yes, there was the same promotion last year.

How long is the Gold Status valid until once earned?

Starwood said that the it would be valid for the year of your stay plus one additional year. If you stay this year, it will be valid till the end of 2013.

Does this promotion also work when trying to re-qualify?

The T&C seems to indicate no, since it says the person should be a the "Preferred Guest Level" and so if currently at Platinum and trying to re-qualify, this would not be allowed.

Although I signed up for the promotion and it said I was signed up.

So, does it qualify or not?

Why would you want Gold if you're a Platinum -- did you not have enough stays throughout the year to meet even the Gold Status reqt?

Anybody checked to see around what price this could be had for? As in lowest room at any of the participating hotels? I have some FF miles to burn so location not much of an issue.

Would award stays count? They count toward status normally. Or do you have to pay for the room?

Since it requires you to use your World Mastercard for the stay I'd assume Award Stays do not count.

or technically Feb 2014.

This is totally not worth going out of your way to do. Don't waste miles or cash, just call SPG and say you'd love staying at more of their properties, but you're HH Gold, and ask if they status match. 9 times out of 10 I'm sure they'll just GIVE you gold.

They stopped status matching and now you have to do a Status Challenge and meet the required stays in a 3mon time period -- granted this is for Platinum status not gold but at least in my case I don't want to do a mattress run.

Yes for PLT. My coworker called and they handed him gold through Feb 2014 yesterday just by asking and using the little script I wrote him. He is HH Gold, but they told him don't even worry about faxing it in.

What did he say when they referred him to the Status Match because technically HH Gold qualifies for Platinum SM?

I'd think you tell them you're HH Gold and then they give you the SM pitch...do you turn them down and say 'no i dont want to have to stay at your hotels to get status just give me gold"

Does this work if you pay for a meal at an SPG hotel with a World Mastercard? We don't have any stays planned until next year, I can probably squeeze the Bali property in before March 31, 2013 so would be gold until Dec 2014? Basically, I just want the reduced transfer rate 1500 points vs 2500 points for the Grand Slam hit. There aren't many SPG properties where we travel to this year-New Zealand, Cook Islands, Brazil. I'd do a "meal run" to the Gold Coast if that would work.

Try calling yourself first? I'd rather not post all the details in public. It took 2 minutes. You could even use SPG chat if you're not comfortable on the phone.