[QUOTE=WAS;23505688]OK, first off let's set some things straight. Do you realize that different programs are scaled differently?!?! What matters is how hard 20K SPG is to obtain and replace. It would take mid-tier elite SPG member $6,500+ in hotel stays to earn 20K points. It would take mid-tier elite flyer (flying $500 transcons) exactly that much money to earn enough miles for an int'l business award. [quote]You make no sense. How you earned the points has no relation to how useful the points are.
Also, in places like NY, HKG, SYD, and TYO, the difference for hotels is NOT 3x or 4x, if they are in the same location. It's at best 2x.
What's funny is your example for a Holiday Inn. You are just proving my point I made earlier: In smaller cities, HIs are perfectly nice. But in ritzier locations, they can be crap. So if you ask why ruin a vacation with a bad night's sleep enroute, I ask why keep ruining every night while you are there?
Why don't you give us an example of a crappy HI and an example of how you ruining a night in a hotel when you're sleeping.
Also, nice try with the 5K redemption; we both know that Pointbreaks are exceptions, not the rule.
Fine, 10k.
I don't see why I need to explain why you would need a suite or certain amenities. In some situations you do. On the other hand, I could say I sleep the same in Y as in C, so I don't understand why you 'need' a flat bed, but if you need it, I would have to take you for your word, wouldn't I?
nope, you don't have to take my word for anything. If you have a basic hotel room, you can get anything you are missing from a store. If you have a Y seat, there is simply no way for you take create a flat bed. Now if you got lucky and are in an empty row of 5 across ...
RE: umbrella. You apparently don't understand figurative speech, even once someone has explained it you. So my point is that there is a million reasons to have a conveniently located hotel, if you want to go back to your room for a moment for whatever reason.
Your lack of clarity does not indicate my difficulty in understanding figurative speech. Unless you are there for a convention in the same hotel, you are not going to be really close to it.
The Walmart trick is cheap and abusing the system, so no thank you.
Yet you don't bother to explain how it is difficult than elites booking multiple awards with the intention of only flying one and canceling the rest.
You also keep talking about flying intl'l First, so where the heck are you going to do that trick outside of the U.S.?!?! It only works here.
Returning it is my way of not throwing it away. Getting a few bucks back is a bonus.
Paying 120K miles to fly business can make sense. But to do it so that you arrive only to commute from the boonies and to run errands in your destination or stopover city, that is insane! I do that at home, not on vacation when my time is precious.
Sign, who said anything about running errands? I mentioned walmart preciously because you can get everything you need in one stop!