Update 5/19/20: Hawaiian Airlines has also paused sunglasses redemptions. Hat tip to reader Bobby H
Original post: A few days ago we posted that Southwest was no longer allowing loyalty customers to redeem points for gift cards. In the comments readers pointed out that other loyalty programs have done similar things, for example:
- Delta stopped allowing miles to be redeemed for Delta gift cards and third party gift cards on or around March 15th-16th
- Best Western is no longer allowing points to be used towards gift cards or merchandise
- American Airlines no longer allows miles to be redeemed via Points.com
I wouldn’t encourage people to redeem miles/points for these options in most cases anyway (although Southwest wasn’t the worst redemption ever) because even if they get devalued significantly you’re still likely to get better value when redeeming for travel rather than these options. Obviously there is some bankruptcy risk, but that doesn’t always result in your miles/points being lost.
