I thought I'd make an observation as I am currently top tier elite with Marriott, Starwood and Hilton, and use their central 'elite' phone lines relatively often.

Marriott's new platinum elite desk is by far the best -- quick service, always friendly, always helpful. Of course, this is after I moved my business away to Starwood/Hilton.

On the other hand, Starwood, while effective and helpful, is not very efficient; they seem to be slow and I can't even ask the simplest of questions (ie the ones that require a five second yes/no) without being asked my Platinun number (which is way too long!) Starwood makes up for this by assigning a personal concierge on request, who I can and correspond to via email often.

Finally, Hilton is the dark horse of the pack; I always seem to have the most trouble getting through to them, get the most confused CSRs, and they are the slowest.

Does my experience mirror the experience of the FT community?