NEW-STARWOOD PREFERRED GUEST-Questions/Answers

[pbhunt]

The gold SPG membership is a one time deal if you don't complete the stays/#of nights needed to maintain gold status. Your membership will revert to regular status at the end of your "year". You must have at least one "stay" or activity on your SPG account every 12 months to maintain your membership without losing the points. Accumulating points with the Starwood Amex is activity and should maintain your membership at the regular level.

 

[Mouseteacher]

Please bear with me ... if you keep using the Starwood AMEX cc, you won't lose gold level status or points even if it is beyond a year?

 

[pbhunt]

Sorry, you will lose your Gold Status after 1 year if you don't have the required # of nights/stays for Gold status.

Points earned during the year with the SPG Amex, will maintain your Starwood Preferred guest membership at the lowest level (preferred guest?) If you don't have the SPG Amex (I don't) and you have no stays within one year your memership will expire and you will forfeit points earned. (But you can transfer them to a FF program).

 

[Mouseteacher]

Thanks, pbhunt. How do you transfer points to FF?

 

[pbhunt]

http://www.starwood.com/preferredguest/index.html

log in, choose earn/redeem starpoints and then the transfer screen on the left side. Then just follow the instructions. There is a minimum for the amount you can transfer.

 

[Mouseteacher]

Once again, thanks for your help.

 

[pbhunt]

There is an advantage to transferring hotel points to your FF account. In most FF accounts points do not expire until after 3 years of inactivity, so you can increase their longetivity.

 

[Mouseteacher]

Thanks, DH and I were talking about what we want to do next summer - not sure if we can return to S/D. We'll make that decision in the spring. It's good to know that if we decide we won't be using the points for the hotel, we'll move them to FF before all expires.

 

[Troyfus]

Mouseteacher,
If you have a SPG/Amex CC then it may be advantageous to keep them in the Starwood system until ready for use. As long as you use your card once a year or more, then activity (points from the card) will keep your SPG account active. Once you are ready to make your flight reservations or hotel stay, then you will best know where to transfer them. No sense transferring them to airline A when at the time you want to make reservations Airline B has much better rates. At least while they remain in your Starwood account, you maintain much more flexibility. Hope this gives you some more elbow room.

 

[Mouseteacher]

Thanks, Troyfus. I just need to clarify - I have 10,000+ points now. I do have Starwood AMEX cc. If I do not use these points within the year - I will keep them because of the AMEX cc? Or I'll lose the 10,000+ points but will have new points because I've been using the cc? I guess my hope is that I can retain these points and all that I continue to earn even if we don't use them this summer (our year up time).

 

[Troyfus]

You will be considered an "Active Member" so long as you have earned Starpoints as a result of activities at participating Starwood Properties during the previous twelve months. Starpoints resulting from transfers or earnings from other programs do not count toward active status.

Just got this from the SPG website. The Amex/Starwood platinum card is not listed as one of the affiliates whereas the "Membership Rewards" program is. Therefore I am confused as well. The special status of the Amex/Spg CC may or may not maintain the active status as mentioned above.
Your best bet: Email Starwood and ask. Let them know you plan to accumulate points using your CC, but that you will not have a stay for the one year. Let them give you an official answer to this question by email, then save it. If they say your points and membership will remain intact, then print it out and file it away for future referal if needed. If they will not remain active, then transfer your points out before they are lost. By all means, let us know what you find out. Here is their email site:
Starwood Customer Service

 

[Troyfus]

MouseTeacher,
Did you ever get an official answer to your inquiry regarding your points?
In fact, upon requests from Starwood, they could always extend the time before expirition. Starwood is fantastic when it comes to meeting the needs of its customers.

Time keeps on slippin.. slippin... slippin towards our adventure.....!

 

[Muffy]

Looks like we will be at the Dolphin at the same time! We are very excited about this trip, here in CT. What a great way to top off Christmas! Happy planning!

 

[Mouseteacher]

Troyfus ~ Thanks for asking - I'm going to wait until spring. I will know better then if we will be able to make reservations at the Dolphin for a late August trip which is our year up time. I'm hopeful that can we can swing another summer WDW vacation - older DS wants dorm his last two years of college - more $$$$$$$.

 

[adisneyfan2]

Muffy & Troyfus -- looks like THREE Dis-er's at the Dolphin at the same time! I'm going to try to procure a lime ribbon before I go.... Anybody else?

 

[Muffy]

Yes, everyone wear your lime green ribbons at the Dolphin! We are counting the days till the Dolphin! Happy planning everyone!

 

[Troyfus]

We will be wearing ours! In fact, if you are up and about on NYE then wander on down to the lobby. You may just catch my family checking into the Dolphin. Our plane arrives a little before 11:30pm, and we are using a towncar to get there. So we may or may not be there to ring in the New Year. I have faith we'll be there.
Our 1st morning we have ressies for the Grand Floridian Cafe breakfast at 8:30am; then we are off to the MK.

To keep this in topic, I will add this: We will be using our Platinum American Express Starwood CC to pay for our airfair, RT towncar service, Dolphin stay, and everything else. This should rack up some of those valuable Starwood points. I just wish that the White Glove treatment through Amex was valid with the Dolphin. Do you think they would reconsider it now that Amex and Starwood have a partnership with the CC?

 

[Muffy]

Troyfus,
Be sure and hand over your plat starwood CC to the person checking you in! I have read of people getting Plat status upgrades at checkin with this CC. I'm not sure if the CM are confused and doing it by accident when they see the word Platinum or what. I'm not clear on why?! It would be wonderful if you got a Jr. suite. Please make sure you hand her the CC as they will ask for one for charging, etc. If nothing is offered, ask. Happy planning!

 

[disnurse]

Got my new gold card in the mail today!! Very exciting to see it for real. It has an expiration date of 2/04. Wonder if I can just renew it by keeping american express cards active??

 

[DVC California]

We have a trip to the Dolphin planned this January over MLK weekend. Thanks to all for the expert advice posted on the board.

I applied for a SPG card online and also applied for the Starwood Platinum Amex. When I went back to the SPG page to check on my account, I saw I was automatically upgraded to GOLD level and I was able to order a replacement card online as well!

That was too easy! I didn't have to make any phone calls to SPG; hoping I get a kind agent to process an upgrade.

Woohoo! Steve