Most of the increases from category 5 to 6 are properties in Virginia Beach (4) and two other oceanside properties in the US. I am not surprised about the bump up for the two German properties. I have not stayed at these properties, but they seem to provide good value based on the opinion of people on FT.

Call me naive, but I still find it surprising that so many people want to use points for Virginia Beach and Orlando. The award categories are so out of whack in these markets that I would not burn points for a category 4-6 CY that has a room rate under $150.

With the reduction in categories, you can now use a category 5 Visa certificate at the JW properties in Atlanta and Beijing along with the Orlando World Center Marriott.

I may be tempted to do that for the Orlando property since I can rent the golf clubs for free as a PP member (used to be $25/day when I stayed in 2008 but it was cheaper to pay a package that included the golf clubs, internet and self parking) and roam the internet for free. This would actually make it cheaper for me to pay for self parking alone.