I just got off the plat res phone line with Cathy, a wonderful phone res employee btw, who was very helpful in changing a few of my upcoming stays to e-certs vs. points stays and she made a big deal about noticing that I had not requested my Plat upgrades for each of those stays. She put them in the system for me and nicely explained that I should call the Plat line everytime, after I make my res on the website, because there is no way for me to pre-request upgrades online, but they can certainly put a note in the reservation that comes up in BOLD when I arrive for checkin. And to quote her, "This really helps your chances of getting a nice upgrade."

I know many of you already know this, but I thought it was just some pretty good customer service and wanted to share.

BTW, looking back, I had 71 paid nights last year, so I think I'm safe and am gonna hold onto the Plat Stat for this year. (even though I wasn't technically all the way there) I'll definitely re-up it for next year, especially after the nice chat with customer service that I just encountered. Sometimes it's the little things that keep me coming back...