I've been Silver for about two years now -- don't travel enough for business to make it Gold, and mostly I just travel for pleasure. It's a good thing for me. I like the VIP reward eligibility -- it makes my points go further. And I like having the 15% bonus since I've got both HHonors credit cards.

On the upgrade front, I get them about 25% of the time. I always ask. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. If they say no, though, they tend to make it up some other way. For example, at the DT Grand Key Resort a few months back, they didn't have any other rooms available, but gave us free breakfast for the six nights we were there. I've found that if you shoot high -- ask for the upgrade -- sometimes you'll get it, but at least they'll give you something else smaller in return.