Originally Posted by
dukerau
It never really was 1.67 cpp for anyone who's doing real math, but it is still available. The 1.67 assumes the 33% bonus value that's implicit in Prestige's 4th night free benefit. So for 4-night hotel reservations, if you have Prestige + Premier, you get 4th night free (Prestige) and 1.25cpp (Premier). Stacked together you get 1.33 * 1.25 = 1.67 cpp. But that's not real since the cash rate you could pay still gets the Prestige 4th night free. In other words, a hotel that costs $100/night would be $400 for a 4-night stay. With Prestige, you can pay $300, or with Prestige + Premier you can redeem 24k TY points for the stay. To me, it's pretty clear you're getting 1.25 cpp ($300/.0125), but FM claims you're getting 1.67 cpp based on $400/.0125.
Yeah I understand the flawed math behind his line of thinking, but I just liked the idea of being able to cash out with less points in a points-rich situation, at the opportunity cost of paying with real cash (and thus earning the 1200 TYP in your scenario).
I was more focused on the verbiage for "newer" cardholders, that the Premier can only cash out TYP at a 1.25 cpp rate for AIRFARE-only. I'm sure cardmembers who signed up to the previous agreement (I'd like to say before they brought back the 50k sign-up bonus year) fall under the 1.25 cpp for CITI-BOOKED TRAVEL. The AIRFARE-only redemption option seems to have been overlooked by a lot of bloggers. Either way, I recently signed up for the Premier. Under the new TOS, I'm not particularly hopeful about the 1.25 cpp for CITI-BOOKED TRAVEL.