Starwood Preferred Guest - SPG Gold Status ?

All,

I have been reading flyertalk forums for last few days. I just came to know about this website. Its really amazing. I learnt a lot of new things here. I never knew about Mileage run and read the whole FAQ and found it to be very interesting. May be one day I will do it too.

I have collected a lot of Continental & AF Miles in past few years and have taken trips to India and Hawaii (Paid for hotels, didn't know about SPG hotels and points that you can use :mad:).

After reading this forum, I liked the SPG card by American Express and as I had to make some big purchases, I applied for it to take accumulate the points.

In my first month, I have already spent $30,100, but my statement hasn't closed yet. It will close on 25th September. I am hoping that I can get the gold status. But as I read in other posts, the gold status will be given to me for next year 2009.

Now, I am making a trip to Orlando with my family in October, do you think that there is any chance that SPG can see that I have spent so much and give me gold status so that I can get some upgrades ?? Or it is too much to hope for ?

Welcome. Have you read the AMEX thread?

Where are you planning on staying in Orlando? I just stayed at the Westin Imagine which is a fairly new hotel but doesn't appear to be that full. There is a thread about the Westin Imagine as well as a thread on Orlando SPG hotels if you want more information. As far as the UG, a lot of it depends on how busy the hotel is. You can also use some of your points to UG to a nicer room if you want a guaranteed UG.

BTW, Welcome to Flyertalk.

The first time I hit the 30K mark, I called the SPG customer service and told them that it had been reached. They immediately bumped my account to Gold. It showed up online and it showed at the front desk computer when I checked in.