SPG wont let me use points at SF Market Street

[pilot]

I tried to book a room at the Westin SF Market Street today for a September stay using points. The SPG site shows traditional rooms available at a fully paid internet rate but no Starpoints option, so I called the Platinum line to place my reservation.

The Platinum Rep tells me that there is no availability for Starpoints awards. I tell him that I'm looking at the site and no less than 4 room types are for sale on the SPG site (all fully prepaid of course), two of which are listed as traditional rooms. He attempts to tell me that the only reason I'm seeing availbility is because I'm a Platinum member. When I inform him that I'm not even logged in and the system has no idea of my status, he states "well those rooms aren't really available" :mad:

I ask to speak to a supervisor to clarify the no blackout issue since I see standard rooms for sale at SPG.com and the Westin site but I cannot book using points. He places me on hold and comes back a few minutes later to inform me that these are the hotel's rooms and not Starwoods. :mad: He says something to the effect that the hotel gets to set aside a block of rooms to sell for themselves on SPG & on their own site but they aren't SPG's rooms. What?????? Do they make this up as they go along?

After 10 minutes I quit. I've got a dinner meeting and don't want to continue to get aggravated.

This happened to me once before while trying to book a room in Miami during the Superbowl weekend. They were selling rooms at about 4X the normal rate on the website but didnt want to let them go for points. As it just so happens, the date I'm trying to book there is a large convention in SF.

SPG, why don't you just say that blackouts will apply if you have an opportunity to maximize your revenues. It would save your customers time and aggravation? :td: