Ooops. Changes to Starwood Award Night Categories Appear Retroactive.
Today is the first day under Starwood’s new hotel categories and my upcoming award reservation at the Four Points Cumberland hotel (booked last month) has apparently been affected. I first realized this with an Award Wallet notification that my reservation had been changed.
I, optimistic platinum that I am, hoped this was because the Four Points had an amazing suite that they were upgrading me to weeks early and accessing my reservation had triggered a “change”. Instead, I saw that the points for the stay had changed from 3,000 to 7,000. Hmmm. I knew the new categories were going into effect, but also knew that shouldn’t impact this reservation.
So I logged into my SPG account and sure enough saw the points redeemed on the reservation had changed to 7,000.
I suddenly doubted myself. Had it always been 7,000 points? If so, I should rethink the reservation because it didn’t seem worth saving $110 room rate for 7,000 points. So I checked my email, which showed, it was in fact 3,000 (which was definitely worth saving $110).
Distinctly unhappy I then checked my Starwood points activity to see if they had taken out the additional 4,000. Nope. Phew.
Ok, clearly a glitch. Then, and I wouldn’t be a miles and points enthusiast if this hadn’t occurred to me, I couldn’t help wondering if I cancelled the reservation right now, would I get 7,000 points back instead of the 3,000 🙂 Too bad I didn’t book a bunch of unnecessary stays to experiment with…
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Heels First is the travels and tribulations of two twenty-something frequent fliers jumping into the world of travel. Join Keri and Jeanne as they tackle mileage runs, elite status, and of course–the perfect travel accessories.
I have been having trouble with Award Wallet lately. Today it freaked me out with an email to check in for a flight that was changed months ago.
It keeps updating me on reservations that don’t appear to be changed too. It’ll highlight the time booked as being different (the minutes part), or something random like that
Yes, all old reservations will show the new rates. No, that doesn’t mean you paid the new rate. No, I know definitively if you cancel an old reservation, you will only get back the number of points you paid.
I knew it shouldn’t mean I’d have to pay more, but good to know there’s no points earning opportunity either. 😉