood as done you some extra favour you are wrong.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by tfong007:
What I cant understand is why do WE have to pay for Starwoods mistakes? Why do I have to call them to find out what I am enrolled in? If they messed up they should call me and tell me what I am enrolled in.

It seems to me that everytime Starwood makes a mistake we pay for it. Its not a privilige that we have promotions available to us. Every other major hotel chain has promotions for their frequest stayers. So for all of you who think you are extra special and that Starwood as done you some extra favour you are wrong. </font>
I dont know how you can tell me I am wrong for thinking starwood has done me a favour!!!!!
You are not the think police!!!
If I get an offer then I read about other offers and get smart and register for that second offer that I PERSONALLY have not been offered and then starwood decides not to let me have 2 offers then I FEEL that I should call starwood if I want to sort it out or take the consequences.
I do think Starwood has done me lots of great favours every time I am upgraded to a suite worth 6 X what I have paid.
They dont HAVE to upgrade me but because I am a frequent guest they CHOOSE to upgrade me and I am grateful.



[This message has been edited by tinkybelle (edited 03-06-2003).]

The second that they send out a link to a registration page they have opened up the promotion to everyone. Its not my fault that they didn't restrict the registration to the specific SPG numbers that they sent the mail to. Why should I have to suffer for their mistake? Is it my fault that the homepage actually allows me to sign up for all three promotions? Is it my fault that the promotion says nothing about signing up for one promotion only?

And yes they ACTUALLY do need to upgrade you since it is stated in your Plat card agreement. Hence the word AGREEMENT. If this was a FAVOUR they wouldn't include it in the agreement and do it on an ad hoc basis. The second they put it in writing it becomes part of their policy.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by tfong007:
What I cant understand is why do WE have to pay for Starwoods mistakes? Why do I have to call them to find out what I am enrolled in? If they messed up they should call me and tell me what I am enrolled in.

It seems to me that everytime Starwood makes a mistake we pay for it. Its not a privilige that we have promotions available to us. Every other major hotel chain has promotions for their frequest stayers. So for all of you who think you are extra special and that Starwood as done you some extra favour you are wrong. </font>

First of all, how is it Starwood's mistake that people who were not targeted for a promotion signed up for the promotion by getting the URL from someone who was targeted? It clearly states in the terms and conditions that the offer is for "select" SPG members. I assumed that "select" meant targeted. The promotions were discussed here for quite some time and everyone was aware that it was targeted. Even William stated that the promotions were targeted and advised people to not sign up if they weren't targeted.

This just proves that people expect more than they deserve. I was targeted for Y29. I called the SPG desk to inquire about the other promotions since I was curious. I was told that Y28 and Y29 could not be combined. They did enroll me in Y27. Since then, I have had SPG remove Y27 from my account.

People...we can't honestly expect Starwood to let each and every one of us participate in all 3 promotions at once! That's like having your cake and eating it too.

For those of you who weren't targeted for anything, used "stolen" URLs to enroll and now have been offered basically the Y29 promotion...feel lucky. Starwood could just have easily decided to not let people who enrolled in multiple promotions have any of them. Remember...they run the program.

And to William…thanks for having unbelievable patience and a general desire to please the “reasonable” customer.



------------------
AA Platinum, Delta Gold, Starwood Platinum, Fairmont President's Club Gold, Hyatt Diamond, Marriott Gold

What is a stolen URL?

A URL is a URL

If it accepts my SPG Number that tells me that I am part of the target audience. Am I mistaken?

so Tfong, if someone sends me the URL to your bank account or FF account and I use it does that mean it is okay? Aren't URL links sent privately just that, private?


It is ridiculous the position some people are staking out. For one thing it doesn't make sense that you should get multiple promos, much less one you weren't targetted for; second, this kind of behaviour kills generosity of program if not the program itself; thirdly, those who would do this are not LOYAL customers and SPG and other FF programs would be best just weeding them out.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Starwood Lurker:
[B] Yes. They are considered to be promotions unto themselves. Usually when we say not combinable with other offers we don't mean our own.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com


Sorry William, maybe my English is not good, but I did not understand your point.
What do you call your own promotions?

