And hotels too for incidentals.

I find the easiest way to use gift cards (if I don't have a huge number of them at once) is for utlitiy payments (including phone) that I can make online. Most allow you to make a partial payment or excess payment, so I just use the whole amount of the gift card in one payment, whether that's below or above the amount I owe. If it's above, it recuces it for next month. If it's below, I can make a second payeent (perhaps have to wait a day or two) with a "normal" card for the rest.