Was charged the annual fee last month. Sent a secure message asking for a fee waiver or Starpoints and was promptly offered 3,000 points as a token of goodwill. I accepted the offer
For the record, I've only had the card for a year and spent about $20-25k on it--probably about 50% at Starwood hotels. I've had the Costco card for several years now and got the Platinum card late last year. Relatively little spending on the other cards.