Fairmont gift cards have a great exchange rate
I know this question has come up occasionally in other threads, so I wanted to post a data point. I stayed at Fairmont Le Montreux Palace this week and paid by Fairmont gift cards.
The rate used by the gift card terminal on Sep 3 when applying the cards was 1 CHF = 1.3738 CAD.
The live rate at the same time, obtained from xe.com, was 1 CHF = 1.3693 CAD.
Rates used by my Visa and Amex around the same time were all north of 1 CHF = 1.42 CAD.
From now on, for any of my international Fairmont stays, I plan to always pay with CAD Fairmont gift cards and not my Amex or Visa!