I am posting from the Tahitian Princess just now off the coast of Huhaine in French Polynesia. Prior to leaving the US, I received no direct e-mail or snail mail promotion offer. Were only Platinum members targeted for these promotions? I am only Gold. I did call and register (my own and my husband's account) for Y28, after reading these boards. (I think that was what the rep. said the code was).
I also registered-line (my own and my husband's account) for whatever code was on-line - it didn't say.
At this point, I don't know what I (we) are registered for, and I certainly can't call the US from French Polynesia to find out. We would be satisfied with the 5 nights/5,000 = 5,000 pts. but it would be nice to also have the 500 pt. on-line booking bonus too. Please advise what to do. I access my e-mail each day from the ship.. Thanks,

At least Starwood is handling this better than Amex is with the triple miles snafu on the DL card.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Sylvest941:
Sorry William, maybe my English is not good, but I did not understand your point.
What do you call your own promotions?</font>

i think he means promotions initiated by Starwood as opposed to promotions by American Express or American Airlines, etc. for stays at Starwood Hotels.

Following this thread for the first time this morning makes me really wonder about STARWOOD. As much as I appreciate the benefits I have received from this program over the years -- since SCI and Westin Premier -- what has happened over the past year is making me question my loyalty and booking patterns.

The program that won the Freddie is no longer the SPG we are elites in. The targeted promos started last year have continued to get the company into more trouble and certainly not increased my business with STARWOOD. I seldom received an email invitation to any of these targeted promos, or if I did, it arrived weeks after first details were posted here. In most cases, I only discovered them on FT. [I have still not received this current one.]

I agree they should not be combinable, though other promos being offered regionally should be because these are not part of the same marketing effort.

When it came to voting this year, SPG did not get my nod for best hotel program. In part it was due to the removal of the web booking bonus, the increase to 25 nights of Plat and the change in award levels for top tier properties. While we had notice of the temporary nature of the web booking bonus -- which inspite of this seems to be reappearing at the marketing department's wim, but only to select customers -- notice on the others was short of scandalous.

In spite of William's efforts -- and STARWOOD should be saluted for having him here to clean up the messes that their marketing folks create -- can anyone give me a good reason for having voted for SPG this year?

This mess up only reinforces my perception that this is a company in need of a decent marketing strategy to retain its better customers.

It pains me to post the foregoing, but SPG is trying my patience, and has not been the recipient of as much of my business as it might have, had it played the game a bit more fairly.

Bravo to your above post. I'm 100% with you!

very good thoughts by Shareholder. starwood shouldn't have to continually do this emergency drill clean-up stuff. its silly at this point.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by MNSooner:
So...if I registered under the old promo(s) and then made a reservation two days ago, will that reservation automatically be credited to the new promo (including the 500 point bonus for using the Starwood site), or do I have to cancel and rebook it?
Thanks.</font>

This was a great questions that I didn't see answered. William can you please answer this for us?

Thank you!

For one, what is better? if you say its better say why too?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Shareholder:
can anyone give me a good reason for having voted for SPG this year?</font>

William,
Your first post referred generally to targeted promotions and your other posts referred to Y27, Y28, and Y29. I received a postcard stating my stays through May 31 would count double towards status. IF I am registed for Y27 and Y28, will the SPG "clean-up" revoke my postcard offer and replace it with Y28? Is it either/or Or can the postcard offer be combined with Y28?

I only registered for the one promo that I was targeted for, but I would prefer to have the "default" promo. Is is possible to change to it?

I am quite happy with the one promotion I am signed up for, Y29. It is not reasonable to believe that one is entitled to three similar promotions which were targeted to three separate segments of membership, simply by receiving the link from someone who was targeted. If I were not targeted and was allowed one of the promotions by SPG anyway, I would be very happy with them. It would appear that some who are so disgruntled should exercise a bit of "common sense". It seems to be in short supply on this thread.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Sylvest941:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Starwood Lurker:
[B] Yes. They are considered to be promotions unto themselves. Usually when we say not combinable with other offers we don't mean our own.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com


Sorry William, maybe my English is not good, but I did not understand your point.
What do you call your own promotions?</font>

Ours as opposed to one offered from an airline partner or other marketing partner.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dbk10:
This was a great questions that I didn't see answered. William can you please answer this for us?

Thank you!</font>

Maybe...if someone can explain what it means. Sorry, but this is gibberish from my point of view. Nothing personal, mind you, but the question needs to be clarified.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by flymetothemoon:
William,
Your first post referred generally to targeted promotions and your other posts referred to Y27, Y28, and Y29. I received a postcard stating my stays through May 31 would count double towards status. IF I am registed for Y27 and Y28, will the SPG "clean-up" revoke my postcard offer and replace it with Y28? Is it either/or Or can the postcard offer be combined with Y28?</font>

If you have Y27 & Y28 both on your account, or any combination of the major promotions Y27, Y28 & Y29, if you do not send us an email to correct it, everything will be taken off that you have now and replaced with Y28 only after March 11th. I can't make it any simpler than that.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

corrected as shown below


[This message has been edited by jmoreita (edited 03-07-2003).]

