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[ 9/2014 ] Upgrade to Get More StarOptions

belacyrf

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Hello everyone, my first post, so I apologize if my questions are "stupid". I did search but didn't find my exact answer.

We purchased our TimeShare through Starwood (We DO want the starPoints, and other perks that come with buying through Starwood).

We are very close to paying off our purchase and we'd like to upgrade to get more StarOptions but would like to do so without incurring an additional maintenance fee if possible. Obviously we could buy another week, but we'd incur additional maintenance which is a lifetime commitment.

Does anyone know of a way to upgrade an existing membership to a better week (thus more starOptions) without having to buy another week?

If not, then will buying a week via Resale automatically get retro'd since we are already own a week through Starwood?

Thanks for any advice you can give.
 

DeniseM

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Staroptions are attached to a deeded week - the only way to acquire more, is to buy additional timeshares, and pay more maintenance fees.

Buying a resale is a good idea, but it will not be requalified. To requalify it you would then have to buy an additional (3rd) week directly from the developer for $20K or more - not a good idea.

However, some resales have Staroptions, even though they are resales, so that is the least expensive way to get more Staroptions.

No resales have Starpoints, but converting a timeshare to Starpoints is usually a poor value, because the maintenance fees are high, and the number of Starpoints you get is low.

A far cheaper way to earn nearly free Starpoints is to get a Starwood AMEX card, and charge everything on it, and pay it off every month, so you don't pay any interest.

For lots of info. about how Starwood works, see the info. at the top of the forum. The FAQ is a good place to start: http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63224
 
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LobsterHunter

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You MIGHT be able to upgrade your staroptions...depending on what you own. For example, if you own a gold 2br L/O (81,000 SO) at WDW or WMH, you MIGHT be able to purchase a 2br L/O Platinum at WDW and have Starwood take your gold unit as a trade-in and give you credit for what you paid for the Gold towards the Platinum purchase. You would still have to pay the difference between the 2 purchase prices of Gold to Platinum (about $15k ?), but for the exact same MF, you would go from 81k SO to 148,100 SO. If you need help, PM me for the name of a rep that helped me do exactly that.
 

okwiater

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I concur with what LobsterHunter said. If you own a less desirable season at any deeded Starwood resort, you can certainly exchange it for the same resort in a more desirable season, resulting in additional StarOptions and Starpoints for the exact same maintenance fee.

In most cases Starwood is happy to accommodate such an "upgrade", as long as you are spending additional money with them. Note there is a threshold of "new money" required for them to allow the upgrade -- usually at least $10K.
 

okwiater

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If not, then will buying a week via Resale automatically get retro'd since we are already own a week through Starwood?

The answer to this part of your question is NO.

However, if you are getting ready to give Starwood another $10K anyway, you might consider FIRST acquiring a resale week with a low maintenance fee and high StarOptions value. SDO true platinum weeks have very low maintenance fees but come with 148,100 StarOptions when retro'd. Then, you would ask Starwood to upgrade your old week AND retro your new SDO week in the same transaction. You would be incurring the extra maintenance fee for SDO, but if you can afford it you'd be getting a ton of additional value.

To demonstrate, let's say you currently own a week with 81,000 SOs and $1,500 MF, and Starwood will allow you to upgrade to the higher season for $10K.

Option 1: Pay $10K to upgrade the unit. You now have 148,100 SOs and still only have $1,500 MF.

Option 2: Purchase SDO true platinum for $1-2K resale, and wait until the deed/resort transfer is complete. Then pay $10K to upgrade your first unit. You now have 296,200 SOs and MFs of $1,500 + $1,100 = $2,600.

Anyway, just food for thought...
 

okwiater

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Will Starwood do this with resale purchases?

To my knowledge, Starwood doesn't discriminate against resale purchases for the purpose of upgrades. However, there are some resorts and weeks they simply won't "take back" whether you bought directly from them or on the resale market.
 

Bob808

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If so, then it seems one could hope credit toward upgrade would be on the basis of initial sale from Starwood to first owner?
 

tschwa2

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Originally it was 100percent of the original purchase price toward the current price. More recently it was 100% for retail purchasers and 80% from resale owners. They have to want what you have to take back into their inventory and they generally won't bother unless you are giving them at least $10,000 in new money. If you are also trying to re qualify another property at the same time as the upgrade they will generally require $20,000 in new money. F you are buying or upgrading Hawaii, st Johns, or Harborside they want $40,000 in new money. Preview package $ count toward the required totals. Working with corporate is usually better than walking into a presentation and asking for a deal.
 

LisaRex

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belacyrf said:
We purchased our TimeShare through Starwood (We DO want the starPoints, and other perks that come with buying through Starwood).

