American Express Membership Rewards - UK Plat now get Starwood Gold

With this months statement, I received a hotel leaflet with offers at various hotels and also information on the Starwood Preferred guest program.

One call to AMEX plat CS who put me through to Starwood and my account has been setup and I'm now Starwood Gold without having to do the 10 nights minimum stay that you normally need to do to get upgraded to Gold level.

Richard, I got the mailing too, but I haven't got round to making the call yet. Did either of the agents mention what benefits one actually gets for Starwood gold? Also, did they say whether this status is a one-off (like Hilton Gold with UK platinum), or whether the 'upgrade' will be repeated every year (like Priority Pass)?

Hi James,

The benefits are listed on the Starwood site www.preferredguest.com (http://www.preferredguest.com) - The main point that I'm interested in is the complimentary upgrade. Basically its another version of Hilton Gold VIP for the Starwood chain. Not sure on the life of the benefit, I take it that we automatically get downgraded to Hilton Silver if we don't meet the criteria? Hardly a benefit if it has got to be used for a considerably period of time in order to keep the status level, Guarenteed revenue for the relevant hotel chain. I will follow this up with AmEx when it comes to that time. I understand that Centurion members don't run in to this issue. The annoying thing is that I got an upgrade to Hilton Silver VIP for life from Virgin Atlantic, and I don't even have to pay an annual fee to them, just one flight every 3 years is enough in any class.

Thanks,
Richard

The deal with Hilton is that you get a form with your platinum welcome pack that you can fax to Hilton when you like to get Gold VIP for one year (well maybe until the end of the next year). However, it is a one-off and you need to requalify with Hilton by making the appropriate number of stays. If you don't, you will be downgraded to silver or blue, as appropriate.

Now for Hilton, Amex makes it clear that is the case. However, the flyer they sent out about Starwood doesn't say one way or the other...

PS - it sounds like Virgin flying club has some pretty nice perks!