I got it a couple years ago to get the credits I needed to get a free flight. I got the flight I wanted without a problem when the date came out. I cancelled the card before the year came up so that I would not have to pay $59 again.
This year, I transferred some credits from hotel points. I got the credits after the dates had already come out. I could not get the flight I wanted for June 14, the only one available was in the evening. I'm meeting friends for dinner at Chef Mickeys around 5:00 so that would not work. They did have a noon flight the day before, so I'm going a day early and staying at the Swan before moving to AKV for the week. I got a room for $60 plus starwood points.