mgchan

As a follow up I was eventually able to get the appropriate points refunded. I called the SPG line and explained I had 3 reward stays recently, that I had tried to call before to get an adjustment but was unsuccessful. The first rep understood what I was trying to do and saw the difference but couldn't process a refund so she transferred me to a supervisor who was able to help. Got almost 200k in points back (including a 5 night stay at the St. Regis in Florence which netted 135k alone). The points showed up in my account as a manual credit/refund about an hour later. So it took about 4 hours on the phone and numerous calls but eventually things got done as promised.

At least this helps to balance the inability to upgrade travel certificates after the merger when we were told by a rep before the merger to wait until after the merger to upgrade. With the refunded points combined with the refund from the travel package we were able to basically book the same stay we wanted in the first place.

CIT85

That would be me! Glad you were anal enough to keep record of your activity to prove them wrong. Hope you are successful in getting points refunded.

ENIAC

Back when the new award categories were announced, I used my Starpoints to reserve two holiday season nights at a the Hacienda Uaymon, which was 25K SPG points a night, because I knew it would be dropping to the new Cat 6, for 50K MR points a night. I knew that I would have to call in to get it repriced, but had been put off by all the talk of delays and IT problems so assumed that things would get better later in the fall.

I just tried calling in to get it repriced, and it was a nightmare. Lots of struggling with the automated system to get through to a human. The first agent transferred me somewhere and I spent 25 minutes on hold before being disconnected. The second one started to help me, transferred me without telling me she was going to, and I had 10 minutes of unexpected hold announcements in Spanish (which I don't speak) before getting through to an agent who told me the only way to do it is to cancel and rebook. Except the reservation has a 90 day cancellation window, so he says I am out of luck and there is no way to reprice or credit,

I must admit that with the merger chaos I've been avoiding Marriott and haven't been monitoring things closely. Did all the talk about being able to reprice SPG reservations without cancelling them turn out to be wrong? Or is there a desk somewhere that can reprice my reservation and credit me the 50K points? Thanks for any pointers. I've spent a while looking for a thread that might have the answer, but didn't find it.

ENIAC

To answer my own question, in case that helps anyone. Rather than call again, I decided to email the general MR address. Having one phone experience like that was enough and had taken more than an hour and left me in a bad mood. I kept the email simple – a request to adjust the price and credit the points, rather than a moan about the phone service.

That was Friday. Today (Tuesday) I got a helpful email announcing that “I have canceled your original certificate for 150,000 points and issued a new one for the 100,000 points.” So repricing is still possible, but how you get through to someone who knows that is a mystery. The email came from a “eService Champion” with Starwood, so maybe that indicates some level of escalation or perhaps it’s just title inflation.

That was my first interaction of any kind with Starriott since August, and it’s not filling me with enthusiasm for more. IHG has better customer service, which is such a sad decline from the glory days of SPG platinum. I’ll use the status where it makes sense, and try to burn the rest of my points, but requalifying with Hyatt is going to be my priority next year. Am keeping my three Marriott credit cards, but putting them in the drawer for the renewal nights only. Also I just realized that LTP isn’t going to get me any airline benefits next year, which is frustrating as I could have earned UA silver if I’d flown one more segment on their metal. Guess I’ve not been following these things on FT as obsessively as I used to.

DFWsakp

Why would you not just cancel and rebook?

MSPeconomist

margarita girl

Glad you got it worked out.

There are lots of examples in this thread:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...und-delay.html

I was able to reprice stays at the Gritti Palace and the Danieli by calling the Plat line. I couldn't cancel/rebook as there was no availability left.

yoyo

I just found this thread. A friend of mine booked a starwood stay on Aug 12, 2018 for a stay April. 2019 and cancelled the reservations 10 days ago (Jan 10th, 2019) and found no points are being returned to his combined account.
Now trying to call Marriott to get this resolved.

avatexrs

hipquest

I hate to ask the obvious but have you called Marriott to try to update your booking?

mahasamatman

Some people have had success by using the "modify reservation" feature online, but if that doesn't work, you'll have to call and see what they say.

avatexrs