"I wasn't bashing (or praising) that feature. Just stating that it is a potential problem for those of us who don't always know what are travel plans hold. That's all"

I don't get *wood's logic. By making this a 5 month promotion, they are essentially cutting loose members for 2 months to use the competition and collect bonus points there. I thought good marketing taught that controlling the customer was a worthy goal.
So anyone who does not have the ability to forsee travel should simply do one of 2 things:
If you like a current competitor's promotion during May/June, then for *wood, select July-September and go with the competitor for May/June. Why would *wood encourage this?
If you feel that you would rather gamble on a competitor having better promos in August/September and you have an inkling that you may do a fair amount of traveling in the near future, go with May/July with *wood.
*wood has now cut you loose to harvest points from more fertile fields in August/September.
It just does not make sense to me from a customer retention viewpoint
Maybe it's me.