cygone - Thanks for pointing out the nights and flights. I suppose if you need the air miles it might make some sense, but if you convert to HHonors points, you would get 3.5 nights in Hawaii at a Hilton. Add this to the 5 Starwood nights included and you are now spending $2745 revenue for each free night.

So this award costs $23,333 in revenue. Spending that much at Marriott, I would get "18.5" free nights instead of the "8.5" at Starwood cat 4 and Hilton. I undestand Starwood has no blackout dates, but this is no guarantee of availability, right? Am I missing something? It still seems a lot more expensive.

------------------
United UGS
Hyatt Lifetime Diamond
Starwood Platimun