It never ceases to amaze me that companies can shoot themselves in the foot with an announcement that should be exclusively positive by not focusing on the details. Is there not anyone in Starwood with the common sense to know that when you take a group of people that were otherwise branded as being comparable, and you shower one with unexpected rewards and the other with nothing that you are going to have hurt feelings?
Up until recently, I was always under the impression that Starwood valued Platinum members who earn their status with stays as equivalent to those who earned their status with nights. That is clearly not the case, and as others have pointed out, it makes little sense. A member staying 49 nights at a St. Regis is contributing much more money to Starwood than a 50-night customer staying at 4 Pts.
Starwood could have done any of a number of things that would have made this "enhancement" more palatable:
1. Apply the 10 suite nights prospectively with no suites given to any Platinums for 2011 activity,
2. Ditch the all-or-nothing mentality. If a 50-night Platinum member in 2011 deserves 10 suite nights (1 night per 5 nights stayed), then a 40-night Platinum member (who earned his/her status with stays) deserves 8 suite nights, and a 45-night Platinum member deserves 9 suite nights, or
3. Add the 10-suite-night benefit to those Platinums who have greatly exceeded the minimum requirements of either stays or nights. That way a member who barely sneaks in with 50 nights is treated the same as someone who earns his/her status with only 25 stays.
Starwood should have learned its lesson on the matter when it had to re-evaluate its bonuses given for holding the Starwood AMEX. When first announced, 5 nights were the only bonus that was to be given. It was only later that someone came to their senses and also gave a 2-stay bonus.
I made Starwood Platinum for the first time in 2011 based on stays (barely missing on nights). Knowing what I know now, I would not have gone out of my way to earn 2nd Class Platinum status with Starwood.