Jump off it?!

One of the major sources for information is http://www.flyertalk.com/, and in a forum post, someone has mentioned that Office Depot has started to remove all gift cards and prepaid cards with variable loads (i.e. the $500) ones. The max you can buy now is $200 with a $7 fee, effectively bringing the cost of Chase Ultimate Rewards points to $0.008 instead of $0.004 (an increase of double!) Taking the math out of it for you, if you were to redeem on United for trips, here are the following costs for a round trip fare in economy.

Destination	Mileage Plus Points	Cost in US Dollars
Continental US	25,000	$213
Caribbean	35,000	$298
Hawaii	40,000	$341
Europe	60,000	$511
Asia	65,000	$554
India	80,000	$682

As you can see, you still get a good deal out of it, but it's far from the deal we got earlier. With the prior deal, we were able to get a round trip to Asia in BUSINESS class for $360. Remember there would be taxes and surcharges so add maybe around $100-$200.

Just as my last post mentioned, these deals are dying out quickly. We continue our quest to find new means to get more points!