Thanks! I could see the star but only in some pages and in others not, i.e. in my uploaded photos in my profile, I had the star, but then if I looked at my comments on a rose entry, no star) I did sign in and out 3 times, to no avail.

But whatever the case I'm all set now. I'm able to see lineages which is what I wanted. I did not clear cookies, for what is worth.

I'm actually thinking that the premium membership might activate/deactivate at midnight. The first time it worked was on my post-midnight night-shift break when I picked up my phone.
This actually would make a lot of sense considering you get an explicit expiration date and because the systems my job uses for customers work that way lol.
Upon non payment service gets suspended at midnight on due date, if they want to suspend temporarily it will take effect at midnight, etc. this is for billing purposes in my job's context, but I guess in hmf context it might be simply the way things are coded...