Originally Posted by darthbimmer

I agree. When you book a Cat 1-5 Travel Package you are paying the Cat 5 price even if you only stay at a Cat 2/3 property. Thus you are overpaying for the hotel portion of the package by 60-90k points. Subtract this from the value of the airlines points transferred and suddenly the TP doesn't look like such a great deal anymore.

That why I've booked a few Cat 2 stays with the 5th award night free deal. Getting 10 nights at a Cat 2 property for 80k points saved me $1,200 out of pocket. I consider 1.5cpp a fine value. Even moreso because it's hard cost: I would have paid that $1,200 to stay at that hotel (or a competitor) if I didn't have the points. The same is not true of frequently overpriced premium cabin airline tickets.