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

It would seem to me that MNSooner is asking if he/she made a reservation while they were signed up for more than one bonus option. And they have now had all bonus options (Y27, Y28 & Y29) cancelled. And then defaulted to Y28 do they need to rebook? As at some point in the middle of all this they were holding a reservation, but not part of any promotion.

It would seem to me that they might need to rebook in order to earn the online booking bonus of 500 points. But that they should be okay for the stay.</font>

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Starwood Lurker:
Maybe...if someone can explain what it means. Sorry, but this is gibberish from my point of view. Nothing personal, mind you, but the question needs to be clarified.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services
</font>

The basic question is...
If we were registered for promotions and made online bookings while registered for the promotions before our profiles were changed by customer service, do we need to rebook now that our profiles have been changed so that we still receive that online booking bonus for our stays?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dbk10:
The basic question is...
If we were registered for promotions and made online bookings while registered for the promotions before our profiles were changed by customer service, do we need to rebook now that our profiles have been changed so that we still receive that online booking bonus for our stays?</font>

No. Why would you need to do that? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Folks, just because you make a reservation doesn't mean it will be used necessarily. If the reservation hasn't been completed, it's definitely not an issue. Even if it has been, nothing has been swept as of yet. That probably won't happen until after the fix goes in sometime after March 11th. So, we'll pick up the accounts that qualify. No need to worry about that. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

[This message has been edited by Starwood Lurker (edited 03-07-2003).]

Why has no email been sent to me to officialy inform me of these rules? If I hadn't longed into flyertalk I would never have known. Is it so hard to create an agent to send an email notification to all those that have registered for two or more offers? This is not rocket science.

I called the PC desk, I apparently am all signed up in Y27. I never got the offer. What is Y27?

I did not get my Jan 2003 statement(back down under 80%). In the past, I have requested and received a copy. This time:

Please be advised, we are unable to manually send a second statement regarding your Starwood Preferred Guest account. You may access your Starwood Preferred Guest account online to review your account history.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by tfong007:
Why has no email been sent to me to officialy inform me of these rules? If I hadn't longed into flyertalk I would never have known. Is it so hard to create an agent to send an email notification to all those that have registered for two or more offers? This is not rocket science.</font>

tfong007; I checked your account. There is nothing that has to be corrected. Not sure why this is an issue for you necessarily. People who don't know about Flyertalk probably did not use the links provided here to register for multiple promotions. No one is being notified because these people know who they are better than we do. It's very expensive to send out millions of emails. Would you like for us to spend money on this kind of thing or be able to offer more in the way of promotions? There is a budget to think about and money to do this has to come from somewhere. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by slawecki:
I called the PC desk, I apparently am all signed up in Y27. I never got the offer. What is Y27?

I did not get my Jan 2003 statement(back down under 80%). In the past, I have requested and received a copy. This time:

Please be advised, we are unable to manually send a second statement regarding your Starwood Preferred Guest account. You may access your Starwood Preferred Guest account online to review your account history.</font>

There is no email address on your Starwood Preferred Guest profile. This why you did not get your January statement and probably why you never got email notification of Y27. I would expect that it was sent via snail mail and may have ended up in file 13, but who knows for sure. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Anyway, you also got tagged for the 500 Starpoints web booking bonus at spg.com only and the New York Add-On offer as well.

If you want to continue getting e-statements, I'd have someone fix the email address thing. Otherwise, February's may not arrive either. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by jmoreita:
...what you wrote. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif </font>

As long as the booking was done February 15th or thereafter, the web booking bonus will be fine as long as the arrival date for the stay/nights falls within the promotion period of March 1 - May 31, 2003.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by tfong007:
Why has no email been sent to me to officialy inform me of these rules? If I hadn't longed into flyertalk I would never have known. Is it so hard to create an agent to send an email notification to all those that have registered for two or more offers? This is not rocket science.</font>

So true, and had you not come to Flyertalk you never would have know about the other offers you were not targeted for but chose to register for anyway.

I for one don't want SPG wasting time on creating emails notifying people that they are not registered for an offer they were never intended to receive!!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Starwood Lurker:
There is no email address on your Starwood Preferred Guest profile. This why you did not get your January statement and probably why you never got email notification of Y27. If you want to continue getting e-statements, I'd have someone fix the email address thing. Otherwise, February's may not arrive either. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

</font>

I think you cannot register without an email address. This is the second time mine has disappeared. It was there on Jan 17 when I got my Dec statement.

