Travel

By Robert McGarvey

Sure, I get a kick out of mentally counting my cashback and other rewards – in recent weeks 1200 Amex points via Rakuten just for filing my taxes with H & R Block, maybe $25 in credits at Amazon because I used a particular Chase credit card, $35 at Discover for buying groceries; another $35 for buying more groceries with the Amex Blues Preferred, $10 a day at a Hilton stay for food purchases because I have elite status via Amex Plat and the list could go on.

You get the idea: every month I am getting well over $100 in rewards just because I have and use particular credit cards.

Now chew on this: “Credit card perks for educated, usually urban professionals are being subsidized by people who have less. In other words, when you book a hotel room or enjoy entry to an airport lounge at no cost, poor consumers are ultimately footing the bill.”

That’s from a New York Times op-ed written by a Stanford finance prof and a grad student.

Their piece explores the question: what pays for our perks?

That question matters because – obviously – perks are increasing, Just look at the many card acquisition bonuses that today cross $1000 in value. What’s paying for that?

Reality #1: It’s not our imagination. Perks are getting richer.  Write the Stanford duo: “In 2022, the Federal Reserve published data showing that the cost of rewards, as a share of total transaction volume on credit cards, increased 25 percent from 2015 through 2021.”

Reality #2: Maybe credit card issuers swallow some of the increased costs as marketing expenses but they don’t swallow all of it.  How do they cover these costs? Per the Stanfords it’s via what’s called interchange fees which are the charges imposed on merchants when they accept a credit card in payment. On a $1 purchase, a merchant will in fact get somewhere between 94 cents and 98 cents depending upon their deal with the credit card outfits and the card used in the transaction.

Except the interchange fees apparently have been climbing, to cover the costs of our perks.  Claim the Stanfords: “A recent study at Stanford found that when credit card rewards increase, so do these fees.”

In that study Lulu Wang, another Stanford graduate student, says: “Data on bank payment volumes and consumer payment preferences suggest that consumers are sensitive to rewards, but merchants are insensitive to fees.”

They may be insensitive but that’s because they pass them on. Writes Wang: “Merchants pass on merchant fees to retail prices, creating a regressive transfer from cash and debit card consumers to credit card consumers.”

Therein is the nub of the whole argument.  When Chase hands out 100,000 points to a new Sapphire Preferred cardholder, we all pay a bit more at retail to cover that cost – and that’s true whether we have a Chase card or not, indeed whether we have any credit cards or are simply hand to mouth cash paying customers.

Can’t the cost of credit cards be passed on by the merchant to consumers? That was not legal until 2013 but now almost all states allow merchants to impose a credit card surcharge.  (Connecticut and Massachusetts still outlaw surcharges.)

Me, I live in Arizona, which allows surcharges, but I can’t say I have seen any except at gas stations.

Which means that all the other places I shop the surcharges are eventually paid for by all consumers in the form of higher prices.

You might think we are quibbling over pocket change. Wang disagrees.  He writes “consumers receive around $50 billion per year in rewards to use cards.”

That’s a mighty big pocket. 

The Stanford op-ed authors sum this up: “Lower-income consumers are forced to pay higher prices on the goods they buy, but they rarely receive any benefit from rewards programs, according to the Federal Reserve, which has been tracking the distributional effects of card rewards. Its December 2022 report estimates an annual redistribution of $15 billion in rewards value from poorer people to richer people”

Understand, this analysis does not necessarily apply to airline miles, at least ones awarded for actual travel. Many other factors are involved in calculating the costs to airlines, not least of which is that at most carriers the goal is to “sell” seats that otherwise would go empty. That math gets very complicated.

As for rewards on other purchases…I don’t know what I plan to do.  

But the math is disturbing.  Very disturbing.

by Robert McGarvey

I almost spit up a sip of coffee when I clicked on a piece by Richard Tams in Business Traveller and saw this: “There’s a new buzzword doing the rounds in business travel circles and it’s ‘purposeful’. According to those in the know, we should all be bracing for ‘an era of purposeful business travel’.

The applause you hear are mine. I’ve been preaching a similar doctrine for some time because, really, the time is ripe for a shift in attitudes towards business travel.

And, yes, I think a lot of business travel has been without purpose.  I can’t tell you how often I have traveled great distances to attend meetings where, very soon, I realized I had nothing to contribute and wouldn’t learn anything and so my attendance was purposeless.

