I could not agree more with cygone's original response if I had written it.

As for priceline, if the specific hotel is unimportant, for example, any 3 star in midtown manhattan, you will save enough to pay for 10 free breakfasts.

As for this thread, I salute the reasoning of the original poster. YOu have to figure out where you would be likely to redeeem to dtermine the value of accruing points to YOU. I would guess that he is a bit unusual - more of us would place a premium on Starwood's properties and lack of capacity controls to offset what may be a less generours rate of earning. What's more, their excellent customer service and the liquidity of the points and availability of an earning credit card make it the obvious choice for the majority of FT'ers.