So why must the patrons play the guessing game..then follow up through you guys to find out whether or not a hotel is really sold out, getting around the rules or didn't load their award inventory into the system yet? That's a lot of guesswork and my understanding is the new rules supposed to make it easier for last minute redemption.

While I know it's going to be difficult....I'm looking at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square for 12/31/09-1/1/10 and they have a standard room for something like 600$ but nothing on points. The reservation system only let us try to make reservations 3 or 4 days ago so I can't figure out if they're already sold out...the hotel didn't open up any award inventory or they simply modified the "Standard room" for 600$ to be a "holiday rate" for the said standard room.