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

this post and the one before it make absolutely no sense. the one before this one says to refer to the next but the next one is just a copy of someone else's post with no further elaboration.

I wish I had seen this thread before I voted in the Freddie awards.

just to be clear, i work with a lot of people who dont read ft. they do stay at starwood and i did send them the links. who knows how far the spread since i do work for a small software company.

Christian

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by cxn:
just to be clear, i work with a lot of people who dont read ft. they do stay at starwood and i did send them the links. who knows how far the spread since i do work for a small software company.

Christian</font>

Then you might want to do them a favor and send them the URL for this thread. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

Thank you dbk10, jmoreita, you both summed up my question perfectly.

My question had to do with the 500 point online booking bonus. Bad person that I am, I registered for all three promos. I then proceeded to make my first reservation at the SPG web site, which should (according to one of the original promos) give me a 500 point bonus after the stay is completed (in early April).

Since the original promos are now being cancelled and replaced with a new one (which also includes a 500 point online bonus), I was wondering whether the previous 500 point bonus which I THOUGHT I had earned would be credited to my account, or whether it would be necessary to cancel and rebook the reservation using the new promo in order to receive those 500 bonus points.

I understood William to indicated that cancelling/rebooking is not necessary (ie the 500 point bonus still should be credited to my account). William, could you confirm that I am understanding you correctly?

Sorry about all the confusion, I guess that I should have stated my question more clearly the first time.

I need to make this perfectly clear to everyone. While Y29 and Y28 and Y27 had some unique add-ons specific to those particular promotions, if you wait for the fix after March 11th, the web booking bonus will not be part of the Y28 FIX that will replace the others.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Shareholder:
Following this thread for the first time this morning makes me really wonder about STARWOOD. As much as I appreciate the benefits I have received from this program over the years -- since SCI and Westin Premier -- what has happened over the past year is making me question my loyalty and booking patterns.

The program that won the Freddie is no longer the SPG we are elites in. The targeted promos started last year have continued to get the company into more trouble and certainly not increased my business with STARWOOD. I seldom received an email invitation to any of these targeted promos, or if I did, it arrived weeks after first details were posted here. In most cases, I only discovered them on FT. [I have still not received this current one.]

I agree they should not be combinable, though other promos being offered regionally should be because these are not part of the same marketing effort.

When it came to voting this year, SPG did not get my nod for best hotel program. In part it was due to the removal of the web booking bonus, the increase to 25 nights of Plat and the change in award levels for top tier properties. While we had notice of the temporary nature of the web booking bonus -- which inspite of this seems to be reappearing at the marketing department's wim, but only to select customers -- notice on the others was short of scandalous.

In spite of William's efforts -- and STARWOOD should be saluted for having him here to clean up the messes that their marketing folks create -- can anyone give me a good reason for having voted for SPG this year?

This mess up only reinforces my perception that this is a company in need of a decent marketing strategy to retain its better customers.

It pains me to post the foregoing, but SPG is trying my patience, and has not been the recipient of as much of my business as it might have, had it played the game a bit more fairly.</font>


Here are the reasons why I voted for Starwood for program of the year this year:

(1) Best hotels among their competitors. I can't bear the thought of having to stay at another chain.
(2) Suite upgrade %age over the past year has been &gt; 85%.
(3) Platinum Concierge - no other hotel program comes close to this concept. Do most of you realize that other hotel programs (Marriott for one) charges you to call their Marriott Rewards center (even for elites)? After having the Platinum concierge desk…I was astounded a Marriott’s lack of customer service.
(4) Hotel bedding (Westin, W, St. Regis and now Sheraton) is far superior to the competitors.
(5) Website...I know that others don't like the website, but I do.
(6) Online award booking.
(7) No blackout dates.

Personally, I had no problems with my vote this year. Every time I stay at a non-Starwood property I'm reminded just how good Starwood is.

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AA Platinum, Delta Gold, Starwood Platinum, Fairmont President's Club Gold, Hyatt Diamond, Marriott Gold

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by tfong007:
What is a stolen URL?

A URL is a URL

If it accepts my SPG Number that tells me that I am part of the target audience. Am I mistaken?</font>

In my mind, you are VERY mistaken. If Starwood wanted to target you, they would have sent you an email with the URL included. As I stated before, the terms and conditions state "select SPG members". I'm also sure that you realized that you weren't a member of this group prior to signing up in the first place.

