Starwood Preferred Guest - current SPG nightmare. Advice dearly sought.

So I am a brand new gold member as of Jan 1. After joining in late october of 06, I made gold and earned 30k+ pointsin under 3 months due to business travel. Seeing the end in sight of this arduous travel schedule I, planned a ski trip to the Steamboat Sheraton for the third week of march. Here is where the trouble started.

I called SPG on Jan 2nd to book 7 nights for points & cash at the Sheraton in Steamboat. The representative said that this was available, and she could book me, but that the hotel had yet to upload the cash and points rate for the new year. As a result she would note that it was a Cash & Points reservation, but book it as cash in the interim until the Cash & Points rate was uploaded. I asked her if this was confirmed, and I could book my flights and she said yes. I went ahead and book $1200 and 60,000 miles in NON-REFUNDABLE airline tickets through my skymiles account.

I call back SPG today, and am told that the representative made a mistake. The hotel in question does not participate in cash and points during the winter, and I cant have my reservation. Not only that but they only had rooms available at $700 a night!

In summary:
(1) I booked non-refundable travel based on explicit information from an SPG representative, only to be told later that the rep made a mistake.
(2) Despite the fact that it is SPG's mistake, they cant rectify it because "the hotel wont make an exception".

What an outright LIE! "the hotel wont make an exception"?!?! Its all the same company! Not only that, if they acknowledge the mistake, why on earth should it be me who suffers? I live at their hotels, the one thing that made this extended travel okay was I knew in the end, SPG would hook me up with some free vacation benefits. Only to be told when they make a mistake that I am SOL.

It takes real gaul to tell gold members that a hotel is blocked out for the entire ski season to points. What on earth are the points good for if I cant use them on vacations? This is such a scam.

I waiting to hear back from a 2nd level customer service rep. After that I have direct phone numbers/extensions for the following:

Jessica Nelson
Director Customer Contact Center

Sharon Graser-Escobedo
Department Head/Customer Service Group

Robin Korman
Vice President Loyalty Marketing

Actually I have direct contact info for every manager-CLevel exec at Starwoods. I would be happy to share if anyone needs. And if anyone has any advice please let me know.

its almost never the same company. SPG is a company that operates a branding, advertising and awards program. Other companies own hotels, which they can tie into the SPG brands in order to attract customers who look for, say, a Westin, when they are traveling to a new city. However, the contract specifies only certain obligations for the hotel. The hotel is given wide latitude in classifying what rooms are award eligible and which are 'higher' status. They can decide what times of year to participate in various promotions.

In this case, I would be extremely surprised if the property were a corporate (SPG) owned one. In this case, SPG can request that the hotel waive its rules and decisions, but the hotel makes the decision.

You have some issues with SPG based on reservation agent error, but that is unlikely to EVER get you the room at the award rate you want. It might get you some compensatory points.

Welcome to FT :)

Some questions...
Did you get a confirmation number and confirmation email for your reservation with the cash/points details?

Were the points deducted from your account?

If you did, then you definitely have a case.

I would contact Starwood Corporate Customer Service and advise them what has happened. If the agent did make a mistake then Starwood should honor the booking and any additional payment/points should be the responsibility of Starwood to be worked between the property and themselves.

Starwood has great customer service from my personal experience and many other's here on FT.

BTW, I would not advise in publishing people's names here on FT. I would suggest you edit your original post.

Good Luck and let us know how it worked out.

I'm quite surprised at SPG's response on this. Generally, they are pretty good about acknowledging mistakes and making amends. Perhaps the Starwood Lurker can provide some assistance here?

I wouldnt even think that I would be able to get any room on pts during the Peak Season.

I feel bad for the OP, could be they arent a Long Time Lurker. Cause then they would have surely read on another post of which there are many throughout, whenever theres an error in a Hotels rate to wait before going out and getting tkts.

Unless I had something in writing from the Rep the OP spoke to, no way would I have gotten any tkts till the room as such was Confirmed as such.

Could it be that the Rep said "That there was availability for the days the OP wanted = meaning having to pay, and Ill put down you'd like to go with C&P and when and if that is offered you can simply switch. Maybe the Rep thought it was best to atleast get the OP a booking rather then call back some time later only to find that the Hotel is Sold-out. Hopefully theres a tape of the call and SPG will be able to go over it and see exactly what was said by whom.

All isnt lost the Skymiles can get put back into the OPs acct for afee and probably DL will allow them to use the value of the tkts purchased for a penalty as well. Not at all what the OP would want.

Or the OP might be able to get a day or two on pts at the Hotel and stay elsewhere for the rest. But expecting C&P to be available in the Winter is like expecting it to be avavilable in NYC during Xmas or New Years or RIO during Carnival. I'll give birth to a kid before that happens and Im not a woman.