But now companies – recoiling from the ever higher costs of airfare and hotels – want to trim travel expenses but they want to do it without impacting the bottomline. Note, too. Travel expenses really are up – 9% year on year per NerdWallet but airfare is up 26%.

Consider cost cutting as the first leg of a proverbial three legged stool. Eliminate purposeless travel and that is easy savings.

The second leg is the generational shift in business travel where millennials – unlike Baby Boomers, my generation, who have obediently kept a travel bag ever packed – now are carrying the bulk of the travel load and they question just about every trip. Why am I going? Am I needed? And of course what’s my purpose? Millennials just are shouting hell, no, I won’t go when they are instructed to fly to Cleveland for a meeting that could just as well be via Zoom.

A third leg of this stool is the corporate push for more environmentally sensitive travel which necessarily means less purposeless travel.  

Put those three trends together and, suddenly, the focus is on funding travel that is purposive. And funding only that travel.

What’s that? It isn’t travel that brings the traveler near to elite status.  Nor is it likely often to be travel to “show face.”

What it is, says Tams, is travel that genuinely supports the business and its interests. He elaborated: “The new model is designed to analyse trips by type and determine what purposeful travel means to your organisation.”

He went on: “Purposeful travel will mean different things to every company.”

Right there is the rub. Every organization needs to do a deep rethink about when travel is justified, for whom, and there won’t be and can’t be a common playbook.

A starting point in my mind is to look at last year’s travel – or maybe just last quarter’s in an organization with a heavy travel schedule – and ask what was the benefit of this trip? Could we have gotten it without any travel?

Extend the analysis to every employee who made the trip.  Junior staff, for instance, may genuinely benefit from attending meetings with very senior peers – I know I did when I was in my twenties and attended many meetings where most attendees were more than twice my age and held upper middle management or lower senior management jobs at Fortune 100 companies.  

Nowadays, however, I won’t attend a meeting unless I am going to serve an active role.

Companies won’t want me to attend unless my presence serves a measurable presence because that is their money wasted if I don’t.

Your turn: What does purposeful travel mean to you? To your organization? Your definition will differ from mine.

Also, note, purposeful travel does not always have to have a sales component. At some companies – you probably know the ones I mean – almost certainly most trips will involve selling but these companies have lived that way for a quarter century or longer.  But most organizations will bring a wider definition of purposeful to their analysis.

My guess is that in 2023 – where earnings and revenues will be flat in most organizations – we will see a rigorous application of the purposeful test for travel. A lot of trips will be nixed. As corporate economies get healthier in 2024, more trips will slip through the purpose net and get approved.

That’s when there needs be a reminder that costs and money are just one of three tests. There still are the issues of the environment and the generational shift.

Bottomline: business travel almost certainly isn’t returning to 2019 levels this year but what is cut won’t be missed. It’s in 2024-2025 where we will see if purposeful has become a word that organizations live by in travel planning. Or it was just another puff of meaningless air.

by Robert McGarvey

I just spent almost $500 on a roundtrip ticket from PHX to DEN in March and that was maybe twice what I had expected to pay. Exactly what is happening here?

The answer is simple: as a people we in the US have a ravenous appetite for travel. Initially that had been explained as a post pandemic frenzy but that can’t still be the explanation. One third more Americans now plan a leisure trip this year than did last year, per an NPD survey.

In the process prices for just about all things travel have been climbing, partly due to today’s inflation but also the apparently unquenchable consumer appetite for travel.

That appetite is so strong it’s even impacting sales of gear like backpacks and travel gear per NPD: “The travel accessories market, including luggage, backpacks, duffle bags, fanny and chest packs, garment bags, and toiletry cases, not only regained the revenue it lost in 2020 but also added more than $1 billion in U.S. sales revenue.”

We even are deferring clothing purchases in favor of putting our money to use traveling. “U.S. consumers are transferring some of their apparel spending toward travel plans. In the fourth quarter of 2022, 41% of consumers reported giving up apparel purchases in favor of travel, according to NPD Future of Apparel findings.”

Per Insider Intelligence, 22% of US adults name leisure travel as a top budget priority in 2023.

