Hhhhhmmmm... had not considered Choice hotels as an option. Doing some research on that now. Was about to poo-poo the idea, but looking at the "Preferred Hotel" list, there are some nuggets. Stein Eriksen lodge for 50K (as an example) is a tolerable option. Still, not significantly better than my current, since 25K spend on my current Visa gets me numerous Cat 7 international hotels on Hilton.. and I could use Diamond force for availability. Will check further on this "choice" however.