Today’s Discover America Daily Getaway from American Express is purchase of Hilton HHonors points — 100,000, 150,000, and 250,000 point blocks and when you pay by American Express you get a 10% discount and bring the price down to half a penny apiece.

Buying points from Hilton HHonors directly is limited to 40,000 per year and costs about a penny a point, so this is a deep discount relative to the normal cost of purchasing points.

It’s a good deal, and yet I’m torn. My usual mental model is that the average Hilton HHonors redemption gets you about half a cent per point in value. So you’re more or less prepaying the cost of an average reward stay. Not that appealing. There are of course some really strong redemption values, and if you are likely to use one of those then this is a very good deal. For instance, VIP rewads for multi-night stays at better properties can yield a penny or more per point so this is like getting a 50% discount on paid stays. I recently redeemed points for an Asian resort where I got about 2.5 cents per point in value. If I hadn’t had the points and planned to stay at such a property then it’s worthwhile.

But just to buy the points, I’m torn, and probably won’t jump on the deal. There are only a few hunderd packages, it takes jumping on the deal right at noon Eastern in order to get it, and I’m still dithering myself but some will find it an outstanding opportunity.

Loyalty Traveler offers his extensive analysis.