Upcoming reward stays disappear after SPG rep added request
Jul 22, 2014, 3:40 pm
#1
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,760
Upcoming reward stays disappear after SPG rep added request
Never have seen this before.
We have had 3 separate reward nights booked at same hotel in Guilin, China from 2 accounts that are booked weeks ago.
Today when I went in to print the confirmation (for Visa application purpose), I noticed the room showed Smoking room on all 3 reservations.
I called SPG reservation and asked the rep to put in a request for non-smoking room. After she did that, I even got confirmation emails again.
HOWEVER, when I went back to SPG site to print the confirmation (a lot more printer-friendly than the email version), all the reservations are GONE. They are no longer listed under My Stay.
I could pull them up One by One using Confirmation Numbers, but I cannot see them listed on the My Stay screen.
When I called SPG to inquire, the rep said he could see the reservations remain good, i.e. no cancellation numbers associated with them, but he could NOT see the reservation details. He advised to wait several hours then check again.
I have NEVER experienced such system glitch - that a simple comment to the reservation would cause the reservation DISAPPEARs...
In the past I could change reservation particulars and the reservation remained Visible all the time. Now they disappear, and they are booked directly on SPG site, the only thing happened is that they are being "touched" by the SPG rep.
William, have you seen this happened before?
Apparently our SPG numbers are IN the reservations because they are all award bookings and are there up till the rep added request for Non-Smoking room to the reservations this afternoon.
How can I be sure the reservations remain good when the SPG rep himself could NOT pull up the details from his end?
Should I cancel them and rebook?!
We have had 3 separate reward nights booked at same hotel in Guilin, China from 2 accounts that are booked weeks ago.
Today when I went in to print the confirmation (for Visa application purpose), I noticed the room showed Smoking room on all 3 reservations.
I called SPG reservation and asked the rep to put in a request for non-smoking room. After she did that, I even got confirmation emails again.
HOWEVER, when I went back to SPG site to print the confirmation (a lot more printer-friendly than the email version), all the reservations are GONE. They are no longer listed under My Stay.
I could pull them up One by One using Confirmation Numbers, but I cannot see them listed on the My Stay screen.
When I called SPG to inquire, the rep said he could see the reservations remain good, i.e. no cancellation numbers associated with them, but he could NOT see the reservation details. He advised to wait several hours then check again.
I have NEVER experienced such system glitch - that a simple comment to the reservation would cause the reservation DISAPPEARs...
In the past I could change reservation particulars and the reservation remained Visible all the time. Now they disappear, and they are booked directly on SPG site, the only thing happened is that they are being "touched" by the SPG rep.
William, have you seen this happened before?
Apparently our SPG numbers are IN the reservations because they are all award bookings and are there up till the rep added request for Non-Smoking room to the reservations this afternoon.
How can I be sure the reservations remain good when the SPG rep himself could NOT pull up the details from his end?
Should I cancel them and rebook?!
Jul 22, 2014, 3:46 pm
#2
Company Representative - Starwood
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Austin, Texas
Programs: Marriott Employee Level
Posts: 31,593
Best regards,
William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
[email protected]
Jul 22, 2014, 4:23 pm
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,760
I send you a PM with the details.
Thanks for your help as always.
PS
Hotel has reward night availability for all our dates so if a cancel and rebook would clean things up, that is an option. I just need to know what to do.
Thanks for your help as always.
PS
Hotel has reward night availability for all our dates so if a cancel and rebook would clean things up, that is an option. I just need to know what to do.
Jul 23, 2014, 10:47 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,760
Update with mechanism on how to fix this
I am giving the details for future reference in case someone comes upon similar issue and cares to do a search on the "fix".
I called the Corporate Customer Service this morning.
The rep over there also could only see the reservations but could not do anything about it at all. SPG number was not associated with the award reservations which remained good but would not allow SPG reps to do anything. She decided to call China and had the other side to fix it from the "backend". Hotel in question is Sheraton Guilin, Guilin, China.
After lengthy hold, she came back with the SAME suggestion you and I have already come to a conclusion via PMs - Cancel and Rebook is the only way to make the reservations associated with the SPG account again. Corporate Customer Service rep agreed that it is better to rebook it as without the SPG account number in the reservation, particularly a reward booking, not only I might have issue at check in, but even no issue at check in, later the hotel would have trouble billing SPG and the hotel might very well just turn around to bill the CC used for guarantee instead. That we both agree it would be a worse mess down the road and a much bigger problem to fix.
Therefore cancel and rebook is the preferred method to fix the issue even though the reservations themselves still seem "alive" in the system.
She could rebook with no problem but she could NOT cancel the old reservations. Again she was going to call China but I asked her to just let me try to cancel them online as I could pull up the reservations online from my end by the reservation numbers using Find A Stay function and the tabs on it are all functional.
I was able to cancel both old reservations online from my end, and she was able to see the cancellation numbers now associated with the reservations. Again, she was NOT able to request a confirmation email being sent. Luckily the system finally sent the Cancellation Confirmations after some delays.
