Devaluation in Asia
 

I'm probably the only one who didn't read the announcement that this would happen, but several formerly reasonable properties in Asia (e.g., JW Seoul and Renaissance Harbour View HK) have gone from a Cat 4 to a Cat 5 in the past few days. Very sad, these used to provide great value for the Marriott Visa free Cat 4 cert.

it's all based upon a ratio...the reason for the increase was the number of people redeeming awards was greater putting the hotel out of formula

Something tells me that higher prices compounded by a weakening dollar may have had just a little to do with many of the non-U.S. properties being recategorized upward.

And the effects of the point purchase program were especially bad for the Cat 4 properties that provided excellent value. In Seoul, for instance, a $250+ room could be had at 50% savings when using points. 2 nights at the saver rate for 28k points easily beat Priceline for those locations.