Thanks for the advice, larapanget. It's not so much about using the hotel points (there are lots of affordable places in SE Asia these days), but the expense and time to get to Palawan. I don't want to visit Manila (sadly, it doesn't seem like anyone wants to) and the hassle of getting to Palawan from there (on my own dime with a separate airline ticket that I need to leave time for potential misconnection) is considerable.

You mentioned Bali, and I am thinking of substituting Bali for Palawan. I've been to Bali and it's a bit of a mixed bag these days (mass tourism in the south). But there are parts of north Bali that may be comparable to Palawan for their "undiscovered" relaxed vibe. Like folks are talking about Amed (bridges and paved roads in the past decade). Your tourist dollar goes very far there, and DPS is easy to get to with the Star Alliance. It's just far.