Thanks for the reply. I'm only a Gold, so I don't know how far status will get me.
As far as I can tell, nothing has been canceled. I assume if the agent went through with her claim that the original award certificate had to be canceled, I would have been notified. Then again, I was never notified about the Cat 2 to Cat 5 change either!

If I hadn't been the obsessive-compulsive person I am, I could easily have shown up at the hotel without any knowledge of the change. What would they have done then??