Sorry OP unfortunately your expectations of SPG were way too high, C&P is not always available and not Every Hotel participates either.

IF you are in possession of a Confirmed Res from SPG or you can document that the Rep told you what you claim they did, THEN IMO SPG owes You the room.

I'd also recommend to the OP to tone down their anger. Sure, you may have been screwed (you certainly FEEL you were) but taking the anger out on a supervisor isn't going to convince them to help you. Be polite and to the point. Thank them for their help even if you don't get what you wanted. Be angry and complain to your friends :)

Remember, once you get to the supervisor and above level, that person almost always wants to help you. It's often out of their hands so try not to kill the messenger.

"Delta is now the only domestic airline to allow anyone who books a ticket on Delta.com to cancel that reservation without penalty within 24 hours.


Cancellation requests must be made by midnight of the date after a ticket is purchased or midnight of the departure date of the first flight, whichever comes first. "

Might be worth looking into. Miles redeposits are usually available too, although there may be a fee.


It takes real gaul to tell gold members that a hotel is blocked out for the entire ski season to points. What on earth are the points good for if I cant use them on vacations?

I will lay quite a bit of money on a bet that you could use points to get a room at Steamboat. I've used points to stay there over Xmas-NY week twice, when rooms were up to $1200. SPG says no blackouts to award nights and there are very, very few exceptions.

You are trying to take advantage of a special offer (C&P) that are offered at a select, limited number of properties every year. I'm not surpised at all that this optional, supplemental offering is not available during the peak period of the year.

Yes, a mistake was made and you have a right to be angry. But look at your options and take quick action, you may be able to limit the damage. And wait for SPG to respond to your requests for assistance before trashing them.

And get the facts correct.

And the "I know important people" won't get you far here.

If it's *documented* in the reservation, I would think a supervisor could, in theory, deposit enough goodwill points in your account such that maybe you pay for a day (whatever your original cash portion should have been) and cover the rest with goodwill points.

Something close. As the other have said, it's no surprise that they don't offer C&P then and it's not a scam at all under normal circumstances as you can nearly always book an available room with all points.

I can tell you now they aren't going to do C&P during Spring Break. Most props do C&P during offseason if at all.

But...like others have said...you should still be able to use points.

I think that there is a compromise that you're not seeing while you're angry.

Just last week, I was considering a 5-night award for this same property around the same time, and award rooms were available. (In fact, award rooms were available for my dates even though they didn't have rooms available for cash.) AAA rate is available for 3/18/07 - 3/23/07 for just $239/nt. How did you come up with $700??? Are these RACK rates for "sold out" dates?

I would ask SPG to compensate you with whatever the balance of points you need to reach 40K points -- the amount required for a 5th-night-free stay. Then pay for the other two nights that you need.

If SPG agrees to front you the extra points (less than 10K points since you said you have 30K+), then two nights at the above rate would cost you a total of $478 + tax. That's hardly more than what you were originally expecting to pay: 28K points + $420 (+ some tax?). Bonus: You'd earn 1434 Starpoints, a stay credit, and 2 night credits for the 2 nights that you pay for.

If SPG does not agree to give you anything extra, then you could choose to buy the balance of points that you need for the same award.

Personally, I've so far decided to keep my reservation at the Best Western Ptarmigan Inn for about $170/nt. (And if I weren't using my Platinum 50% off promo award for another trip, I'd be using that for this one.)

No matter who the company is, if the rate I want is not available, then I consider it a gamble as to whether it will become available. No matter what any agent tells me, I still consider it a gamble until I have it in writing from someone that has the authority to put it in writing.

C&P awards are a discount award primarily offered to fill rooms that would otherwise go vacant. Each individual hotel chooses when and if they wish to offer that rate. There's no reason for Steamboat to need to offer this rate during peak ski season.

The C&P T&Cs spell it out as "valid at promotion participating properties only" and "based upon availability." I've said before about other T&Cs that I think "based upon availability" should be better stated to clarify whether this means room availability or rate availability. The OP basically assumed that it meant room availability and assumed that this property will continue to be a participating hotel during all of 2007. C&P awards are based on C&P award rate availability.

Regular awards are a different story. The agreement that the hotels have with SPG is that they will not blackout any dates from regular award availability. Regular awards are based on standard room availability.

Since a new C&P calendar is not yet available, the C&P redemption page is currently broken on the website.

OT regarding CPRich's DL quote:
I understand why you said SkyMiles, but the following is now on Continental's website. DL is no longer the "only one" that allows a refund, though technically they are the only one that allows a refund for tickets booked "on delta.com." :rolleyes:
OnePass members can request a full refund on any ticket, regardless of the type of fare purchased, within 24 hours of purchase on continental.com. It is no longer necessary to request that your reservation be put on hold.