I had my first stay as a plat last week (paid reservation) at the Alfonso XIII in Seville. Status did effectively nothing for me.

1. Traveling with friends, I had reserved 2 king NS rooms. At check in we are told 'I have a king and two singles. Who gets the singles?' Upon my protest, we were offered that the singles would be made as king. I have seen this done successfully elsewhere, but friends were very much unimpressed: no mattress pad, truly just king sheeting stretched over 2 beds.

2. No SPG recognition of any kind. No even the lame key folder or 'we welcome our SPG guests.' When I challenged them via service express line the next day, the agent weakly deferred and I got a call back. 'As a gold...' came the practiced reply, and he did know the promised benefits but said there was no room upgrade available. When I protested that my status was now Plat (I had called the Plat line a week earlier and asked them to reflect current status), he paused until he could see it himself and began another well-rehearsed run down of benefits.. and ended by saying no room upgrade was available. He could upgrade me tomorrow (oops, I'm checking out tomorrow). As perhaps a Christmas miracle, he called back in 10 minutes and claimed there 'had been a last-minute cancellation' and that a Grand Deluxe (still no suite) was available. Alas, it was a smoking room. Water & fruit (the Plat amenity?) did appear in my room that evening. I question this as the Plat amenity because I have received it not infrequently as a gold.

I hope it won't be necessary to carry my Plat SPG card and a list of promised benefits. It's not an effective loyalty program if one needs to argue or negotiate for stated benefits. I'm starting to think I'd welcome Starwood by Hilton, where the greenest clerk at the lowliest HGI manages to come up breakfast and pantry coupons without prompting.

If experienced Plats have any suggestions to get better value from status, I would welcome them.

Previously (in a post I can no longer find) a poster said to avoid rooms x20-x39 because of traffic noise. Absolutely right.