Hi all-

When we first got the Centurion card, it came with both Starwood Platinum elite and Hyatt Diamond elite statuses. Hyatt Diamond left after our first year and Starwood left about two years later. Clearly on this board, the loss of Hyatt was barely noticed and people are still upset about the loss of Starwood Platinum.

I could understand Starwood's reticence to extend the status. Like many of you, I use the Centurion card for status and the Starwood AMEX to accrue the points that we use for Business and First class airfare and for hotel rooms and have had many wonderful vacations for, basically, nothing. And then we would get pissed if we weren't upgraded to a suite. They probably felt, "good riddance."

In the last two years, I have also been Hyatt Diamond, first by a status match and then by a special program. I will lose the status at the end of the year. But there are major differences between the two programs. First of all, with Hyatt, Diamond elites get four guaranteed suite upgrades each year. So you can use a regular room for your business trips when you're alone while knowing you will be in a suite when you vacation with your significant other - and again, it's guaranteed at booking.

Second - Diamond elites get free breakfasts. This can be a major advantage. We have stayed at the Park Hyatts in Washington DC and last summer, in Paris. The suites were magnificent. In Paris, breakfast ridiculously went for 48 Euros per person! That's over $140 for the two of us. We would have breakfast at 9:30 or 10:00 AM, go sightseeing and have an early breakfast. We were treated impeccably.

It is hard for me to understand, therefore, why Hyatt would not want people who spend significant amounts of money on travel. Anyone staying at their hotels and gaining their benefits is a cash customer - none of us are staying there on points unless they have been earned like any other Hyatt customer. So I wrote a letter today to Gold Passport Customer service explaining my feelings and asking them to reconsider - I wrote the same basic letter to Centurion.

I'm posting this in the hope that others will do the same. Again, it seems like a totally win-win situation and I'm hoping we can nudge them into feeling the same. I hope that many of you will be inspired to contact both parties like I did.

Many thanks.