As I said above, it's not honored.

Meaning it shows up as booked, you receive a confirmation, it’s in your WOH account, then you show up to the property and they turn you away? Just trying to clarify.

They won't turn you away. They'll offer you a room at the cash rate.

Which to me is the same as being turned away because booking a Cash Rate on the day of at most desirable properties (the ones you’d use a Certificate at) the Cash Rate wouldn’t be worth it.

For example - If I used a Cat 1-4 Cert at Manchester GH that’s due to expire on May 5th. Then the FD tells me your Certificate cannot be redeemed.

Well, by the day of I can no longer book with 15k points instead because all points rooms are booked.

The Cash Rate is roughly $400 after taxes, which makes no financial sense to pay.

I’m saying if it’s bookable and holds up (doesn’t auto cancel out and return the cert to your account) you should be granted the stay. Have you actually tried this and been denied at the hotel or are you basing it entirely on what it says?

The free night is like a $100 bill up until the date of expiration, so a Dec 1 expiration when you pull out the bill on Dec 1, it no longer says $100, but now says $0 dollar. Needs to be SPENT the day before expiration date.

It’s not much different than showing up at a store with an expired coupon. The store isn’t going to honor a coupon that won’t be reimbursed by the coupon issuer.

OT but some stores do this as a matter of policy, just like they accept competitors' coupons but don't expect reimbursement. Similarly double/triple coupons are done at the expense of the store.

Which stores accept $300 or $400 coupons that won't be reimbursed?

FWIW I've just got 10k points from my concierge for an expired free night voucher (category 1-4) :)

One night in a cat 4 is 15,000 points, or 12,000 for category 3 and 8,000 points for category 2.

OTOH points are flexible and don't expire if the account remains active.