In my mind, Starwood is doing you a favor by allowing you to participate in any of the promotions since you wouldn't have been able to participate without indirectly getting the targeted URL to begin with…but…as usual, that doesn’t seem to be good enough for all of the “reasonable” people on this FT board.

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AA Platinum, Delta Gold, Starwood Platinum, Fairmont President's Club Gold, Hyatt Diamond, Marriott Gold

What if you were actually targetted for more than one promotion? I was.

In reference to your response below:

I received a postcard offer from Starwood (via regular mail) for “Double Points, Double Stay Credits, 500 points for spg.com booking & 500 points for an email address update.” I don’t know what the specific promotion code for this offer is (Y27, Y28 & Y29).

I also received an email from spg.com: “You are now eligible to earn up to 20,000 bonus Starpoints(SM)! You will earn 10,000 Starpoints when you stay 10 nights, 15,000 Starpoints when you stay 15 nights, or 20,000 Starpoints when you stay 20 nights through May 31, 2003. Plus, after you stay 25 nights, you'll earn a free night to enjoy at any of our hotels through December 30, 2003. Each time you book online at spg.com and stay by May 31, 2003, you'll receive 500 bonus Starpoints and our best rates, guaranteed. Book now!”

Again, I don’t know what the specific promotion code for this offer is (Y27, Y28 & Y29).

Are any of these Y27, Y28 & Y29? Will I continue to be enrolled in both of them?

Your response will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Nancy


<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Starwood Lurker:
If you have Y27 & Y28 both on your account, or any combination of the major promotions Y27, Y28 & Y29, if you do not send us an email to correct it, everything will be taken off that you have now and replaced with Y28 only after March 11th. I can't make it any simpler than that.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today. </font>

A mistake has been made. As you can see above some people were targetted more than once. Why should they have to pay for Starwoods mistake? This is a simple question that I would like to have a simple answer for.

Creating an agent to detect instances of multiple entries would take a entry level programmer no more than 10 minutes to do. Thanks for checking with your IT dept. I am sorry to hear that you feel its not worth 10 minutes to resolve this issue.

Your URL allowed people to signup more than once. It also is quite simple for a programmer to design a page that will bounce people out if they have signed up for more than one offer. So dont blame some people for exploiting such a basic flaw in web design. Is it our fault that you did not foresee such a common occurence? I am sure that people that are not on flyertalk that did receive offers forwarded the message onto friends and colleagues.

i can't but say that i admire the lurker for his professionalism and patience towards
some people here whose greed , audacity and impertinence to me seem unparalleld on this board.

two of those dudes in my job would be enough to make me rip off my hair and call it quits.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif

tfong007, may I humbly recommend that you take a deep breath and step back. It's just a hotel points promo.

You have the right to be disappointed with Starwood, but that's about it. All your ridiculing of Starwood over this matter is making you look hysterical.

I'm very confused. I called Starwood about my recent trip to California because my stay at a hotel didn't get posted. So, it was taken care of by phone. Then, I shared my bad experiences at 2 of the hotels and I was told that I should write corporate headquarters because handicapped people need to be helped correctly. Didn't have time to do so yet. The very nice agent looked up my promotions and told me I was enrolled in several that I should have received either a written offer by mail or through my e-mail. I didn't even know I was offered anything. I still don't understand the different promotions because I can't find it on the Starwood web site. Can someone help me to understand what I was enrolled in? I think I recall she said I was enrolled in 3 different promotions I know nothing about. I guess I got enrolled during my last trip to California because I stayed at the LAX Fourpoints hotel. I need to know what I am enrolled in and the deadlines and the rules, please. Thanks

I signed up for all 3 (Y27,Y28,Y29.) I like the default Y28 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif. 2 of 'em say almost the SAME THINGso I would not expect combinability.
Definition of BONUS is something beyond that to which one is entitled. Everybody be happy & thankful to get one of these as
*wood intended.

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Play the travel game 3 vacations into the future!

i'm (almost) embarrassed to admit this, but i am still confused about the web booking bonus. so, i will make this very easy. yes or no, does the default offer include a web booking bonus? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by fly co to see the yanks:
i'm (almost) embarrassed to admit this, but i am still confused about the web booking bonus. so, i will make this very easy. yes or no, does the default offer include a web booking bonus? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif</font>

I agree about the confusion. I have heard different things from folks inside Starwood.

