Originally Posted by sdsearch

Points-based certificated are not the same thing as actual points!

Points-based certificates will simply be certificates that say "good for any hotel that requires NN,NNN points or less" rather than "good for any hotel at category N or less".

You can tell that by looking at the credit card certificates info. They no longer say "cat 1-5", the current $85 card says "up to 25k points" hotels, while the new $95 card says "up to 35k" points hotels.