ddallas

Yeah, racks will likely get thin by the end of the weekend, one way or the other.

lavag

changed for the worse

Jetsfan

No problem in MD this afternoon. And mgr did not know (or share) any info about removing these GCs.

goober153

6.95 per 200, lets say 6.95*5 to make 1k spend = $34.75 for 5k points thats $0.006 per point if you used the cards. If you want to churn them into vanilla thats an additional $9.90. $9.90+$34.75 = $44.65 $44.65/5000= $0.008 per point, this sound correct? before we were getting about $0.004 per point?

MilesGator

$6.95 for $200 = $34.75 for $1000.

$1000 in spend nets you ~5,174 UR pts for a cost of $34.75

But then you have to unload them. I understand some people will just use them for everyday spend, but I personally dislike doing that b/c it takes away that spend from a different card. I understand the other spend is not 5X, but the beauty of this deal (previously now), was that I didn't HAVE to use the OD GCs for everyday spend but could easily liquidate the value. The cheapest way to liquidate the cards (if this is even possible) is to use 5 of them to buy 2 $500 VRs at CVS (and then use BB for bill pay). So now...

$34.75 + $7.90 (2 VRs) = $42.65 for ~5,174 UR pts.

Being the newb that I am (and broke graduate student), I tend to think of UR pts in terms of how much it will cost me to get a UA plane ticket to somewhere where I want to go from continental US in economy...

Continental US 25k RT = $213
Hawaii/northern South America 40k RT = $341
Carribean/Central America/Mexico 35k RT = $298
southern South America/Europe 60k RT = $511
north or south Asia/Japan 65k RT = $554
India/Africa 80k RT = $682

These are still good prices, but a very far cry from how awesome they were when OD was still selling $500 GCs.

raghu455

Local OD was very thin on vanilla visa. Just 7 left and got my biggest one time purchase of 6 today. Left 1 there. There were 20+ Amex GCs though. Manager said they had a lot of fraud in the $20- $500 ones and it will be pulled from the store pretty soon.
Sucks that fraudsters deprive us of these opportunities!

particlemn

Bought 2 this morning they were out of the 4.95 ones but had some of the 5.95 ones available . The purchase took manager override he said nothing just thanked me for my business

QL_714

…but now the bloggers have another one to add to the list. I wonder what they are going to do once all the easy pickings are gone.

drminn

I think you are giving way too much credence to "the bloggers". I doubt any one of them, or even the bunch of them combined, has the number of page views that FT generates. Just a bunch of convenient whipping boys (and/or girls) it seems.

TheBOSman

Not sure if they ever had any, but didn't see any MC/V/Amex GCs of any denomination (variable or not) at the OD in downtown PDX (6th & Washington). Just happen to be out here today, wasn't planning to buy any GCs today anyway.

concordian

One OD did not have them but a second store had lots. Bought 4 and my DL and card # were noted down. I am done for this month, if they are not available, time to stock up Hilton points.

TheBOSman

OD near the intersection of I-205 and I-84 in PDX also not carrying any variable load cards.

ferrari_fan

2/4 stores nearby had stock around me. One was taken off by manager and the other one said they ran out LOL.

Here is DFW list since this is ending anyways
http://pastebin.com/cNsGpN2e

ddallas

This is going down similar to the end of VR at OD with a few early reports on Saturday morning then a few more reports of cards pulled mixed with reports of no purchase problem as some OD managers respond to the memo right away and some don't get the email or take their time. I think we are now in the stage of "buy'em if ya got'em" I wouldn't fault anyone for loading up from here on out.

beckkl

I have a feeling that when managers keep citing "Fraud" they are referring to us, even though they probably don't know it. No way the average criminal was clearing out the volume that the miles crowd was.