Post reply
Original Message:
Re: Starwood Vacation Ownership (by Ron D.):
leslie447 wrote:Wow but I have to respectfully disagree if you are exchanging for hotels. I think there is great value and flexibility with my points. MY SPG account is tied to my Am Ex to earn even more. I love my Starpoints, and we have used them to travel to fun places, and stayed in much nicer accomodations than we would have paid for. New York City, London, Atlanta, Dublin, Nice. I have turned a week of timeshare in Phoenix into 5 nights in downtown Montreal, San Diego or New Year's Eve in Dublin.I converted a week into 5 nights..... that does not sound good to me. When you calculate your cost per point INCLUDING your purchase price you can usually buy points from starwood directly at 3.5cents per point and have a better deal WITHOUT the long term cash commitment. Starpoints from a credit card are an entirely different matter, they are great.
We have owned timehare since December 1996 when we bought at Bonaventure which we exchange though RCI. Sometimes we get lucky on availability but most we end up going someplace we never thought about going and having a good time.
In response to the question of combining resale points call SPG. It is very limited on resales. We own 2 annual and 1 semi-annual Sheraton units. We were recently given the option of converting our Sheraton Vistana Florida unit we bought on the resale market into the SPG system. Of course we had just paid approx $1300 over two years in upgrade assessments. POINTS are entirely different than OPTIONS which is what they were asking about.
The only other way I know of to convert to starpoints is in a new purchase agreement. You can make that part of your offer. When we bought our semi-annual I wanted to convert the unit,there was a required level we had to buy and at that time we did not want to spend the money.
This is called a "retro" or retroactively entering your unit into the SVN system. It currently has a $10000 minimum on the continent and $20000 off even for an upgrade. They now DO NOT give you credit for the whole original purchase price on a resale bought unit when doing an upgrade like they once did.
Good luck.
Points, when you include the original purchase price inn the cost calculation, are a poor value. You can usually buy points from Starwood directly for 3.5cents and it is a better deal. You also DO NOT have the long term capital commitment and the annual maintenence fee commitment. Starpoints from a credit card are an entirely different story and are GREAT if used correctly.
The OP asked about combining OPTIONS not POINTS and that makes it entirely different.
You are talking about doing a "retro" or retroactively enrolling your unit into the Starwood Vacation Network(SVN). There is now a $10000 minimum if done on continent and $20000 if done off (ie. Hawaii, Bahamas). When you combine that with the fact that they NO LONGER give you the original purchasers full original purchase price in credit in doing an upgrade this makes retroing and getting options this way MUCH less appealing. They now absolutely control your week and can give you any week from your season at your resort for RCI or II trade if your unit is in the SVN. (ie 52 week SDO deposit...hmmmm July in Scottsdale have a lot of power NOT!!!) If you want a exchange company trader, you DO NOT want it to be in the network!!!