The Lurker's initial post says: <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">
1. Each account registered with two or more promotions will have all offers removed.

2. The deleted offers will then be replaced with a default offer of “Earn 5,000 Starpoints after every five nights, up to 20,000 Starpoints.” For full promotion details, please visit spg.com/20K.
</font>

the spg.com/20K webpage mentions the 500 point online bonus, but I understand that folks have also heard from starwood that the online bonus is not included in the default offer.

William, can you post the definitive answer?
Was the spg.com/20K reference a mistake? Thanks for your patience with us. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I received an email to enroll in the 5000 pts per 5 nights up to 20000 pts promotion and 500 pt online booking bonus(don't know what promo code), and I also received a postcard in the mail for the 'freenights' promotion(which specifically says promo code Y27.

Lurker: Will I still be enrolled in both of these after Starwood 'sweeps' everyones accounts?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by PMASON:
In my mind, you are VERY mistaken. If Starwood wanted to target you, they would have sent you an email with the URL included. As I stated before, the terms and conditions state "select SPG members". I'm also sure that you realized that you weren't a member of this group prior to signing up in the first place.
</font>

I pretty much have to disagree on this one. I have received something in the mail or email probably almost every day for the last many years that offered me the right to buy or join something because I was a very special person. In most of these cases they would be so happy for me to pass it along to someone else. Or, if someone else called, and tried to take advantage of the offer, they might be told that they were ineligible.

Starwood, on the other hand, told those who tried to take advantage of an offer that we were more than welcome to do so. They even congratulated us for doing so (in the confirmation email). Their own people (at PC desk) told us it was okay.

I signed up for a second promo only after reading that people were being signed up by the concierges. I didn't really expect it to work, and I'm not disappointed that it didn't. I don't have any negative feelings (towards SPG) because of it, but it does make me think that the marketing people (and programming people) are not entirely competent.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Starwood Lurker:
People who don't know about Flyertalk probably did not use the links provided here to register for multiple promotions. No one is being notified because these people know who they are better than we do. It's very expensive to send out millions of emails. Would you like for us to spend money on this kind of thing or be able to offer more in the way of promotions? There is a budget to think about and money to do this has to come from somewhere. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
</font>

William- not to call your credibility into question, but I think this is an absurd statement.

#1) You claim it will be difficult to know who signed up for more than one promo. But if this is so difficult, how will you remove all the promos and replace with Y28? I mean, aren't you guys sifting through accounts looking for multiple registrations anyway? Why not send THOSE people an e-mail?

#2) Sending e-mail is CHEAP. Please... ROFLMAO... Besides, it's probably a couple of thousand people at best...

What a mickey mouse operation ...

I would think that SPG would have learnt to improve their communication with their customers from their past mistakes.

This whole thing is getting out of hand...


I am ready to call in all the programs I participate in and call it a day...there is not much of an incentave any more...


Inflation and double this and double that,
well I am about realy to give up...

I truly hope SPG can get the "marketing/programing" right...

Again, with the infaltion of hotel/milage awards, and this issue, and other problems I find myself on the fence.

(08) hours sleep and a bed for the be best price and location???

I am very sad to see what has been going on in the last (06) months.

Regards...and good night.

I think some posters are way too focused on this promo snafu and are missing the bigger picture.

Forget about whether or not the promo was combinable…

The real issue for me is how Starwood is now reacting to what is a growing number of mistakes from their central marketing function.

I was reading in InsideFlyer about the campaign that followed Continental’s changes to its FF scheme… and it makes for an eerily accurate description of some things I’m seeing right now:

“Then, in the latter part of 1999 and early 2000, the members of the Continental OnePass program got together again and in much greater force -- this time in an effort to "Deny Continental the Freddie."

For years, Continental had enjoyed a tremendously loyal membership. Millions of OnePass members had flown and supported the airline as it struggled to survive bankruptcy. They delighted in the program's generous upgrade policy and took pride in the airline's success in the late 90s.

But in 1999, many of these same members began to sense that Continental was becoming complacent and was less concerned about keeping the loyal members satisfied than it was about attracting new members.

Much of the program's advertising at the time boasted of the numerous Freddie Awards OnePass had received over the years (for more information about the Freddies, go to www.freddieawards.com). (http://www.freddieawards.com).) A group of members who perceived their benefits to be diminishing and who were frustrated with the program decided that the best way to make their concerns heard would be to undertake a concerted, organized effort to ensure Continental OnePass did not win any more Freddie Awards.

