Starwood Preferred Guest - Platinum card through AA

I just received a platinum card through the mail as a result of being an AAdvantage elite member. Considering I didn't ask for this, I'm guessing AA sent these cards out to all the elites which must be quite a few in number. Although I'm Hilton Diamond I'm not particularly tied to them and would switch if another program offered better deals/upgrades etc. I'm a little concerned about using this card though, as wouldn't making so many new "instant platinum" members dilute the member benefits for all or am I missing something?

This almost seems like a plant. A big soft juicy one over the center of the plate :p

This almost seems like a plant. A big soft juicy one over the center of the plate :p

Beware... I just received the card, and not knowing that I was already a Starwood Gold, received the Platinum card with a new Account number. I called Starwood to consolidate the new account with my old, and learned that the Starwood Platinum offered through AA requires you to accrue AA miles via "Direct Deposit"-- on the basis of 1 airmile per dollar spent-- rather than Starpoints. This essentially means that for every $25K spent on the Platinum card, you get 25K AA miles, without the flexibility provided by points that can be later transferred to ANY airline, or used for hotel stays or other awards. This also means that you no longer would have the benefit of 5K bonus airline miles with every 20K transfer request. So bottom line is you need to spend $25K to get the same number of airline miles as would be achieved with the regular (in my case, "gold") card. My thought... I think I'll hold on to the Platinum card to get the upgrade benefits on future planned free Starwood award stays, but keep it in my pocket and use the Gold for paid stays.

Thanks for the information - much appreciated ^

This almost seems like a plant. A big soft juicy one over the center of the plate :p

You think? ;)

Vaze, this has been a pretty hot topic 'round these parts in recent days. To learn more, I suggest you wander over to this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=550666).

To focus discussion in the lengthy existing thread. I'll close this one.