UK Platinum Card: how long for SPG Gold to kick in?

Old Apr 27, 2012, 3:59 am
  #1  
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UK Platinum Card: how long for SPG Gold to kick in?

I received my new Amex Platinum Card in early March this year, and more or less immediately sent off the forms to upgrade my existing SPG Preferred membership to Gold.

Still not received anything and my SPG account still shows as being Preferred, not Gold Preferred.

Not a big issue right now, but I have a stay booked at the Carlsbad Sheraton at the end of May and it would be nice to get the upgrade and extra points for this.

I called Amex and they assured me this application was in the system but it can take 8-12 weeks (why? what do they do? *walk* the application form from one office to another?). HHonours is taking just as long to arrive, although all others have been almost immediate.

Has anyone got any experience of it taking so long?

Also, any idea of whether I need to do anything to 'register' an existing booking so that I have a chance of upgrade, or whether their system will automatically pick up status?
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Old Apr 27, 2012, 7:40 am
  #2  
mia
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Suggest you review this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...uto-renew.html

Even though your situation is not a "renewal" you can take the initiative to contact Starwood to request the status. All you should need is evidence that you hold a Platinum card, such as a PDF statement.
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Old May 2, 2012, 5:34 am
  #3  
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Thanks for the reply.

However it appears SPG/Amex have changed their systems in this regard. I sent off an email to SPG with a statement and they say they 'cannot process anything with a credit number attached', and to call Amex who will call them to manually do the upgrade.

I called Amex who say that they need a code to do this which is only provided by their processing people in India. They can't speak to them directly apparently.

So a catch-22, and not a very impressive one.
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Old May 2, 2012, 5:51 am
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all they need is your SPG number. If you're on your 2nd or higher year with Plat, it's as simple as calling AMEX, them connecting you with one of their SPG reps, and changing your status instantly.
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Old May 2, 2012, 8:05 am
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Originally Posted by mrredskin
all they need is your SPG number. If you're on your 2nd or higher year with Plat, it's as simple as calling AMEX, them connecting you with one of their SPG reps, and changing your status instantly.
I've given them the SPG number, they said they called SPG and still needed some sort of code which they didn't have. It's not my second or higher year with Platinum, it's my first year - does this make a difference?
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Old May 2, 2012, 8:50 am
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SPG was very quick for me.... quick call to Amex and it was sorted in around a week if i remember correctly.

Hilton on the other hand...
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Old May 3, 2012, 7:02 am
  #7  
me2
 
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Hi

I sent a secure email to AMEX via the website (with my SPG number) and asked them to arrange the SPG Gold upgrade. Amex then arranged it within a couple of days

I have a couple of friends who did the same thing.

For one of my friends the reply was " this is not possible", but when he counter-replied saying "yes it is, please go and check" they then managed to sort it out quite quickly

Good luck
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Old May 3, 2012, 8:50 am
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Within a day

I'm not in the UK, but I called this week and Gold status was upgraded within a day.
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Old May 15, 2012, 1:30 am
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I was upgraded in a single phone call to AMEX. Amex then called up SPG, had a few words authorizing the transaction, and then connected me to SPG.

While I was on the phone, I refreshed by screen at spg.com and the status was granted before the rep could finish her sentence about checking in a short while for the systems to refresh. ^
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Old May 16, 2012, 10:14 am
  #10  
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This whole process seems to be completely random depending on whom you speak to. I just called chasing *again* (after the promise of it being chased up on 14 April) - finally spoke to someone intelligent-sounding, who said that she'd had this problem before: if you speak to UK SPG, they flatly refuse to do it without a certain code (and that's the thing which seems to be lost in the abyss of some Indian processing centre).

The trick apparently is to call up SPG in the USA, who are happy to accept an email from Amex confirming status.

Let's see, but finally it appears I have spoken to someone who knows what she was talking about.

Given that these benefits (plus the insurance etc.) are the whole REASON for having a Platinum Amex card, you'd think they'd be a little more efficient at actually providing them to you.

What is very annoying is that with the increase in fees to 450, I will almost certainly not renew next year, so effectively I will only get 9 months of the SPG and Hilton benefits instead of a full year.
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