Originally Posted by carole1

my husbands work changed hotel chains this year to starwood. we took the challenge option, and after 18 days were able to use all the plat benefits. my husband is now in shanghai, and we have been very happy with the room they gave him (suite for whole time-three weeks) plus lounge access,etc. all we had to do was notify hotel that we are now plat. no problem at all. i would not have known about the challenge if it hadn't been for flyertalk.