Honestly, I have no idea what you're saying. I hold about 4 million CC points and am thus fairly invested in the program, but I have seen no indication whatsoever of what you insinuate. Yes, it would be unfortunate, but it isn't happening!

For this hotel, I see plenty of dates where standard rooms are available. In all my searches across many hotels, I've seen very few instances where 75k rooms are available and 50k ones are not (however, there are many instances when 50k rooms are available but 75k ones are not). I think of the 75k rooms as comparable to SPG points&cash -- an added benefit that hotels can offer but don't have to. In addition, the 75k rooms in Paris offer significant improvements (larger room, breakfast, etc) -- well worth the upcharge, imo. This is not the case with HHonors, where base rooms (50k) will sell out and then dynamic pricing will kick in, offering a slightly improved room for perhaps 200k, and suites for up to 1.5 million points. Now, that's a scam, and I think it's pretty unfair to accuse CC of using a similar strategy, when there's no evidence whatsoever that this is occurring.