I’m so glad I could help. Yes, the PG and almost all legacy SPG hotels (and IMO most legacy Marriott hotels outside of Autograph and RC) will give excellent elite recognition whether it’s a paid or award stay. Our May PG stay originally was award, but I changed it to a Best Rate Guaranteed stay, so we were paying a mere $234 a night. My SNAs didn’t clear but we arrived at 8 am and still got upgraded to a wonderful suite. (FYI I am Ambassador elite.)

Certainly, the PG will give you much more than the RC for Platinum elite recognition. Free Exec Lounge. Chances for upgrades. Free breakfast in the restaurant or lounge. A welcome gift (we love the chopsticks we got).

But we’d choose the PG again in a second because of how amazing the hard product is and how well they looked after us—especially their concierge team. I also love the PG bar and lobby...though that Aman lobby still is even more spectacular. We visited the Aman, MO. Peninsula, and FS hotels, too. And we have stayed at many Aman hotels. (We go to Amangiri in 2 weeks for my bday, in fact,) We still would choose the PG in a second.

You can see my PG review at the top of this thread, too!