Whose Status Rules?
 

Right now as a Gold I booked a 5 night Standard Award Stay for April, 2009 at the Rome Grand Flora.

Come next April, if I drop to Silver, I assume that my new Silver Status will rule and I'll have no chance of any upgrade or other bennies, correct?

How about, if the award (standard point stay or European Hopper) is actually supported/redeemed by another Gold or Platinum member and then gifted to me, a lowly Silver?

In other words, will the Gold or Platinum perks run with the award thereby trumping my new found lowly Silver status?

fwiw, yes I know the Euro Sampler is only available through 2008 but can be used in 2009.

Thanks

On the first point... yes, your status at check-in will be taken into account, so you can't expect lounge access etc.

On the second point... (gifted points), there is officially no recognition of this, however, in the past when giving points to my parents for an anniversary reservation I have called the hotel and asked for them to be treated well (I'm a plat) - they were given lounge access (only did this once btw) so it depends on the circumstances and the individual property, but, in general no - you only get the benefits to which you personally are entitled to.

As an example, even if my wife is staying at a Marriott if the room wasn't in my name or MR# then she would be treated as per a normal guest :)

Indeed. It goes by the current status of those who check-in.

However in most of FS/Ren when I made a reservation for a relative as well as my immediate family they did put all of us on CL floor.

In Ren Nashville front desk even upgraded a co-worker traveling with me (when I asked as I am trying to hook him in to Marriott so we can stay in the same hotel in the future). Similar with FS Bethesda.

The Grand Flora doesn't have an executive level or CL. They do offer free breakfast to Golds & Plats at the rooftop restaurant or from room service. Good luck on the upgrade. I was there for a week as a Plat and got nothing.