Starwood Lurker II

Hi all,

Upon notifying William, here is his response to some of your posts.

SPG does send a suggested priority upgrade list to the hotels; however, the criteria used and how SPG determines who is suggested to receive an upgrade among competing elites is proprietary information and not up for discussion here at Flyertalk.

[email protected]

jrzyshawn

Well, the hammer came down. lol...

MIKESILV

Very interesting response in that it contradicts what William has posted here in the recent past.

I suppose I could do a search to make my point .. but I just cant be bothered


mike

sc flier

sbtinme remembers well.

From August 2006:
Determining which Plat gets upgrade

And from way back in 2002:
Attn: Million Point SPG Account Holders

bocastephen

I will concede that I perhaps misinterpreted the content of two different thread topics - upgrade ties v. promotional offers. I can't find the original thread I've been searching for, but I do remember the issue of how status was earned coming into play - I can honestly say I remember it being mentioned as a factor in upgrades, but perhaps it's more of a factor in promo offers.

Either way, it appears unlikely William will be commenting on this issue again

tomandrobin

This is all good information to know. I had always assumed platinum was platinum. But apparently there is platinum, platinum plus, ultra platinum and ultra platinum plus.

So I guess the best room available upon check-in should be followed by an "*", with a footnote at the bottom.

Forstbetrieb

You have forgotten the VIP...

bocastephen

Well to be realistic, I think it's fair to allow SPG and its member properties to prioritize how a limited-benefit resource should be given out. Most hotels don't have enough suites to give to every Platinum who checks in, and suites are still something that most hotels would prefer to rent out, not give out.

If you were a Platinum who earned 50,000 pts in one year, was returning to the same hotel for the 30th time in a year, and spent thousands of dollars at that hotel, not including the tens of thousands you spent at other SPG properties, I'm sure you would be pretty miffed if the best suite in the house was given to another Platinum who is at the hotel for the second time in two years, spends under 5,000 per year for their status and re-qualifies each year based on double-stay promos, just because they checked in a few hours before you.

tomandrobin

As you can see, I don't post much. My fingers got tired of typing.

tomandrobin

I didn't say I disagreed with the policy. The best customers should be treated in the highest regard, its good business. Just that the platinum category isn't just one, but apparently unspecified multiple platimum levels. Obtaining platinum is just the begining, but where the end is only corporate knows the details.

This informmation might be useful to a multiple elite program member. Five more stays might be the difference from a entry level platinum to a mid-level platinum.

sbtinme

I suspect you're just being hypothetical here, but as a point of clarification, there would be no way to determine where any one Platinum would rank on a regular basis. It's all dependent on when and where that Plat guest stays.

There would be some nights I would be the highest ranking Platinum at the W Times Square and other nights the following week I would be the 33rd on the list. Dependent on myriad external factors over which I have no control.

The bottom line, of course, is that all Plats are not created equal. I see that as proper and fair.

KENNECTED

Could this be the thread you were looking for?
Ask the Front Office Manager

bocastephen

Hmmm....I thought it was, and re-read it a couple of times because it looked familiar, but I still can't find the post I'm looking for.

Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me, but I'm 99% certain this very issue came up for discussion before.

KENNECTED

Are you having "Senior Moments"? LOL

bocastephen

Altitude sickness....I'm flying too much