From the OP's own words ... I have enough points for 2 weekend nights in New York at Renaissance or pay the $199 special... I am leaning towards paying, but $450 is not chump-change for a cheap weekend escape ...

I take his meaning to be two nights at $199 per night. Double that and throw in "tax and tags" and I assume that's what he means by $450 as a ball park figure.

The rest is simply MR math. Of course it would have been more helpful if my 55 was correctly written as 5.5K. How come the government is allowed to get away with this sort of math?

Gee, and I though you guys weren't paying attention.

Barry