CanadaDH

Here's another data point. Stayed at the Copley Plaza in Boston and used CAD gift cards to settle the USD bill.

Gift cards converted at USD/CAD = 1.2942 on Monday.

At the same time as my purchase, I checked the buy and sell rates on OANDA. The rates on their website were:
- Buy USD: 1.29487
- Sell USD: 1.29418 (which matches what the gift card converted at)

xe.com was showing 1.29417 at the same time, and kitco.com was 1.2943.

That's a damn good exchange rate to pay, if you assume the market spot rate to be mid-way between their published buy and sell rates. I'm actually a little surprised that the gift card didn't convert at 1.2949 instead.

For comparison, all of my Amex purchases the same day converted at 1.331.