Originally Posted by
intub8r
As far as taking time or resources to convert $3.29 gift cards (which I have a number of myself, LOL), since the process is entirely automated, what difference should it make whether there is $25 or $2.50 on the card? I can understand them not awarding fractional miles, but they could easily round down to the next integer.
I didn't really mean protect the gift card industry per se, but more along the lines of keeping unused balances in the hands of the gift card issuers. My guess would be that the gift card issuers are paying United a fee for this "service".. or do you guys think it's the other way around? Someone is making money off this somewhere, otherwise it wouldn't be happening in the first place.
I don't think they are returning the value to the gift card issuers (the gift card issuers probably would not pay anything for the unused value, if they thought that the alternative was breakage). Instead, PlasticJungle sells the gift cards to other consumers (and earns a margin between the more deeply discounted buy price and the less deeply discounted sell price).
So a gift card for $3.29 for example, requires PlasticJungle to take delivery of the gift card (usually mailed in, except for some that can be entered in electronically as e-certs), and then market and ship the gift card to another buyer. So for such a small denomination of gift card (which is also harder to resell), the sale income may not be worth the transaction costs.