<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by east_coast_west:
Here is the situation. I have a cash and points reservation at the Westin Bayshore in Vancouver for my anniversary next weekend. I used a cash and points award to book the room for $45 a night. At the time, the csr told me that I could upgrade the room by calling five days before the reservation and, if rooms were available, I could upgrade to a club room or tower room.
I called tonight and was told I could upgrade to a club room for 1000 starpoints or a tower room for 1500 points. I hung up, called the hotel to find out more about the rooms, called Starwood back and was told I cannot upgrade a cash and points booking using points, and I am stuck in a no view low floor room.
My options are to use 8500 starpoints per night to get the upgraded room, book a base level room online for about $114 a night and upgrade using 1500 points a night or throw myself on the mercy of the hotel and pray that as a lowly preferred plus they will upgrage me to a tower room because it is my anniversary. I can't even book at spg.com now b/c their lowest rate is $149 while Orbitz is $114.
I am pretty annoyed by this as I was specifically told I could upgrade a cash and points room if the hotel had availability which it does, and now either have to blow 17,000 points or pay $230 instead of $90 for two nights at the hotel.
I am told that if I were gold, I would get upgraded to a tower room if available. Is there anyway I can get gold in the next three days?
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Sorry if there was any misinformation given out, but you cannot upgrade a Cash & Points Award using Starpoints. You could, however, ask the hotel to redeem additional Starpoints at check-in as an Instant Upgrade Award - provided there is availability at check-in to do so.
Sincerely,
William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services
[email protected]