A lot of people redeem HHonors awards using GLON or AXON for places such as Maldives, Bora Bora, Seychelles and etc because they tend to offer some of the best value for points. In those instances, your incidentals will very, very likely be in the thousands of dollars even if the room is free. If you review the Conrad Maldives thread, I think the average folio ranges from $3,000~$9,000 for the stay easily based on self-reported numbers by FTers. In such a case, the 50% more HH point option makes sense since you can't earn miles on award booking anyway.