After over 30 minutes on the phone we are now finally back to what we should have been. Whew!
Anyway, here is the "quick" fix that would spare you the need to get technical assistance.
To the community:
The following only works if there are still reward availability for the nights you need. I do not know how it would be if there is no more availability!
1) Pull up the reservation by reservation number on your own computer.
2) Call SPG to inform the rep the reservation could only be viewed by this method and you would like to cancel and rebook so you would be able to see it under My Stay.
3) SPG rep would not be able to process the cancellation but you could do the cancellation from your end online. Tell the SPG rep you would cancel it now and ask s/he to monitor the cancellation.
4) Cancellation should go thru and a Cancellation number generated. Give the SPG rep the canellation number. S/he would need that to return the associated points back to your SPG account.
5) Now you can have the rep rebook the nights with request of room type, late arrival etc to be put in when s/he is making the reservation.
The system glitch is, when a reservation is "modified" in anyway, there is a possibility the SPG number falls off from the reservation and then causing all sorts of problems. By having requests put in at reservation time, hopefully the "modification" could be avoided.
6) It is advisable to EMAIL hotel directly on your requests to avoid "modification" completely until SPG finally fixes this ongoing issue.
If you have enough points in your account, you could have 5) done first or the Corporate Customer Service rep could put the necessary points in your account first, then rebook the stays, before the cancellation of the old reservations.
Again, the above only works when there is still reward availability for your nights. If there is no more, then you would need Starwood Lurker's intervention to help resolve the invisible reservation problem. If this is a hotel within US, I probably would take a chance, even though there might be potential problems down the road. With a hotel outside US, I would not take a chance but make sure everything would show up in SPG system properly. Just my 2 Cents.
William, thanks again for your presence on FT.
I called the Corporate Customer Service this morning.
The rep over there also could only see the reservations but could not do anything about it at all. SPG number was not associated with the award reservations which remained good but would not allow SPG reps to do anything. She decided to call China and had the other side to fix it from the "backend". Hotel in question is Sheraton Guilin, Guilin, China.
After lengthy hold, she came back with the SAME suggestion you and I have already come to a conclusion via PMs - Cancel and Rebook is the only way to make the reservations associated with the SPG account again. Corporate Customer Service rep agreed that it is better to rebook it as without the SPG account number in the reservation, particularly a reward booking, not only I might have issue at check in, but even no issue at check in, later the hotel would have trouble billing SPG and the hotel might very well just turn around to bill the CC used for guarantee instead. That we both agree it would be a worse mess down the road and a much bigger problem to fix.
Therefore cancel and rebook is the preferred method to fix the issue even though the reservations themselves still seem "alive" in the system.
She could rebook with no problem but she could NOT cancel the old reservations. Again she was going to call China but I asked her to just let me try to cancel them online as I could pull up the reservations online from my end by the reservation numbers using Find A Stay function and the tabs on it are all functional.
I was able to cancel both old reservations online from my end, and she was able to see the cancellation numbers now associated with the reservations. Again, she was NOT able to request a confirmation email being sent. Luckily the system finally sent the Cancellation Confirmations after some delays.
After over 30 minutes on the phone we are now finally back to what we should have been. Whew!
Anyway, here is the "quick" fix that would spare you the need to get technical assistance.
To the community:
The following only works if there are still reward availability for the nights you need. I do not know how it would be if there is no more availability!
1) Pull up the reservation by reservation number on your own computer.
2) Call SPG to inform the rep the reservation could only be viewed by this method and you would like to cancel and rebook so you would be able to see it under My Stay.
3) SPG rep would not be able to process the cancellation but you could do the cancellation from your end online. Tell the SPG rep you would cancel it now and ask s/he to monitor the cancellation.
4) Cancellation should go thru and a Cancellation number generated. Give the SPG rep the canellation number. S/he would need that to return the associated points back to your SPG account.
5) Now you can have the rep rebook the nights with request of room type, late arrival etc to be put in when s/he is making the reservation.
The system glitch is, when a reservation is "modified" in anyway, there is a possibility the SPG number falls off from the reservation and then causing all sorts of problems. By having requests put in at reservation time, hopefully the "modification" could be avoided.
6) It is advisable to EMAIL hotel directly on your requests to avoid "modification" completely until SPG finally fixes this ongoing issue.
If you have enough points in your account, you could have 5) done first or the Corporate Customer Service rep could put the necessary points in your account first, then rebook the stays, before the cancellation of the old reservations.
Again, the above only works when there is still reward availability for your nights. If there is no more, then you would need Starwood Lurker's intervention to help resolve the invisible reservation problem. If this is a hotel within US, I probably would take a chance, even though there might be potential problems down the road. With a hotel outside US, I would not take a chance but make sure everything would show up in SPG system properly. Just my 2 Cents.
William, thanks again for your presence on FT.