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SPG Platinum benefits include a killer feature not found in any other major hotel chain program: “An upgrade to best available room at check-in — including a Standard Suite.” When a guest with Platinum status checks in, the hotel is required to upgrade that guest to a standard suite if any are available. Of course, some hotels wiggle out of this responsibility by severely limiting the number of suites they consider “standard” or by pretending that no suites are available upon check-in. Still, on the whole, SPG Platinum elites often report enjoying fantastic upgrades.
SPG Platinum Benefits
SPG Platinum requirements and benefits are detailed here. In short, SPG Platinum status requires 25 eligible stays or 50 eligible nights in a calendar year. Unlike Hyatt, SPG award nights count towards status as do a second and third room booked for the same stay.
The benefits of standard Platinum status include:
- Earn 3 points per dollar for stays (vs. 2 points per dollar for standard guests)
- Choice of welcome gift upon arrival (bonus points, continental breakfast, or local amenity)
- An upgrade to best available room upon check in – including a standard suite
- Complimentary health-club, Club-level and Executive-level access.
- Premium Internet
- And more…
Additional benefits are granted to those who have earned 50 eligible nights, 75 nights, and 100 nights. Again, details can be found here.
No silver bullet
With Hyatt, all you need are a bunch of points and a friend with Hyatt Diamond status in order to enjoy top tier perks. With SPG, there’s no similar silver bullet. Instead, we’ll identify other ways to obtain some of the key features of SPG Platinum status:
- Club-level access
- Premium Internet
- Room upgrades
- Suite upgrades
The SPG Business Credit Card
The SPG Business card offers free access to Sheraton club lounges. It’s important to note that this is a feature only of the business version of the card, and that this benefit is limited to Sheraton properties only. Still, it’s a nice easy way to get lounge access if you stay at Sheraton hotels.
SPG Gold Status
There are a couple of easy shortcuts to get to SPG Gold Status. One option is to get a SPG card and spend $30,000 within a calendar year. Another option is to signup for an Amex Platinum card either as a primary cardholder or an authorized user (see: Amex Platinum Checklist).
Gold status offers:
- Earn 3 points per dollar for stays (vs. 2 points per dollar for standard guests)
- 4pm late checkout
- An upgrade to an enhanced room
- Choice of welcome gift (bonus points, premium in-room internet, or a beverage)
- Premium internet when you book directly with SPG (this is in addition to the welcome gift)
- And more…
As a Gold elite I have received upgrades to rooms with club access a number of times, but there is no guarantee.
Upgrade with points
Starwood lets you upgrade paid or award stays with points (details here). Interestingly, cash stays can’t be upgraded until 5 days prior to arrival, but award stays can be booked into an upgraded room from the get-go. So, there’s a real advantage to booking an award stay if you also want to secure an upgrade in advance.
Here are the prices for upgrading your room (but not to a suite):
And here are the prices for upgrading to a suite:
As you can see above, room upgrades are quite reasonable. Worst case, you’ll pay 2,750 points per night for a better room. I checked options for upgrading at the Category 7 St. Regis Princeville (in Kauai), for example, and found that an additional 2,750 points per night would guarantee a premium ocean view room. And, if you take advantage of SPG’s 5 nights for the price of 4 award, they’ll charge the upgrade price for only 4 nights. That works out to a total of 11,000 points for securing a premium ocean view room for 5 nights. If you have the points, it’s probably worth it to ensure that you get that ocean view for your stay.
Note that the types of room upgrades available will vary by hotel (call SPG to find out what’s available for the hotel you want to book). SPG lists the following examples of room upgrades:
- Larger rooms
- Suites
- Rooms with different view types
- Rooms on specific floors
- Club Rooms
- Corporate Club Rooms
- Westin Guest Offers
- Smart Rooms
- Rooms on Club Lounge or Concierge Services floors
Its very interesting that they list Suites as an example of a type of room upgrade! I can’t imagine that too many hotels offer that option. Upgrades to club lounge floors are probably more common.
Suite upgrades, on the other hand, can be extremely expensive at high category hotels. In fact, the upgrade price is exactly the same as the cost of a second room on weekdays:
While suites will usually be much more luxurious, if your goal is to make room for more people you may do better booking a second room.
Summary
Room upgrades, club level access (sometimes), and premium internet are all achievable without Platinum status.
