dcstudent

I think generalized statements about all hotels pulling C&P while waiting for March 5 are overblown. Since Lurker 4 let us know about the upcoming changes I booked the Westin Palace (Madrid), Sheraton Edison, and the LeMeridien Versailles (Montreal) for my preferred dates. BTW, in addition to the LeMeridien, the Montreal Westin and Centre Sheraton also had C&P for my dates.

dsquared37

Where did anyone claim all hotels pulled C&P? The only thing generalized is your statement.

However, if you look there are specific hotels mentioned where a plethora of availability dried up overnight.

KENNECTED

See above.

Outside of flyertalk, there are quite a few SPG members, remember we're a small number of the overall SPG membership. I don't know for sure, but is it possible others are booking C&P rooms as well? There are lots of possibilities as to why rooms are not available.

dsquared37

I read the post you referred to as addressing the particular hotels in Shanghai/Pudong rather than system wide.

I can also attest, because I was looking at several booking periods for Aloft Bangkok, that a wide open availability of C&P was followed, immediately, by not a single date of availability for the remainder of the year. If you're going to side with the potential of 300+ days of availability booked in two days then I've got a bridge on the east side of Manhattan for sale.

friedablass

I've seen quite a number of posters mention this - I know it's a long thread but I've been following it from the start and this claim has been mentioned quite a few times, but also refuted by those who state they were able to find C&P at their desired hotel and dates.

paytonc

Some of this cynicism is a bit unwarranted...

SPG itself overhauled C&P in 2007, which led to vastly improved availability. Then Category 1 & 2 were added in 2009.

And although category increases do always outnumber category decreases, the latter do in fact occur: for instance, in 2012, almost six times as many hotels decreased to Cat 1 as increased out of Cat 1.

That's not how math works. If the half that's cash goes up 25% but the half that's points does not, then overall it's only a 12.5% increase; only if both halves go up 25% does the overall increase amount to 25%. For my most frequently used Cat 3 C&P (from 2,800* + $45 to 3,500* + $55), valuing Starpoints at the frequently available purchase price of 2.8¢ each, the total price has gone from $123.40 to $153, or an increase of 23.99% in the overall price, 25% in the points price, and 22.22% in the cash price. (In this example, the value assigned to the points means the points are worth more like 2/3 of the value paid.)

Technically nothing; it's their program, after all. However, the fact that all of the C&P tiers are now conveniently half the all-points tiers does indicate that the former are being moved to fit the latter.

cko64

Did you try to book C&P? Was C&P still available after you book? Since I have 200,000 Starpoints, so I thought I'd try to book Aloft Bangkok which according to you is wide open available on C&P. Guess what! It's all pulled, not a day of C&P is available from today until end of the year.

Where is that bridge you want to sell?

Vinodavid

They actually have a c/p redemption option at a W for April 2014 in Dallas over the NCAA Final Four.

Pseudo Nim

I am not sure whether this C&P pull conversation is true or not. My limited data point is the Sheraton Kobe and Sheraton Osaka; I was looking for dates in July, and neither before nor after this announcement has there been any change in C&P availability (and the Osaka Sheraton doesn't even have cheap rates loaded yet, only showing insanely expensive rack rates).

Boraxo

I stand corrected, at least at the low end. That being said Cat 1 and 2 are 100% useless to me. I have never redeemed for < Cat 4 and most of my preferred resort and world-class city destinations are now 5+

travelswithmyself

I think he was trying to say that it was "wide open" prior to the announcement and went to total shutout immediately after.

dsquared37

Dude, please reread and comprehend my post my fully. You have not grasped one iota of the meaning correctly.

Thank you. That is indeed the gist.

dsquared37

I've read the entire thread since the beginning as well. My recollection is that people have mentioned specific hotels not offering C&P however anyone claiming all hotels have pulled C&P offerings is simply batty.

Flews

I've had no trouble finding and booking C&P since this announcement. In fact I have one C&P booking confirmed for March 3-5.

Cheers,

travelswithmyself

Yes agreed. But the tone of _some_ posts is like all hotels have pulled C&P :P

Me, I'm still more concerned that upgrades will become harder to get. I had a thought the other day, which was reinforced by a comment in another thread (getting 100 at 99 nights) about how many golds have now become platinum, that this is also a way which SPG is using to maybe ease the number of complaints it gets about lack of upgrades. So now if you really want a suite, use your SNAs, and if you've used those up, use C&P.

Still cheaper than buying a suite direct. Especially for the points-rich.

But not good news for us in asia w/o the SPG Amex and who are used to being well-treated wrt upgrades