The upshot: don’t think that waiting will likely bring us cheaper air fares. Very possibly dramatic price cuts for oil – which no one expects as the Saudis have cut production – would prompt lower prices for airfares. So would an economic recession but few see that in the United States’ near-term future.

Show Me The Bargains

How can a penny-pinching traveler best navigate this terrain? Today, just about every traveler is actively hunting for discounts and deals. That means competition for these discounts is keen. The early bird will catch this worm; late comers will stay hungry. That means if you see a deal on a website, act on it. Don’t dither.

An upshot is that, suddenly, there is surging interest in sites such as The Points Guy where today I see a half off airfare to the Dominican Republic, via Jet Blue and Delta, that will have expired before this story posts.

Deals now seem to sell out in a day or two, quantities are limited, and quick action is rewarded.

Know Your Limits

I want to save money but I am not a fan of self-flagellation. Which means I generally will dodge discount airlines. The sticker prices for a flight may be tempting but the add on charges are not only annoying but may erase most of the savings.

I also like low priced hotels but there, too, there are limits.

Know your own limits when you set off on this bargain hunting quest.

Use the Many Credit Card Discounts You Probably Have

American Express cards usually feature around 100 deals and discounts for cardholders. Many involve travel brands.

Many other credit cards do likewise.

Some times the quickest way to cut travel costs is to use the discounts that already are extended to you.

Travel Against the Crowd

Wee Willie Keeler, a baseball Hall of Famer, famously offered this advice: Hit the ball where they ain’t.

Borrowing from Keeler my advice to the frugal traveler is go where they ain’t.

For years an habitual trip of mine was to spend Thanksgiving in the United Kingdom and/or Ireland. Airfares always were minuscule, hotel rooms were cheap and plentiful, and only once do I remember there being snow (in Belfast) and it had pretty much melted by the next afternoon.

See a blizzard of stories and social media posts about particular destinations – Portugal for instance is spectacularly popular nowadays as are polar cruises, to pick two comparative newcomers to mass acclaim – and you can assume prices match the high interest.

Me, I’ll go to Spain in early fall (not the pricey and hot summer).

While I’m at this, I will stay not in wildly popular Barcelona but in Madrid. Second cities are usually a good money saving tactic – and oftentimes are more welcoming to travelers.

Where do you want to go where legions of leisure travelers aren’t?

Spend Accrued Miles

Yes, carriers are demanding – and getting – huge piles of miles for award travel. Now American has joined other carriers in dynamically pricing award trips – which means more expensive in many cases. But my advice remains: use your miles because their value only seems to go down as carriers mint ever more of them. Besides, redeeming miles is one sure way to lower the cost of flying.

By Robert McGarvey

If you have traveled in the past 9 months or so, you have been smacked upside the head with the reality that the air travel experience is woefully lacking across multiple dimensions. From overcrowded clubs to jam packed planes there is not much to like about an experience that, by the way, is getting ever pricier too (about 27% more than same flights to Europe last year for instance).  

You and I are not alone in that doubtful sentiment.

An Ipsos poll found that almost half of travelers (45%) rated their experience as average or worse.  As to where the process had gone awry, malcontent travelers pointed their fingers in multiple directions in Ipsos polling: “[they] cited crowding and congestion (58%), flight delays or cancellations (44%), the airport security process (31%), and cumbersome travel logistics (31%) as the top three contributing factors to their less than excellent travel experience.”

Matters are so grim that the United States Travel Association (USTA) has acknowledged that the travel experience needs improvement.  “The latest data is a clear sign that significant upgrades are needed to kickstart a reimagined air travel experience that works for all Americans,” said USTA’s CEO, Geoff Freeman.

There’s no need to guess what needs to be fixed with air travel. Ipsos pinpointed them: “For their upcoming leisure travel, business travelers are most interested in increasing flight availability and direct flights (43%), and travel discounts and loyalty programs (33%). They are also significantly more likely to want flexible cancellation policies (32%).”

Think about that: we want more and more direct flights; discounts and meaningful loyalty programs; and flexible cancellation policies.

The desires are realistic. But how likely are the airlines to deliver on any of this?

The Crowded Airport Problem

You are not imagining that airports, airport clubs, airport restaurants, and airport lavatories all seem so much more crowded this year. A Travel Weekly story examined the problem and came up with an explanation: “Aircraft used by large U.S. airlines are quickly getting bigger. As plane sizes increase, so do the surges of people during peak flying hours who pass through TSA security, wait at gates, use bathrooms and queue up for Starbucks.”

