Kremmen,

I agree about the conversion rates. When the travel company has to dig into its pockets and pay cash for something (yacht charter, etc) they will take it out of your hide in the form of a poor conversion.

When I called Diners Club about their "personalized rewards" I was told essentially to find a price quote, multiply by 200, and that's how many points it will be (at 1/2 cent per DC point). The woman actually told me that it's not a very good deal.

If you want to get big value out of your points, unfortunately the best way may take a little work, which involves converting into airline awards and then (gasp) converting those awards into cash. I was looking at a $1,500 award that would have cost 300,000 points. Converting to 5 SWA tickets and reselling them for $1,500 costs 160,000 points.

Sure, it detracts from the "spirit" of the program, but almost anything that they can buy so can you (for half price or better).