airplanepeanuts

Once you check out, send an e-mail to: "[email protected]"

Within a day, you will get a response like this:

Congratulations! You're account reflects all 18 nights! I will look into having your account upgraded. Hopefully you will be Platinum status by the end of the day tomorrow.

Best Regards,

Platinum Concierge Liaison
Starwood Preferred Guest
[email protected]
512-997-9046 fax

Then you will get another E-mail
You Successfully Completed Your Platinum Status Challenge.

Congratulations! You have successfully met the requirements of your Platinum Status Challenge. We have upgraded your SPG® account to the Platinum level, and you will now enjoy elite recognition and rewards, including:

• 3 Starpoints® per every eligible U.S. dollar spent — a 50% increase over our
base-level members

• Room upgrades at check-in, including Standard Suitesą

• Platinum welcome gift upon arrival with every stay

• Complimentary Internet access in your guest room

• Guaranteed room availability˛

• Our signature Platinum ConciergeSM service

For more information about the SPG program or to book, please visit SPG.com.

phlashba

Thank you for this timely post -- I was just wondering about this today. ^

whimike

This is such crap. I specifically e-mailed A Platinum Concierge when my challenge was finished and let her know I have several stays coming up in the following few days at the St. Regis Bangkok and Grosvenor House Dubai and was really looking forward to my platinum status at these hotels.

She responded back that a "sweep" has to occur and while she confirmed I exceeded the 18 nights of stays it could take up to a week for my account to reflect platinum status. Well, after waiting 9 days I e-mailed back to ask what is going on, and within hours of that e-mail I became Platinum, a full 4 days after I had completed all my other hotel stays.

My original email to her was that I will be passing 18-nights in just a day or two and whether they can apply my status as soon as it clears due to my upcoming hotel stays, her response:

"Thank you for your email. The upgrades are auto-generated once the 18 eligible nights have posted to your account. There are very specific reasons why we must allow the upgrades to be done through this automated process and we are not authorized to manually upgrade unless there is a system malfunction. I understand this may be inconvenient for you and I offer my sincere apologies.

Best Regards,

Platinum Concierge Liaison
Starwood Preferred Guest
[email protected]
512-997-9046 fax"

Then, after the 18-nights posted, and waiting a day with nothing happening, I write back asking for an update, and I get this:

"Congratulations on your successful completion of the Status Challenge. Your 18th night posted on 1-29-2012. There is a weekly sweep performed for all upgrades that are applicable to this offer. Your account will be upgraded during the next sweep.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.


Best Regards,


Platinum Concierge Liaison
Starwood Preferred Guest
[email protected]
512-997-9046 fax"


If she can "look into having your account upgraded" and "hopefully by end of day tomorrow" is her response to you, then it seems she purposely held back my upgrade until all my upcoming hotel stays passed, since with me she was unable to do anything since it is all "automated" with this BS weekly sweep thing, which clearly never happened, they just manually updated my account when I complained on the 9th day.

lavag

Stay on them. It took over a month for my status to clear after a Platinum challenge.

phlashba

Well, these experiences don't seem to follow the time frames spelled out in the OP; that's disappointing.

noservice2001

the day i finished my challenge; i called SPG and they noted in it my account so that i was able to check into a room as a plat even though my account only showed Gold (9am) and the front desk person said they will look into my account, around 2 pm, i was already walking around the city when my account was changed to Plat...

no "sweeps" were done to me..Whew

whimike

On FT somebody recommended when I check-in at Grosvenor House I ask them to call SPG to verify I was a qualified platinum even though it was still showing gold. The guys at Grosvenor were awesome, they called SPG twice a day and constantly updated me with the info they got. Each time SPG was sure to tell them I was only gold and no platinum benefits should be given.

whimike

That is incredible. Did you just wait or did you call/email them periodically?

airplanepeanuts

Guys,

I was in close contact with the SPG Liaison for platinum throughout the challenge - This may play a role. After all, having these kinds of "soft skills" helps even with the upgrade at the actual property.

Secondly, if you are Platinum but don't have the actual status changed then the Platinum Desk can add a note to your reservation that the guest is platinum but it has not posted and then it's really up to the hotel to honor it.

One Interesting Thing Happened:
After my 18th night, I was technically Platinum-Eligible but it had not processed, so Platinum called my hotel which was in another continent and let them know I'm platinum so that when I arrive they may upgrade etc. The upgrade did not happen but they treated me nicely and got free breakfast etc. However, after I checked out and Platinum status was reflected in my account, I got the 500point stay bonus and the memo read "Platinum Amenity"

Weird things happen! Just be friendly and try to contact the same liaison each time?

lavag

I called immediately after completion and was told 7-10 days or something like that. Then I just waited as I didn't have any further stays for 1.5 months after. Finally, I realized it wasn't going to happen on its own and responded to the Plat challenge email asking .... Then the status posted within a few days.

georgenc

Some data points:

Finished (Checked out) of my 18th stay on Monday (2/27).
Credit appeared in my SPG account yesterday (2/28) afternoon.
Received Platinum challenge "winner" email this morning (2/29) @ 1:44 AM.

No interactions with the SPG Liaison.

whimike

The way they treated me has really left a bad taste in my mouth. They knew I had several higher-end reservations coming up and they did their best to make sure I WASN'T platinum during those stays.

What is with this bogus "sweep" that has to occur, that nobody else has experienced.

tbaumann3

Anyone know how long Plat status earned by successfully completing a challenge lasts. I started my challenge in Feb. I expect to complete it on March 13 when I check out. Since this is after Feb 29, will I be Plat until 2/28/14?

airplanepeanuts

No, till end 2013.

airplanepeanuts

The actually mentioned the sweep earlier but I guess I never got negatively affected by it. I know it's hard but don't sweat it.