Pursuit of more profits is why airports are overflowing with people, said Travel Weekly: “The upsizing is unfolding as airlines work to improve flight economics by reducing average operating costs per seat. They’re doing that by replacing smaller Boeing 737 and Airbus A320-series narrowbodies with stretched versions and by replacing 50-seat regional jets with regional aircraft in the 70- to 76-seat range. Delta and JetBlue are also bringing on Airbus A220 aircraft with well over 100 seats to replace regional planes.”

There don’t have to be more planes to create airport crowds. There do have to be more passengers and that is in fact happening with more seats in planes.

Airport Lounges

You know this is a problem.  Like me, you probably have walked up to a lounge recently, sniffed a long line outside waiting for entry, and just walked away.

Sorry, I don’t have a solution.

Experts say the root problem is that so many of us now have lounge access built into the credit cards we carry.  

That’s why I am doubtful that steps such as Amex’s elimination of free guest entry into the Centurion Club  for Platinum card holders – it now costs $50 a head – will seriously reduce the bodies in airport clubs.  

What’s the solution? I have no idea. For now I am accepting that very probably a lounge will not figure into my airport hours.

Gate Checked Baggage – For a Fee!

Airlines are adept at twisting the knife and, frankly, they believe we have no other choices – and for many trips we don’t.  Nobody except a few hard core greens is thinking of skipping a transcontinental flight for a train ride.  

So I am not surprised that apparently major US carriers are enviously eyeing the revenues Ryan Air and most other European budget carriers squeeze out of gate checked baggage – and they are beginning to do it in the US.

Face it, we have brought some of this on ourselves. How often have I seen a coach passenger wrestling with both an oversized piece of luggage, to be jammed into the overhead compartment, as well as a stuffed department store bag that will fit about as gracefully under the seat as would Haystacks Calhoun.  

The historic rule of thumb with gate checking used to be that fees were not involved.

No more is that a blanket rule. Many airlines have begun charging basic economy passengers who are sneaking a full size bag aboard for gate checking. 

Many airlines also are now said to be charging fees for gate checking clearly oversized “personal items.”

The appeal is money.

Our money.

Personally I don’t push the limits when it comes to carryons – but I’ll still yell foul when I see other travelers nicked for cash just because airlines want it.

When Will It End?   

Don’t count on air travel getting better anytime soon.  Wherever I look it is getting worse. Personally I will be eyeing all possible trips looking for reasons to say no.  

If enough of us do likewise, you know what, air travel just may get more pleasant.

At least until word spreads that the skies are again friendly – and the cycle will begin anew.

By Robert McGarvey

Digital commerce company iSeatz – which focuses on loyalty technology – has big news for the loyalty programs owners: we think their programs need help. A lot of help if they are to meet our needs and create the loyal customers they want us to be.

iSeatz arrived at this conclusion by doing empirical research and producing a lengthy report. iSeatz elaborated about its method: “iSeatz conducted two surveys in late 2022. The first asked 2,041 consumers from across the United States and from different socio-economic backgrounds about their views on their loyalty rewards programs….The second was a survey of 291 loyalty program managers conducted online from November 18-December 12, 2022.”

A key takeaway from the research: “there is a disconnect between what most loyalty programs offer and what their members demand, which limits their potential. One finding illustrates this in stark terms: 63% of industry respondents say their programs are members’ first choice when booking travel, but only 51% of consumers report the same.”

An even more startling disconnect: 52% of respondents said their loyalty programs deliver what they most value. But 92% of loyalty providers say they are delivering what customers need and want.  About one in two of us really like our loyalty programs – but the providers think all of us except for a handful of malcontents who probably would be satisfied with nothing love them.

Another metric that is highly problematic: just 20% of providers say user experience is a difficulty, but 84% of us say user experience is a frustrating part of booking.  How could the providers be so off base? The answer is simple. Probably they are benchmarking their site against competitor sites and if they all stink, well, that lowers the bar. iSeatz numbers point to this as a problem: “While 74% of the survey group said they consulted other travel booking sites for inspiration, only 55% looked to major consumer-facing e-commerce websites or apps like Uber or Amazon that their members likely interact with daily.”

