Trying to get upgrade at Swan

[DisneyDadInFL]

We are spending 4 nights at the Swan beginning next Tuesday. I used Dreams Unlimited to book the room. Tried using Starwood pts a few weeks ago to upgrade from our standard room reservation. Was told they couldn't help me with pts until five days prior to arrival. Called the Swan today and they had balcony room overlooking resort for $45/night extra but I would have to call Starwood direct to redeem points. I called and they said no rooms were available for upgrade with points at this time. I am new to the redemption part of this and was wondering if anyone with experience could offer me assistance in which direction I may be able to go next to achieve an upgrade.

Thank you very much

 

[chrissyk]

Are you SPG Gold by any chance? When we checked into the Swan on 5/9, we showed them our SPG Gold card and asked for a corner king balcony room with a view of Illuminations. We also asked to add Club Level with points (1250 points/night). It TOTALLY depends on who checks you in, because the first CM wasn't very helpful at all. Our room wasn't ready, so we went back later and explained what we wanted to a 2nd (much nicer) CM. She found us the corner king (room 627, GREAT room!) and added the CL privledges to our card with our points. If you're SPG Gold, you should not have to pay to upgrade to the balcony room. I believe that they advertise that they give you an upgrade to a balcony room when available if you're Gold. We didn't have to use points to get the balcony room...we only used the points to add the Club privledges. My advice would be to keep trying over the phone to get the balcony upgrade. Give them your Gold SPG number if you have one. If that doesn't work, try again at check-in. Good luck!