Priority Club offers ‘any hotel, anywhere’ as an award — you redeem your points for an Amex Gift Card for use on hotel purchases. These can be used to pay hotel bills anywhere you wish. The idea is that you aren’t limited to Priority Club hotels with your Priority Club points. The usual downside? You get less than half a cent in value per Priority Club point. Standard hotel redemptions offer far better return.

However, through December 15th, Priority Club is offering these ‘Any Hotel, Anywhere’ redemptions at half off. You can get better than 4/5th of a cent per point (double the value). This actually makes for a pretty good deal.

First, because you’re paying for your room instead of redeeming points. And that means whatever hotel you’re staying at should be earning you points.

Second, because Priority Club is iffy at best at offering elite benefits on award stays. So if you are spending ‘any hotel anywhere’ cards at a Priority Club property, you may experience better elite treatment than if you had booked an award.

Finally, since the reduction in value of Priority Club points (for instance, an Intercontinental property redemption went from 30,000 to 40,000 points per night), Priority Club points aren’t frequently worth more than 4/5ths of a cent anyway. In fact, the breakeven point between the top-level hotel gift card redemption and an Intercontinental room night redemption is a room rate of $332 — leaving points earning and flexibility aside.

For this reason I’m going to be snagging a bunch of these gift cards!