Well, I received the email this past week that I knew was coming. What was that, you ask? It was the email from Starwood letting me know that I did not have enough stays or nights last year to retain my SPG Platinum status. My 18 or so months of Platinum status were great, and I’m going to miss being Platinum for sure. I’ve had some great suite upgrades, and other special treatment throughout my time as Platinum. I mean, who wouldn’t love a room like this?

Then you can read about my favorite sweet suite upgrade ever here.

After treatment like that, how could one let something like a demotion to SPG Gold happen? Well, I’m just not traveling as much this year, and it wasn’t worth it to me to do a few targeted “matress runs” to make sure I maintained the status. Believe me, I thought about it, but in the end I decided to just reflect upon my time as Platinum fondly, enjoy my upcoming year as a Gold (who will now get free internet…awesome!), and share the story about how valuable I think Starwood Preferred Guest continues to be even at a lower elite status level. SPG Platinum, I’ll miss you, but I know SPG will still be kind to me.

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