Although Starwood used to only allow StarPoint conversion for folks who bought from the developer, current language on MSC.com appears to indicate that this perk is available to anyone in SVN. This has never been confirmed here on Tug, to the best of my knowledge, but I offer this as food for thought to anyone who is using the SP conversion as a reason to buy from the developer.

https://www.mystarcentral.com/spg/starpoints_tutorial.jsp
 

SMHarman

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Although Starwood used to only allow StarPoint conversion for folks who bought from the developer, current language on MSC.com appears to indicate that this perk is available to anyone in SVN. This has never been confirmed here on Tug, to the best of my knowledge, but I offer this as food for thought to anyone who is using the SP conversion as a reason to buy from the developer.

https://www.mystarcentral.com/spg/starpoints_tutorial.jsp
This has always been a dubious legal position as a 'member' of SVN has all the benefits conversion and SPG Gold. There is no caste system in SVN.

Of course they write the rules so a legal challenge given if you win results in the rules being rewritten.
 

czar

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SMV Starpoints

Out of curiousity, and since I've never checked before, I looked to see what my SMV week is worth in Starpoints:


StarOptions Value 148,100
Starpoints Value 85,800


This is interesting. My MF over 2 years is just shy of $1400. For those 85,800 SP, I can actually convert them to 105,800 AA miles (and could have done even more over summer with the addl bonus, but I digress). I was interested in this scenario because I'm currently looking for 2 RT tix to Europe over Thanksgiving. AA has Economy Saver tix at 40k total RT, but the cost is around $1200 and has been for awhile. So for my <$1400 MF I could have $2,400 in tix plus another 25k miles leftover, enough for a saver domestic RT,worth >$300.

I didn't buy my week for the SP or to use them that way, and I've experienced enough disappointment re booking awars travel, but just a caveat that sometimes it might be worth using the SP conversion option.

Caveat 2: the week matters. The SMV week has a pretty good conversion ratio; my WSJ week has a MF $1000 higher, and while slated to increase for next year, carries 30k FEWER SP!

It is nice to know, however, that the current conversion rate for SMV is ahead of the 2¢/SP rate, and when the value is at 3¢/SP, as in this example, there's a significant upside.
 

okwiater

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my WSJ week has a MF $1000 higher, and while slated to increase for next year, carries 30k FEWER SP!

What unit and season do you own? No units in BV convert to fewer than 80K StarPoints next year except for Gold Plus...
 

czar

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What unit and season do you own? No units in BV convert to fewer than 80K StarPoints next year except for Gold Plus...

That's good to know. I own plat 3br. Do you know what it's worth? The old amt is still listed in MSC.
 

okwiater

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That's good to know. I own plat 3br. Do you know what it's worth? The old amt is still listed in MSC.

Your unit will be worth 106,000 StarPoints in 2015. tomandrobin posted this chart a while ago:

 

gkbiiii

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Kierland upgrade?

What would the cost be to upgrade a premium 1 bedroom Kireland Gold to a Platinum week. I get 44K StarOptions now, so that would double them, plus (hopefully) I could add my one-bedroom SDO Plat Plus as well.

That would give me over 160K StarOptions annually for around $2K annual dues.

So how much do you think the upgrade would be?
 

DeniseM

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You would get a credit for the "trade-in" but you would have to pay full retail price for the new unit, which would be worth 81,000 Staroptions. (Not double 44,000 Staroptions.) Starwood would have to tell you what the credit would be for the trade-in(s).
 

gkbiiii

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Any idea what the amount would be? I wonder what the cost difference, with trade in value would be and would it be worth it?
 

DeniseM

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Any idea what the amount would be? I wonder what the cost difference, with trade in value would be and would it be worth it?

You would have to talk to a sales person for that info. - it's not available to the public. But there are some examples posted in this thread, above.
 
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vacationtime1

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What would the cost be to upgrade a premium 1 bedroom Kireland Gold to a Platinum week. I get 44K StarOptions now, so that would double them, plus (hopefully) I could add my one-bedroom SDO Plat Plus as well.

That would give me over 160K StarOptions annually for around $2K annual dues.

So how much do you think the upgrade would be?

If your goal is to re-qual your SDO Platinum Plus, there is a requirement that you put at leat $20,000 of "new money" into the transaction. Starwood will give you its proposed numbers for the purchase price and the trade-in value, but you will be out-of-pocket $20,000 or more to achieve the result you seek.
 

DeniseM

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I don't think he's asking about re-qualifying, I think he is asking about trading in a timeshare(s) on a new purchase.
 

vacationtime1

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I don't think he's asking about re-qualifying, I think he is asking about trading in a timeshare(s) on a new purchase.

If so, gkbiii would be much better off purchasing the target one bedroom 81000 StarOption Kierland unit on the resale market for about $8,500 and selling his other units for whatever he can get for them (I would guess for a thousand or two each; both units have some value). His net cost would be about $5,000 -- far less than Starwood would charge for the upgrade.

The reason I infer that he wants to re-qual his SDO platinum is that he says that he wants to end up with 162K StarOptions, which he would have if he re-qual'ed his SDO unit (worth 81K) and bought a one bedroom platinum unit worth another 81K.
 
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gkbiiii

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Thanks, based on the money I am better off with just buying resale and not bothering with Starwood. I guess I may not need it, SDO Plat-Plus could trade with Harborside without any problem.
 
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