- Simon Malls will stop selling gift cards in-store on Friday. The glory days of Simon gift cards have passed, but because we like to study the past to learn for the future, there was a time when:
– They carried $1,000 GCs in-store
– Some malls coded as restaurants with some issuers
– The cards could be easily liquidated at Safeway, Kroger, or Walmart
None of those things are true any more. - Regarding the elephant in the room: I think Pepper manufactured spenders are largely informed about the current risks involved with the platform. If and when it fails, I think the probable outcome is:
– Gift cards issued more than a week prior are probably safe
– Gift cards issued in the last days of the platform may be zeroed by BlackHawk
– Floated coins will be lost
Why bring this up today? Yesterday Pepper offered effectively unlimited quantities of Amazon gift cards at 22% cash back. Most of that 22% won’t post for a few weeks. So, I guess I’m reading the room which I’m good at about 50% of the time. I still have floated coins with Pepper, but I’ve been scaling way back. I actively chose not to buy yesterday. - In a move surprising only the ghost of Spiro Agnew, Marriott devalued its award chart for higher end properties. A few notes:
– High end property redemptions increased by as much as 80%
– Don’t trust a blogger’s valuation of points, use your own redemptions as a guide
– My valuation of Marriott points was already low at ~ 0.5 cents each, this doesn’t help
New valuation? Still 0.5 cents, but a low 0.5 cents. - Bilt’s rent day promotion for Saturday is a 20%-100% transfer bonus to Avianca LifeMiles, depending on your status in the program. You’ve still got time to earn points that’ll post by Saturday. I’m certain there’s going to be a limit on the bonus, but I can’t find it published and I’m of course not part of Bilt’s marketing campaigns because reasons.
Avianca has strange loopholes that lead to great redemptions, but availability often isn’t great. - Staples stores have $200 fee-free Mastercards in store through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.
These are Pathward gift cards.
More Bonvoy math.