Just got back from 2 nights this week at the Sheraton Boston. At my 9PM check-in, I was informed that there was no upgrade available. The hotel was deserted, seriously empty. I told the woman at the front desk that I was very disappointed, that ever since I'd made Lifetime Plat status, it was as if I was being punished time after time with lack of upgrades.

So she proceeded to tell me she was sorry, she'd see what she could do....and told me that the suites for Plats had been pre-assigned "at random", that Lifetime Plat had no advantage in that system over someone who had just achieved Plat status for the first time. And then she gave me a decent, but smallish, suite (#1712) overlooking the Charles River, and told me it meant that some other Plat was going to lose his/her upgrade from that list in order to satisfy me.

I appreciated the favor (sorry, whoever you are who lost that room), but I have to say I was a little unnerved to learn that my Lifetime Plat status confers no advantage whatsoever in competition with Plats with less years at that level.