The big question: Is it time to bury travel loyalty programs, just walk away from them?  Personally I have a foot in that egress path as I put more focus on cashback programs and much less on travel loyalty.

But even I think it would be premature to simply toss travel loyalty out of my universe.  Just in the past 18 months I have gotten roundtrip comfort class tickets for two twice just by cashing in Amex rewards.  The experience at Amex was fine, by the way, although it mainly consisted of clicking away hundreds of thousands of points to Delta where I got the tix.

Essentially, however, I am indifferent to the loyalty programs I belong to –  Delta, AA, United, Marriott, Hilton.  I’ll grab free wifi at a Hilton because that’s easy but mainly the programs are just things I know I belong to.

iSeatz tells what programs need to do to engage me and probably you: “Travel loyalty programs can be a differentiator for financial institutions, travel brands, or companies in any other industry where competition is fierce. But only if they provide an outstanding booking experience, a wide range of travel and lifestyle reward options (including sustainability-related rewards), personalized engagement, and next-generation payment options.” (Emphasis added.)

For me, I’d say two things matter most in deciding if my experience is satisfactory.  #1 Can I in fact actually book on the approximate dates I have in mind? I do not approach a reward booking with fixed dates in mind – usually it’s something along the lines of “late September or early October,” maybe a one month booking window. #2 Is the price reasonable – and since I no longer see awards charts from the carriers I fly the honest answer is that often the costs I find when trying to book seem very high.

I find it maddening that today the redemption game is played with the goalposts in motion. How much is a ticket to Europe in the fall? Used to be we knew how much. Now it’s whatever the market will bear.

Picture a cashback card where you don’t know – and cannot know – how much cash you will get back on a $100 purchase at a grocer.  Would you continue to play the game?  

But that frustrating uncertainty is precisely our lot with airlines and their loyalty programs.

It’s not we who are disloyal.  It’s them.

By Robert McGarvey

Face the ugly reality: air travel is a significant contributor to global warming.  As reported in Mongabay: “In a recent study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, [Oxford climate scientist Milan] Klöwer and his colleagues calculated that aviation contributes around 4% to human-induced global warming.”

Klower told the publication: “taking an airplane is the one activity which probably unites all of science in terms of where we are really high emitters.”

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute added more gloomy numbers: “EPA reports that commercial airplanes and large business jets contribute 10 percent of U.S. transportation emissions, and account for three percent of the nation’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) production.”

Climate change is a reality and humans cause it. That just is fact.

But also fact is that humans can do something about it.

One solution of course just is not to fly. Already that is showing up across northern Europe where flygskam is a byword. In Germany for instance many executives are declining to fly short haul on business trips and are opting to take trains instead. In Sweden even more executives are saying nej to flights. The sentiment also shows up in US companies, although at reduced numbers – at least for now.

Personally, I’ve invoked a flygskam state of mind on occasion in the US, taking a train from NYC to Washington DC and really when you calculate the wait times at airports and the drive time to them, the train (under three hours) is about as quick as flying.

Would I take a train from LA to NYC? Nope. That’s about three days and 16 hours and when I can fly – even building in the hassles of LAX and EWR – in around eight hours door to door I am in for the trip at 36,000 feet.

And truth is that not many European business travels are choosing to boat across the Atlantic instead of flying.  The Queen Mary 2 could do it in five days – but that will appeal to few business travelers.

Which leaves us where?

Exactly here: in a search for new, cleaner ways to fly.  A recent article in The Week actually gives a little hope that greener flying may be on its way.  Titled “Can air travel ever be ‘green’?” the article explores a joint project involving NASA and Boeing with the intent of creating a green airplane. They are putting significant money on the table: around $725 million.

Said NASA administrator Bill Nelson in a statement: “It’s our goal that NASA’s partnership with Boeing to produce and test a full-scale demonstrator will help lead to future commercial airliners that are more fuel efficient, with benefits to the environment, the commercial aviation industry, and to passengers worldwide. If we are successful, we may see these technologies in planes that the public takes to the skies in the 2030s.”

The aim is to build a greener plane designed to serve the short and medium haul market, flights such as LA to San Francisco and NYC to Chicago.  That kind of flight is the bread and butter of business travel.  

A train from LA to San Francisco takes about 15 hours, by the way. Flight time is about 90 minutes. If the flight were greener there’d be no argument whatsoever.

