Just because others seem to think something doesn’t mean they are right. A variety of people think the world is flat but they are wrong.

Here is my response to his post. It is awaiting moderation so he might well delete it:

I must be blunt and say your analysis is flawed on a variety of levels:

1) You are saying this a devaluation but this is a new property
2)You use one data point and say this is system wide but that is demonstrably false
3)You compare a non-refundable introductory rate to points which are fully refundable
4)You ignore taxes and other fees which significantly raise the price
5)Your value of IHG points at 0.58 cpp is low

I looked at this property for May 14 of next year. Points are 178K, which is $890 when you buy them on sale, which is what smart IHG members do. I have never paid a resort fee with a points stay but I do realize that could be a YMMV. So to be very generous towards your analysis, I will say the points stay is a total of $980 versus $1156 for a non-refundable stay. However, as I said, the proper analysis is for a comparison to a refundable stay, which is $1485, which is a very significant savings. Even taking into account a resort that someone may or may not pay with a points stay, we get ($1395/178,000)= 0.78 cents per point. That is a drastically higher number than your 0.58 cpp that you claim.

And as I said, your picking one night at one location is an extremely flawed argument. For example, I looked at the IC in New Orleans for Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday of next year. It is 62K Points a night versus $470. That is 0.76 cpp.

And of course, using a ANC and topping it off, booking 4 nights for the price of 3 with points and legacy people like me that get 10% for holding the Select card increases the value proposition of points.


>>>>

There has been no systemwide devaluation. Quoting people with flawed analysis over and over will never make their analysis correct. You can quote 10 people that say the world is flat but that will never make that analysis correct.