Starwood Preferred Guest - Color coded card?

For those obtaining a Starwood card through a regular Amex Platinum card, I should like to know the following:

Is there a separate card or is supposed Gold level maintained in Starwood office files and applied on check-in?

Is Platinum level obtained solely through stays or also by spending?

Somewhat confused by your post but I think you are asking if you will get a Gold Starwood SPG member card from Starwood for being an Amex Platinum Card member. The answer is yes but you need to make sure Starwood upgrades you to gold membership based on the Amex Platinum card.

There seems to be alot of confusion on these boards on the benefits of the various Amex cards. There is the Amex Platinum card (a platinum colored AMEX card) which gets you SPG Gold and then there is the Amex Starwood Preferred credit card which used to reference the term Platinum on it (this card was blue and had the term "Platinum" but it is now dark red and doesn't mention platinum any more) which gets you SPG Preferred and then Gold with a $30k annual spend.

As for obtaining SPG Platinum, you need to do this via stays. It cannot be obtained by spending!

Thank you for the clarification. It would appear that everyone gets a red card. The link to my Amex Platinum must be done by calling Starwood Customer Service.