"Many of us were noticing a gradual decline in service over time," said the movement's founder, David Danto. "When we would complain to Continental, their general response seemed to be 'Hey, we're winning all of these awards, so you can't be having problems.' So we said, fine, then we'll prevent you from winning awards."

Though it's difficult to determine the impact the campaign had on Freddie voting, Danto believes the movement's message was more important than short-term results.

"It was probably ineffective at first," says Danto. "But as time has passed, I do feel vindicated now that everything we predicted and the horrible trends we foresaw turned out to be true."

See http://www.insideflyer.com./articles/article.php?key=952 for the full article.

Well what I find interesting (bearing in mind that situations are of course not necessarily exactly the same), is that the leaders of this campaign realised that Continental had become complacent because they (and many others) had supported the airline so much – this sycophantic support had of course translated into Freddies (since this award is mostly targeted at frequent travellers)… which were now used to justify how popular the program was…. Until it was no longer.

I’m not suggesting this should or would be the way for Starwood, but history is usually a good place to look for what the future holds.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by anthonyanthony:
tfong007, may I humbly recommend that you take a deep breath and step back. It's just a hotel points promo.

You have the right to be disappointed with Starwood, but that's about it. All your ridiculing of Starwood over this matter is making you look hysterical.</font>


Amen!!! tfong007...we all have choices to make in life...maybe you should consider patronizing another program if you are so unhappy with Starwood. Did you consider that?


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AA Platinum, Delta Gold, Starwood Platinum, Fairmont President's Club Gold, Hyatt Diamond, Marriott Gold

Starwood is great, but needs to work on its communication. The whole bora bora thing got me thinking about how customers are paying for the mistakes made by the corporation. Sure lots of people took advantage of their mistake but this isn't the first time that consumers will use communication to their advantage to exploit mistakes made by corporations. The trick is for corporations to learn from their mistakes and not keep making them over and over. What does it take for them to learn? What?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by TrojanHorse:
I can't believe you guys; you cry if they don't tell you; you cry if they do; you do something that you aren't supposed to do or know you weren't targeted for; they give you warning and a chance to revert to your original offer and you whine

UnF*believable</font>
my thoughts exactly.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by tfong007:
... The trick is for corporations to learn from their mistakes and not keep making them over and over. What does it take for them to learn? What? </font>

I don't see this so much as a Starwood mistake as I do a deception on the part of some members by trying to sign up for promotions not directed to them. They should be happy to be allowed to keep one of the promos IMHO.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by JLL5100:
I don't see this so much as a Starwood mistake as I do a deception on the part of some members by trying to sign up for promotions not directed to them. They should be happy to be allowed to keep one of the promos IMHO.</font>

My thoughts exactly...

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AA Platinum, Delta Gold, Starwood Platinum, Fairmont President's Club Gold, Hyatt Diamond, Marriott Gold

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by JLL5100:
I don't see this so much as a Starwood mistake as I do a deception on the part of some members by trying to sign up for promotions not directed to them. They should be happy to be allowed to keep one of the promos IMHO.</font>

Actually Starwood is being even more generous than that. Unless your original promotion was the default one, you are effectively being given your choice of two promotions: the one you were targeted for or the default one.

Yeah it is a bit frustrating trying to plan around the promotion that you were targeted for vs. the promotion that you managed to sign up for vs. the promotion that you were defaulted to, but that is the price that you pay when you try to push the envelope on maximizing points/miles.

All in all, I think Starwood has done a pretty decent job in communicating with FT about what was happening. As soon as the multiple sign up opportunity made itself known, the Lurker said he would have a response from Starwood soon. Then he started this thread with Starwood's response. And as I point out above, they are giving folks a choice. It might not be the answer you wanted, but it is not an unreasonable answer, and it has been clearly communicated (except for the 500 point online bonus bit).

Compare this to how AmEx and Delta are handling last October's triple miles debacle: There was a triple miles on everything (charged on Skymiles AmEx) promotion that was run by Delta and AmEx back in October. The website allowed anyone to sign up. However only targeted folks go miles. Lots of folks moved tens of thousands of dollars of spend to their skymiles cards. When the miles didn't show up, everyone calls AmEx and gets completely different stories. Finally some suit at AmEx with good intentions (but apparent lack of understanding of how things work at AmEx) decides to step up and become the point man for resolving the situation. A few days later he hasn't managed to get anything accomplished, but can't get any other work done as his voicemail and email are clogged with messages saying "Me too". He eventually posts to the Delta forum on FT that people need to talk to the Ft. Lauderdale AmEx office, and while he promises to track the situation closely (yeah right), he shouldn't be contacted. In the end many people seem to be able to get a double miles compromise out of individual customer service supervisors, and others merely get treated very rudely by other supervisors. Absolutely no communications or consistency.

