In anticipation of the Discover America sale (fingers crossed that Choice participates again), I've given some very initial thought to my likely travel needs for next year, as I want to buy the "right" number of points.
My initial plans call for a family trip to Australia during the USA summer. I remember reading that Choice dramatically hiked redemption prices in Australia a few years ago, making the points nearly useless there. I figured I'd check, and my preliminary review partially confirms this information -- but in a very weird way.
When I looked at a handful of different properties, I found very LOW redemption prices for every season OTHER than USA summer -- often only 8000 points (kaching!). But from July 1 to Sept. 15, most of these properties jump to 35,000 points.
What the heck is that about? It's obviously completely illogical to have that kind of variation, and I wouldn't think that was even the peak travel period for Australia.
Has anyone been watching this and have experience with this fluctuation? Is there just some special promo going on before July 1, and will it likely be repeated next year? I was thinking of visiting in August next year, but might consider visiting in June if it would mean getting most of my accomodations for next to nothing. Of course, I'd need to have enough points!