The NASA Boeing project is not the only green game in town.  The New York Times reported that air carriers are exploring a range of alternative ways to power planes including “hydrogen-powered aircraft, fully electric planes and synthetic jet fuel made from carbon extracted from the atmosphere.”

Will any ever make their way to a runway near you?  Who knows? But what we definitely do know is that a lot of very big businesses – including airplane makers and air carriers – know that the clock is ticking down on traditional airplanes.  New ways to transport ourselves long distances need to be created – and greener planes sound good to me.

For shorter distances – under 200 miles perhaps – I like high speed rail which I have used in France, Spain and Portugal (also the US if we count Acela). But longer distances get me thinking about air travel.  

Count me as hopeful that the Boeing – NASA joint venture produces results I can fly on within 10 years. And if it doesn’t I am optimistic other research frontiers will deliver for us.

by Robert McGarvey

Forget the obvious. If I were asked about my wishes for an airport, I’d say I want planes to take off and land on time, for security lines to be fast, and, well, I pretty much covered my essential wants. I admit I may never get what I want.

But a company named Airport Dimensions – which builds airport lounges and which is part of Collinson, which created Priority Pass – wanted to look at the question of what creates airport satisfaction a bit more broadly.

Airport Dimensions surveyed travelers and it found that 57% reported visiting an airport lounge in their journey.

Me too, usually. Ten years ago I would have said 100% of my air travel involved a club stop. Nowadays a majority of my trips still do but when entry lines are long and clubs too full, sometimes I am staying away.

Airport Dimensions wanted to know why we stop in a club. It found that 56% said they accessed the lounge to use business services. But 78% said they came for the food. And 68% said they sought leisure amenities.

I have no idea what leisure amenities these folks found because other than a rack of generally useless magazines I don’t recall seeing much in the way of leisure amenities.

The food is rather blah too. Amex Centurion is an exception. Some Priority Pass venues are too (but by no means all). De gustibus non disputandum est.

As for how we gain entry, the study found 25% say they got in by virtue of cabin class , 19% got in because of programs like Priority Pass, 19% got in because of airline elite status, and 18% paid to get in. As for me I get in via Amex Plat and its associated Priority Pass deal.

I admit I am quite surprised that nearly one in five shelled out money to get in – AA’s Admirals Club costs $59 to get in and, nah, I am not parting with three double sawbucks to open that door. $59 at United too. Nope.

Now we get to a number that genuinely floors me. Actually several numbers.

Here’s what Travel Pulse reported: “nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of respondents emphasized the importance of being able to access airport retailers online while they’re at the lounge, while only 12 percent didn’t feel this aspect was important to them.”

Count me in the 12%. I have no interest whatsoever in any airport retailers. Whether digital or analog. For many years I always bought a couple newspapers…but now I read NYTimes and WaPo online so I don’t even stop at a newsstand.

Here are some retailers in Terminal 4 at Sky Harbor; I can honestly say not only that I have never been in any, I had never noticed they existed – and I have zero interest in accessing them online while I am sitting in a club.

Who are that two in three of us who want digital access?

A third number that makes me twitch: 56% of us say they’d be willing to pay for grooming, spa services, and personal care in the lounge.

Would you?

Not me. Maybe I could be persuaded to get a haircut if I really needed one and had a half hour to fill before boarding but probably not and definitely not the other stuff.

Is any of this central to a club experience? Not in my mind.

Look, a good club experience is simple to define. Think Centurion in its early years. Plenty of seating. Quiet. Good coffee. A decent glass of wine. Maybe a few nibbles to take the hungry edge off.

Done, sign me up. I don’t need to conduct in-lounge digital retail with airport vendors, I don’t want spa services, and I don’t need leisure amenities.

It’s not hard to create the club experience I want – but it apparently is even easier to screw it up with crowds I definitely don’t want and complexities I have no interest in.

I duck into an airport club to get away from the hurly burly outside. I don’t want the noise and clutter to follow me inside.

What about you?

By Robert McGarvey

Take those travel rewards and, well, shove ‘em.  In 2023, with ever fewer good travel rewards on offer usually at too high prices, there’s a pivot into maximizing cashback returns – and even I, a longtime disdainer of any effort to optimize cashback, have plunged into the fray.