At least with SPG, we got an answer (even if it wasn't the one we wanted).

[This message has been edited by VPescado (edited 03-09-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Canista:
The real issue for me is how Starwood is now reacting to what is a growing number of mistakes from their central marketing function.</font>

i would love to know the answer to this one. i agree 100%.

This isn't about deception. Listen, we all know William reads every post on this board, so if some of us stated that we signed up for all 3, then how is that deceiving Starwood. Not to mention, we communicated our desire to be registered in as many promos as possible to SPG.

It is up to them to make the rules, and I don't have a problem with that at all. What I do have a problem with is their communication, or lack thereof. It wouldn't take much to communicate this to everyone who signed up for multiple promos.

Sorry to ask this. I have looked through the text and can not find an awnser.

Are Starwood allowing members not trageted in any of the 3 promotions via e-mail to register for 1 of the promotions ????

I'm so confused... Don't know what I'm sign up for anymore...Help Starwood !!!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by fly co to see the yanks:
i'm (almost) embarrassed to admit this, but i am still confused about the web booking bonus. so, i will make this very easy. yes or no, does the default offer include a web booking bonus? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif</font>

If you received the offer in the mail or by email, then the web booking bonus should be considered an add-on to what everyone is calling the default offer once you register.

If you receive the so-called default offer as an exception - meaning that you discovered you were not targeted for anything and called us to see if we would make an exception for inclusion and received it - or if you wait until after March 11th when the fix goes in, then it is not part of this offer.

Please send your emails to starwood.preferred.guest@starwoodhotels.com in order to fix your account. It is March 10th already and I may not have time to fix the ones I have received, much less answer any additional requests.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

William, why do you need emails when you could just ask folks to call customer service directly and have the desired code put in their account? The reps happily remove and add codes as requested.

The concierge were great with me over the phone. One rep originally signed me up for all three by stating that my account showed I was eligible for all of them so why not? Why not indeed http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif (I didn't really expect to get all of them even before the changes)

I phoned in today and had it changed to the default which I am happy with. The concierge knew exactly what I was talking about when I mentioned I needed to confirm what promotion I wanted on my account.

Much easier and just as quick as an email. All that plus you know for sure you made the March 11 deadline with your choice.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by flymetothemoon:
William, why do you need emails when you could just ask folks to call customer service directly and have the desired code put in their account? The reps happily remove and add codes as requested. </font>

Mainly because the phone lines at the time this began were already over-taxed. Now we have emails that are 48 hours old. So, pick your poison. Call or email, but get it done. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

wiliam -sorry to be a pain!
BUT.
If we dont call or email dont we just get the default y28?

I deleted the email so cant rememeber what I was signed up for.When I called spg oz they were really confused too as each of the segments has its own reference(eg. 500 pts -free night after 25 stays etc)
NOW
go and have that valium sandwich!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by tinkybelle:
wiliam -sorry to be a pain!
BUT.
If we dont call or email dont we just get the default y28?

I deleted the email so cant rememeber what I was signed up for.When I called spg oz they were really confused too as each of the segments has its own reference(eg. 500 pts -free night after 25 stays etc)
NOW
go and have that valium sandwich!</font>

If you have any combination of Y27, Y28 or Y29 on your account, the FIX will be a default to Y28 FIX, which will not include the web booking bonus.

I think I need a vat of thorazine to dunk my head in at this point. Taking valium would be like shooting BB's at a charging bull elephant. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

now why did I know you would still be there at this time of night???

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by tinkybelle:
now why did I know you would still be there at this time of night???</font>

tinkybelle, YGM. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

William

Wow, am I confused?! William, will I get the web booking bonus for my stay at Sheraton San Diego? I am here now if I have to change something by tomorrow. I think I have Y27 which should be a free night after 6 nights and another free night after 6 more nights. I will be here for 7 nights, so this seemed like a good deal for me. Why is Y28 so popular? The front desk manager is very friendly- Michael Grisar. He sent up a mini refrigerator when one wasn't in the room! So far the only issues have been the room wasn't made up when I came back at 3pm and the door was open when I came another time! A little scary, but nothing was taken. Will report more later. Happy Birthday!

I have sent an email, but not received a response.

William - what will happen to my account since I actually was targetted for Y27 and Y28?