Throughout the week, our team shares articles they’ve stumbled upon that may interest our readers, even if they might not otherwise merit a full post. Here are some of the posts we found interesting this week: What will happen to Saks gift cards amidst bankruptcy, don’t forget that we are not the norm, and Alex Honnold will climb the Taipei 101.
Judge Rules on Validity of Saks Fifth Avenue Gift Cards After Wednesday’s Bankruptcy Filing
Saks Global (the parent company of both Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus) just filed for bankruptcy, which leaves folks wondering, what does that mean for the Saks Fifth Avenue statement credits available to American Express Platinum Card® holders (or more specifically, the Saks Fifth Avenue gift cards, which many cardholders buy with these credits)? Anthony at Award Wallet has some details on this, reporting that the judge handling this bankruptcy has ruled that Saks can continue to honor gift cards without violating bankruptcy law. And for now, that’s what they intend to do as well. However, cardholders are right to feel shaky about holding a gift card with a company undergoing bankruptcy – that’s a precarious position. A small consolation is that Saks would need to provide a two-week notice before terminating their gift card program.
Wild: Travel Doesn’t Even Crack Top Three Amex Points Redemptions?!?
The “False consensus effect” happens to all of us, where we overassume the degree to which we represent the norm. I think that’s what’s behind our shock at learning that travel wasn’t included in a recent infographic that Amex sent out, showing the top three most popular redemption categories among card members. Instead, the infographic showed gift cards as the top option for points redemptions, then using points to pay at checkout, and thirdly, redeeming points for statement credit. As Ben points out, all three of these options give only a fixed value of 0.6-0.7 cents per point as compared to our reasonable redemption value of 1.5 cents per point (or his valuation of 1.7 cents per point). As it turns out, caring about the cents per point value of your rewards points is…actually not that normal.
Alex Honnold is climbing Taipei 101 with no ropes, live on TV. It’s drawing excitement — and concern
Some of you may find this piece interesting because you’re familiar with the tallest skyscraper in Taipei, the Taipei 101. (It’s the tallest building in the photo above, with the interesting ridged sides…relevant in a moment.) Others of you may find this piece interesting because you’ve dabbled in the world of rock-climbing, or at least enjoyed the movie “Free Solo” about the insanely fearless rock-climber Alex Honnold, best known for climbing without any ropes. As though a ropeless climb of Yosemite’s El Capitan (the climb featured in “Free Solo”) wasn’t insane enough, by the time this publishes, Alex will either be finished with or in the middle of a ropeless climb of the Taipei 101. And just so we can all sweat along with him, this will be broadcast live on Netflix. While another climber (Alain Robert) completed this climb more than 10 years ago, Alex will be the first to attempt it without ropes. The technicality of this doesn’t quite make sense to me because the little ridged elements we see in the picture represent 8 floors each. We’ll have to watch on Netflix to fully understand what exists for him to grip in between those 8 floors, but apparently, at each ridge, there will at least be a balcony he can rest on. (But again…what happens in between each balcony?) I loved the movie “Free Solo” for how it highlighted the unique psychological nature of someone so fearless, but I will not be subjecting myself to the live Netflix viewing. Someone please tell me in the comments if he made it!
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Glad Alex survived. Also glad that Taiwan remains a free, independent country.
Can we all agree Alex has the biggest pair of cajones on planet earth? Free Solo was the most incredible feat of any human being I have ever witnessed.
It’s “cojones” with an o. “cajones” is very different.
The Amex redemption data is by number of transactions, not number of points. The email they sent me listed “using pay with points at checkout” as my top redemption category because there were 3 different times that I used 1 point each at Amazon to trigger the x% off deals. Whereas there were only 2 times where I transferred out to partners even though those were for thousands of points each.
I ordered an item with my AMEX Platinum online from Saks Friday, and just got an email that’s it’s due to arrive at my doorstep Monday.
The Taipei climb wasn’t live either. It was broadcasted with a 10 seconds delay. So I am sure that there was a contingency plan for a fall.
At this point, the in-stock items at Saks are weak at best, so just hold on to the cards and hope for the best. On the other hand, if you’re willing to gamble, it might be a good time to buy some on the secondary market.
They still got plenty of over-priced $50 socks. That’s my go-to every 6 months.
I buy a decent amount of Polo Ralph Lauren. I’m sure it’s overpriced for what it is, but I’ve been generally happy with the consistent quality of their items, and their sizing is one of the few brands that fits my wide shoulders and large chest without being overly billowy in the mid section. Saks sells Polo for about what it costs to buy directly, and for a pretty decent price if you can catch it right when Saks puts it on sale.
Saks has a good selection of Polo at any given time, and I can always use another business casual button down or some chinos for the office. I’m still seeing plenty of Polo online right now. In fact, just bought a shirt last week and it’s set to arrive this week. I’ve personally been happy shopping at Saks, although I do wish they’d bring back free shipping for Plat holders like they used to have.
Not saying that Saks is the best, but I think people are down on it a lot more than they should be. They sell a lot more than just Prada and Gucci. There’s some good mid-range stuff if you’re willing to dig.
He made it 🙂
Thanks to all those folks redeeming their points for gift cards who are subsidizing us!