To blend what some have said above, and add a bit: Choice dropped their Europe hotels' redemption rates to 8,000 this last spring, as well as the fall, both unannounced "sales". The scope in terms of time (end point of the miracle) and geography could be found only on the reservation search pages. It was pan-European, with two property exceptions that I saw, and was to last until the end of October. There were many "Hotel not available" dates, to be sure. But one could definitely construct a miracle.

Then many of the normally higher redemption price properties, mainly in Paris and on the French Riviera, evidently rebelled and spontaneously tripled and more than quadrupled (35K) the rates back to their normal levels. This is what the OP saw without a context. The irony, seemed to me, was that it would have been far better to pay for some of them at ~ E80.

The takeaway: If we are so blessed again early in 2012, we'd best jump on it, as did the sages here. And if you might have the means to pay, also be sure to check the revenue rates. I'll likely take the risk that it comes back in the fall, my favorite time to travel, though I have absolutely no basis for confidence, except that it happened once.

(NB: There is one property in Nice that I was watching that was actually scheduled to drop to 8,000 on November 1.)