Starwood Hotel Program-Does Gold really matter?
My brother and I use the Starwood AMEX cards and have accumulated a great deal of points. We both are Gold Status with Starwood which gives you various perks, upgrades, direct customer service lines etc. I find a great deal of inconsistancy with the policies using the gold status. Most of the time the status does not help you n any way. Recently my brother stayed at a hotel using our points for the stay. When he got home, he found the hotel blled him several hundred dollars for the stay. He called the 800 number and got the runaround. They told him that he had to clal the hotel directly. Go figure. The hotel billing dept was closed and the manger could not be found. So much for Gold status. He will pursue this further. I can only wonder why the 800 service people could not handle the situation. Since they know he spent points for the stay, why don’t they call to correct the error. The reason I think is that GOLD is a pile of bull. Once again I find the promise of better service etc does not mean anything if the company is not willing to back up the claims. How often does a company or business tell you about satisfaction guaranteed, or claiming the best level of service. Then you see they can’t deliver on the promises.
July 17, 2007 at 5:57 am
Happens all the time, you should head on over to flyer talk to ask the question.
July 17, 2007 at 4:42 pm
I wrote about the program in a rhetorical way. I have been at the Gold status and found the inconsistancies per various properties around the world etc. I frequent the flyertalk board about the spg program. Some people may think that these status levels will do alot ofr them when they check into a hotel.