That was made obvious in last week’s column where I sing the praises of the Amex Blue Preferred card and its 6% cashback on groceries.

Arguably, too, I am pleased with the Amex Plat card because I have in effect turned it into a cashback card.  If it were just miles and club access – which for years was all I expected from the card – it would have been binned at the last renewal.  But, with very little effort on my part, the card is cashflow positive.  That’s the language I want to hear in 2023.

This week I am on a related but different hunt, it’s to maximize returns from cards that I already have.  Why? I have 10.  Average American has two or three; CreditKarma members average five.  Ten should be plenty for me

I already got one card this year (Blue) and that’s enough. Besides, nothing really tempts me.  

Which brings us to this: Are there more benefits to be squeezed out of the cards I have?

The biggest potential in my wallet – and probably yours too because 57 million of us have the card – is the basic fee free Discover.  The distinguishing Discover feature is that every three months it has a different set of 5% cashback retailers. For January – March it’s grocers, drugstores and streaming services.

Discover has not announced the categories for the remaining three quarters but in 2022 they were Grocery, Gym & Fitness Club; Gasoline and Target; Restaurants Paypal; and Amazon.com Digital Wallets. Probably the 2023 5% categories will be similar.

Know this: Discover caps 5% back at $75, that is, $1500 in spend.

This leads to picky decisions.  In Q1 I will max out the Discover 5% grocery spend, sidelining the 6% Amex Blue cashback but that is because Blue caps at $300 back and I can use that in Q2 into Q3. 

This a.m., too, I switched Netflix billing from Discover to Blue, although Blue offers only 3% back. That’s because I’d rather have the 5% Discover cashback on groceries.

Then there’s the utility cashback player in my wallet, the Venmo credit card, which offers 3% on my biggest spending category, 2% on the next biggest, 1% on everything else.  I continue to take that in Bitcoin where I am down 25%…but at least I can claim to be a crypto player and have the losses to prove it.

I have two special purpose cards. One from Capital One that’s connected to REI and it offers 5% back on REI purchases, 1.5% on everything else.  My intent is to use it only at REI.

The Apple Card, via Goldman, delivers 2% cashback at many merchants if used in Apple Pay. 1% if the physical card is used.  The real draw is 3% cashback at Apple and that is the only place I have used it.

Probably the card I expect to use much more this year is an unlikely one, the Barclays AA card.  For a few years it has been an inert slab of plastic in my wallet but this just may be its year.  I named AA as the airline where I get $200 in flight credits via Amex Plat – almost named Southwestern but then Christmas happened – and plan to fly it much more this year than I had in recent years.

AA is a good choice since I live in Phoenix and it and SWA own Sky Harbor.

Now I see AA has a dining program where I can buy meals and earn miles – and pay for it with the Barclays card for more miles.

But what about cashback? There’s some of it too.  $25 is available against inflight WiFi charges paid for with the card.  There’s 25% back on inflight f & b purchases.  Of course there’s also a free checked bag and free priority boarding,

It’s not a great card but with maybe four AA flights in 2023 it will pay for its $99 fee and more.

And then there’s my most lucrative cashback card, the Chase Amazon card which gives 5% back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases. Last year it returned $624 to me (pretty much evenly split between Whole Foods and Amazon). This year I am expecting about half that because lately I haven’t been shopping at Whole Foods. But that’s still an easy $300+, just for using a particular piece of plastic.

Whew.  But here’s my belief: do this once a year with most cards and once a month with Plat (to scroll through new offers in a few minutes) and you will maximize the return on your cards and take away meaningful cashback.

It’s likely not a windfall, but if it takes only minutes it’s a good deal.  

Make your cards work for you in 2023.

By Robert McGarvey

The good news – sort of, in a big picture view – is that airlines are flying very full.  The bad news: awards tickets are just plain rare.  And when they are to be had, the prices I see are exorbitant. Awards tix are priced dynamically on the airlines I’d fly and that translates into charging what the market will bear and, when planes are full, we are talking Kodiak bears.

Remember, as far back as 2002, Joe Brancatelli labeled frequent flier awards as akin to “an unregulated lottery” where the rules (and redemption values!) are subject to change at the whims of the owners who of course are the carriers, not us.

What rubs our noses in this reality is the eagerness airlines have in bragging to Wall Street about how profitable their awards miles business is. For them, there is more profit in selling awards miles than in flying sheetmetal from point to point.

