I was there May last year (don't think I was gold at that stage) and received no upgrade. As I arrived into my room early (at 10am) I got into a huge fight with the front desk who wanted to charge me 50% of one night for the priviledge!?! I threatended to walk out and go to the Hilton (never setting foot in another Starwood property seem to be the words I used), and they agreed to not charge me. In all my travels around the world, a property has NEVER asked me to pay more when checking in at 10am.
I might add I also found the hotel to be extremely expensive (in terms of food), and somewhat pretentious. Rooms were very nice, and the high-speed i/net access is good.
I think I was probably left with a bad impression of this hotel from my checkin experience. Who needs that after a 16 hour flight.