Room upgrades can be secured by upgrading with points or simply by having Gold status (but then you won’t know what room you’ll get in advance).
Club level access is also sometimes achievable through the same means. In some hotels, a points upgrade will get you into the club. And, often, Gold status is enough to get you upgraded to club access. When staying at Sheraton properties, club access can be secured simply by having the SPG business card.
Premium internet is also easy to get with either an SPG credit card or Gold status.
Suite upgrades, unfortunately, are tough to get without Platinum status. You can use points to upgrade, but at high category hotels the price is prohibitive.
Also note that some hotels offer extra perks to Platinum members beyond the guaranteed perks. For example, some offer free hot breakfast. There may be some instances where you can get a room upgrade with points that includes breakfast as part of the package. Otherwise you’d be out of luck.
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[…] How to get SPG Platinum benefits without status. Well, with Marriott taking over SPG, you can kiss all the suite upgrades goodbye soon! […]
As Gold members at SPG, we were given free-WiFI in Lisbon but it only lasted one day. That was sad. We were only there for 3 nights and it was a weekend. Not a big deal for us, but still sad. I may look into another program that treats members better.
Greg, where is the link to CONTACT US(ME)? I have a question on your old post (,200,000 miles for Necker Island) that was in NOV 2015, the post is so old, I am afraid if I post my question there, you won’t see or answer it.
I’ve added the Contact Frequent Miler page link into the new Resources page. But, please do comment on the original post. When people comment on posts that were written by me, I get an email and will do my best to reply within a few days or less.
Gold status is useless. In about 20 stays in the past two years at different properties across the country, I have never been upgraded (unless you count bogus stuff like being on a higher floor but with the exact same room as people on lower floors). No club access, no bigger rooms.
Wow, that’s a bad upgrade record. I guess I’ve been luckier since I’ve been upgraded to club access a number of times
Greg,
Thanks for this article. Always enjoy checking out what you’ve posted. I’ve got a trip to Thailand coming up and I’ve got 12 nights planned at Starwood’s properties (I really want to go for Hyatt Diamond, but apparently there’s no Elite Challenge going on right now).
I’ve signed up for the SPG challenge and this trip will put me six nights short. I wouldn’t have to mattress run, but maybe get a little creative with selling my wife on a few spontaneous trips to get the remaining six nights for the Platinum challenge.
Is Platinum worth it? That obviously depends on how much you’d use it, but do you get upgraded to nice rooms/suites fairly regularly? Are the club lounges nice?
Some SPG hotels in Thailand are extremely cheap (especially Chiang Mai and Chiang Mai). Book a 2nd or 3rd room for a few of the stays if they are cheap enough.
I haven’t had any real problems with upgrades at most hotels. Sometimes you do have to ask and possibly push a bit. Oddly, the hotels that I’ve had to work the hardest for upgrades were the least desirable properties. Breakfast is a nice benefit, but varies greatly by property (there’s a flyertalk thread that can help you know what you’ll get). Club lounges are even more hit or miss, some great, some feel like a repurposed closet.
Whether it is worth it depends on what you value and how much use you’ll get out of it. SPG may only be around for 12 more months and who knows what will happen to your status after that.
Figure out how much you’ll have to spend for the extra 6 nights and how much you’ll use it after to see if it is worth it to you.
Thanks for the reply.
I didn’t realize that extra rooms count for extra nights at SPG properties until I read this article. That’s pretty cool.
I know SPG might not be around for much longer. If I got the status, hopefully I could leverage it into something else.
Sheraton Montevideo did not allow access to Club floor using AMEX SPG Business.
IME all non-US Starwood hotels tried to stiff me of the CC-related benefits. I’m guessing they’re not adequately compensated by either Starwood or AmEx.
Did you try Tweeting to SPG for help?
I talked to someone but I do not remember who. They said it was up to the discretion of the individual property. But, I might have just asked the hotel, not SPG as you suggested. It has only been a month, I might try anyway. Just to see. Good advice.
When that happened to me domestically or out of US, I simply ask to pay for the lounge access and put the charges onto my SPG Biz card. You can then have these charges waived when you call SPG to complain or even ask AMEX to waive these charges. Not everyone at the lobby are well informed of this benefit.
Great idea. Thx