Platinum Challenge Question
 

I requested a platinum challenge and SPG agreed. I can start the challenge in 2012 or early 2013. Are there any pros or cons to either start date?

Thanks!

Assuming that either way, successful completion results in Plat status through February 2014, if you do in during 2013, all of those stays/nights will also help you to earn status during calendar 2013, to be effective through February 2015. So doing the challenge in 2013 essentially lets you count those nights/stays twice. That sounds good to me unless you have lots of SPG nights/stays coming up between now and the end of the year.

Thanks so much for responding to my post regarding the SPG platinum challenge! Wow! You gave me great news! I will wait until 2013 to complete it.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond. I very much appreciate your input.

Poptarts

Poptarts - I agree with the above. I would do a couple things to supplement this...

1) Make sure all of your Domestic stays are paid with SPG card.

2) All of your international stays should be on something like the Chase Sapphire so you still get 2x from the credit card and the bonus of being plat/gold

3) Put all of your spending onto spg amex for the forseeable future unless a great bonus exists by doing it on the sapphire (2x on travel/dining)

4) Get the SPG business

5) Get your gf/bf/fiancee/spouse to signup for both of the above

6) once you hit platinum combine the points by the "Transfer" points feature

And enjoy the platinum status at as many places as possible.. I suggest: Madrid Westin, Barcelona W, St. Regis Hawaii, W London Leicester square and i'm sure people will tell you about other places with great upgrades.

The reasoning is this...

Once you get the 18 nights you should strategically position yourself to have enough points/cash to take advantage of your status..

I followed this above advice by chance and ended up with 200k points which i used this year for a total of 50 nights and I was a student until June of this year. It's been an awesome year for me and now I have gotten to 50 nights and already have 10 suite night awards waiting.

I think doing this not only enhances your chances of maintaining platinum but you get to see and enjoy new experiences and share memories with your loved ones in a different way than you would otherwise.

have fun. goodluck. hope to see some cool trip reports from your challenges and beyond.

Be sure to check the rules about the Plat challenge. It might need to be started at the beginning of a month and there might be a limited chance to make nights already stayed count at the time it begins. Some people have had problems in that once they inquired about a challenge or had a challenge offered/approved for them, it was started for them even though they would have preferred a different starting date.

Plat Challenges must begin on the 1st day of the month of your choosing, so for example, you cannot start a challenge on Jan 15th and have the challenge period run through April 15th, it must be Jan 1st - Mar 31st in this example.

If you complete it after Feb 2013 you will have status until Feb 2015. This would be the best way to maximize the length of Platinum status if you do not travel a lot.

start it such that you're in the earliest month possible to still end up in time to get the 2015 status. and then just move out of your apartment and into a sheraton for 50 nights.

repeatable?
 

Can the Platinum challenge be repeated? Or it's only once per person or account?

If you are unsuccessful, it can be repeated until you are. Once successful, however, you're one and done.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

Roger that! ^

Sorry to bring up older thread, am I interpreting this correctly?

Challenge done in Nov/Dec/Jan or Dec/Jan/Feb gets status to Feb 2014. Challenge done in Jan/Feb/Mar gets status to Feb 2015.

Ask a Lurker, but I suspect that all would get status through (not TO) February 2014.

Spoke to SPG Gold supervisor and he stated that if platinum challenge is completed in 2013 (February in my case), soft landing to Gold will be in 2015, unless if there is no activity for one year from becoming platinum, soft landing to Gold will be a year after becoming platinum. I send an email to the platinum liaison and pose the question and they emailed me back that says " Mr ....., if you complete your platinum status challenge in February 2013 your level is valid for the remainder of the year and will be downgraded to SPG Gold in February 2014. To maintain platinum longer you will need to meet the platinum criteria of 25 eligible stays or 50 eligible nights within the 2013 calendar year."

If I have to do 25 more eligible stays to keep platinum till February 2015, I might as well just do the 25 stays next year and not do the challenge.

Any comment please MR Lurker?:):)

I would refer your inquiry to [email protected] as they are in a better position to answer this.

[email protected]

Thyetus Lee | Social Media Specialist
Starwood Customer Contact Centre (AP) Pte Ltd