dewolfxy

I didn't end up doing anything further since my last post - I feared aggravating the hotel staff as one of the people above suggested. Well, I did call the Starwood regular line again and ask about any way to upgrade with points (my 3rd request on different days), and they said not on their end and referred me to the hotel (who had already just told me no). I understand your point, Bliss, about not leaving things to chance. But my point is this - this vacation itself is already costing a lot of money. Yes, I could have kept the points and just paid for an ocean view room. For 10 nights, that would be $3K+, not just the $40 difference which you cited above. I chose to spend money on activities and tours for them, dinner gift certificates, and other extras. Since I don't have unlimited resources, I was forced to make that choice - either pay for those extras, and take the chance they wouldn't be upgraded, or pay $3K for the upgraded room, and not pay for the extras. The advice to "not leave it to chance and pay the extra money", seems like a false choice to me. Given limited resources, I made the choice that I thought guaranteed them the best vacation, and did the best I could to ask for an upgrade as an extra perk. All of that said, I do appreciate that you called the Plat concierge line for me, and your time in posting replies. As it turns out, my choice worked out well.

The rest of the story:
My relatives arrived a few days ago, and they were upgraded to a Banyan room with a nice view of the Banyan tree and an ocean view. It's a small upgrade - not a suite or anything like that - but that's really all I wanted. I just was hoping they wouldn't have the street noise, because I didn't know if that would bother them. They're thrilled with the room and the trip in general (1st time to Hawaii), and have been really busy with all the activities we planned (arranged and paid through the Starwood Tour & Activities office there). So, thank you again to everyone who posted above, it was really helpful and much appreciated!

Actually months ago when I booked the flights, I posted in the Continental and Northwest forums when I was trying to find the best 1st class flights to Hawaii. I ended up booking MSP-HNL on Northwest, which has the really nice business class seats that recline fully, the same as on some translatlantic business class. They were thrilled with that, so the whole trip benefitted quite a bit from FlyerTalk advice. Thanks to everyone!