The great thing about the program is the very fact they are crap at administrating it, I have never stayed the correct number of nights to be concierge but I am, the brilliance is if you lodge a missing points claim the folks in the Euro office usually credit them, then in a couple of weeks the hotel fianlly gets around to it, this happens all the time with the Russian hotels.

I always ask for an upgrade at the front desk, so far I've never failed to get one, I even get upgrades with points nights. You just have to ask nicely.