I am a HH gold and a *Wood dirt. Recently, I tried to use points for a two night stay in Milan. There was a Hilton there but it was unavailable for a gold using points. The hotel was not sold out though but was about $400 per night. In this case, what good is having a high HH balance if you can't use them? This is the same issue with most airline ff programs. With *Wood, no problem, Sheraton 4 points for 7000 pts per night or Westin for 10,000 points per night, both with room rates around $350/nt. I am new to the *Wood program but the availability issue is incredibly useful to a base member. I believe the best use of any hotel points is for international travel, especially now that the dollar is so weak.

What if there was a major US airline ff program where a base member would be guaranteed a seat if the flight wasn't sold out that went to popular places like the caribbean and Europe? Everyone would agree that it was the best. All other things being equal, it looks like that's what we have with *Wood.