Originally Posted by KathyWdrf
It's a shame, though, that your Platinum status, which you made such an effort to keep, will now be wasted. It's good through February of next year. Doesn't that bother you just a teensy bit?
I don't think so. Too bad I cannot just donate the SPG status to someone who can use it.
It has become far too expensive to enjoy the status (especially if one is traveling internationally). The platinum status benefits at reasonably priced hotels aren't worth much (typical PLT upgrades in most 4Ps and many Sheratons in the US are nothing to look forward to). Sometime we don't realize how much of a premium we are paying just to "enjoy" that status. Got to get off the "rat wheel" some time!
I found a viable alternative at least for my profile of stays. I kept track of the rate difference from PL stays for the last 6 months of last year compared to what I would have paid for a "loyalty stay". Using about half of that money towards buying up from the "standard PL" room on a PL stay (the ability to do this reasonably at many hotels at the time of check-in is what convinced me to quit), I had as much of an experience as a Plat would in most hotels (except when you manage to get a suite). And I stayed in better hotels than available SPG choices in many cases. So going off of the program doesn't necesarily mean slumming it.
The added bonus is that I no longer need to keep checking on how many stays I have and how many I need to make the status again. 
Not suggesting the above cost/benefit ratio will be valid for all. For example, if one is primarily in US hotels and on company dime, SPG is still the best program out there for parlaying company money into valuable personal benefits.