Originally Posted by
samjnz
Hmmm this is all making me re-evaluate my stays for next year particularly with the annoying calendar year qualification window.
My situation is that I recently started ramping up my hotel nights around September this year so I don't have the advantage of a full year of IC history to qualify for RA -- even with a bunch of stays next year, it seems the earliest I will be able to quality is 2019!
On the other hand, if I moved over to SPG I'd have a good shot at getting SPG Platinum 100, etc during the year.
Interested to hear anyone else's experiences with SPG Platinum with regards to upgrades compared to Ambassador + RA -- is there that much of a difference?
There is increasingly less of a difference between SPG Plat and IC RA when you strip out the minibar I think SPG wins. However I am not sure that SPG 100 is worth that much, would rather have RA and SPG LTP/50 or 75 than just SPG 100. I am now actively starting to prefer Marriotts as a MR Plat over IC in many IC locations where the IC is not good (and there are so many of those).