Just completed a weekend stay here as a Platinum. The highlights:

--No suite upgrade as the hotel was sold out (SPG.com agreed). Received a "spectacular" room, i.e. deluxe room, i.e. lake-view room, which is what I had booked using points (regular rooms were sold out for redemptions at the time I booked). 17,750 points per night was steep but acceptable given that rooms in Chicago were going for $500+ a night for the same dates.

--I had avoided this hotel in the past due to poor reviews here but I was actually pleasantly surprised, at least going in with low expectations. Did not encounter any noise from neighbors or other difficulties. The room was not the nicest W room I've stayed in, and was in some ways showing its age (such as in the shortage of easily accessible outlets), but I thought it was perfectly fine for what it was, and the bed was great as always. Others have complained about the air conditioner noise, and while I will agree it is not a quiet unit, if you are like me and sometimes like to sleep with a fan on for the white noise, you will have no issues.

--As with so many Ws, the bathroom was somewhat lacking in privacy when traveling with someone else, thanks to a slat window thing opening out onto the room. Easy enough to work around (more so than in many other W rooms I've had) but still just an odd design choice.

--Platinum breakfast amenity was a choice of a set continental menu at the downstairs restaurant Wave, or $10 off the regular menu per guest. The set menu included coffee/tea and juice and a few options (toast, bread basket, fruit, granola and yogurt parfait)...wasn't entirely clear whether you could order multiple items. I did the $10 off one day (doesn't go very far against the prices, especially since if you go that path you still have to pay menu prices for coffee and juice, but at least the food was good) and the granola and yogurt parfait the next, and upon ordering the second day there was clearly no prompting by the waiter to see if I wanted to order a second item. (Said parfait is available on the regular menu at a price of $10.)

--Location is not the best but perfectly acceptable in warm weather. It would be quite a miserable walk to get anywhere from here on a wintry Chicago day, though.

--Rooftop bar Whiskey Sky was weird and worn-out and deserted on Saturday night. It is not actually in any way open to the elements, which makes some sense for Chicago but was not what I had pictured when promised a rooftop bar. But, at least you don't have to worry about hordes of people from the bar tying up the elevators.