Ok, thanks -- that kind of brings it back to what I was expecting :-). Hmmm. Maybe I'd be better off making a separate cash booking and a separate reward.

Thought experiment: if I had a cash booking for two days in a "better" room (beachfront), followed by a 5 day reward, how likely would we be to be allowed to remain in the better room? (I will drop down to Silver at the end of this year so won't have meaningful status).