Rewarding Hotel Stays

The largest hotel frequent-stay program, Priority Club Rewards, just got a bit bigger. Members can redeem their points for American Express prepaid cards that can be used at any hotel in the world (even the competition), with no blackout dates.

Members earn points by staying at any of the InterContinental Hotels, including Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Staybridge Suites, and Candlewood Suites. The prepaid reward cards can be used at over a half a million hotels worldwide.

Should you get excited? With reservations. One Priority Club member pointed out:

The conversion rate doesn't cut it. That's the negative. The positive is that the cards can be used just about anywhere. Did anyone think for a minute that IC (or any other hotel chain for that matter) would give you a good conversion rate to go use your IC points at the competition? All that being said, I might cash in a few points because I already know where I am staying on vacation this year and it's not in a IC.

Related: Preloaded AMEX cards are now online - redeem away! [FlyerTalk]