Don’t forget that reality.

Oh, there are people who will tell me my pessimism is off base, that there are great awards deals to be had. Maybe for those willing to spend many hours hunting for a bargain that generally involves multiple parties – booking via an airline I’ve never heard of but which belongs to an alliance where a carrier I will fly belongs and, shazaam, those machinations produce an acceptable flight on an acceptable carrier. That doubtless works for some. But I am too lazy.

Show me the money. Now.

That’s why, for me, the takeaway is that today is the era of cashback.  When more money flows into my pocket I get more choice. I also can quickly and easily make my own purchase decisions. 

Which brings me to the credit card that – unexpectedly – I added to my wallet in the closing days of 2022.

Poking around the Amex site the other day – killing a few minutes looking for more ways to snare bonus miles and discounts – I stumbled upon an offer for the Amex Blue card.

The what? Count me clueless but I had never heard of it.  But at a glance it got my interest: 6% cashback on groceries.

Hold on.  In Q1 the Discover card I use offers 5% cashback on groceries which is capped at $1500 in purchases, $75 in cashback. But that only is in Q1 and I exhaust it in the first six weeks.

I also use a Venmo credit card which gives me 3% cashback on my highest spending category which I have made groceries.

We spend maybe $15,000/year on groceries.  It’s a big part of our annual budget.  So, yes, I do like cashback on grub.

There are two Blue cards from Amex – Preferred and Everyday.  

Everyday is fee-free. There’s a path to getting $250 back on purchases in the first six months.  And it offers 3% cashback on groceries, online purchases, gas stations.  There’s 1% cashback on just about every other purchase. There’s also an $84 statement credit for a Disney streaming bundle (paid at $7/month).

I chose to pay $95 for the Blue Preferred. First year fee is waived.  There’s a straightforward $250 credit earned by $3000 in purchases in the first six months.

But what hooked me is the grocery cashback is 6%, capped at $6000 in purchases annually – $360.  So I use Discover to get the $75. Then fill in with Venmo the rest of the year.  

That puts an extra $180 in my pocket a year, just for doing a little card shuffle and carrying one extra card in my wallet. That works even for a lazy guy.

Plus, Blue Preferred will put more change in my pockets. There’s 6% cashback on select streaming services (I believe the only qualifying service I have is Netflix) and 3% cashback on commuting expenses (from gasoline to subways). There’s also 1% on just about everything else although I doubt I will use the card elsewhere.

There also are plenty of usual Amex perks that I already have with the Plat card – global assist hotline, rental car insurance, return protection, purchase protection. All good but I already have them so I count the value at zero.

You’re right – after paying the annual fee I will be just a handful of shekels ahead. But, hey, it’s a game and a win is a win.

Btw, I am not alone in liking Blue Preferred.

Aren’t there other good cashback cards? You bet. Here’s a credible roundup from NerdWallet – and do note that Blue Preferred makes the list.  But there are 10 more on the list.  Look and doubtless there’s a card that will win you and put more cash in your pocket. Just don’t forget: it’s all about you. Some are best for dining, others for commuting, some for “everyday spend,” and – if you are like me and want to optimize the grocery spend there’s Blue Preferred.

My advice: get the card that works best for your spending. But get a cashback card.  Playing the awards came is so 20th century.  

Cash is king in 2023.

All hail the king.

By Robert McGarvey

Charge $695 for a credit card – and $175 for a family membership – and there has to be a regular accounting.  Is there still value in the Amex Plat card for me?

The odd bit is how fast the benefits dollars accrue.

For instance, there’s $240 – $20/monthly – that is reimbursed on a NY Times subscription.

There’s $200 in Uber credits, and I use every penny (mainly on Uber Eats in the past two years).

There’s $14.06 monthly, refunding a WalMart Plus monthly fee but, you know what, I will value that as zero because I wouldn’t actually pay for it.

There’s $179 credit on a Clear membership which my wife claims so let’s say that reimburses her card fee.

There’s a $50 credit for a Saks purchase and earlier in the year there had been another $50. Total: $100.

There’s a $200 airline fees reimbursement.

There’s $53.84 in Google credits. I am not sure what I did to get this but I won’t refuse.

There’s a $200 Amex Hotel Collection credit (plus the hotel covered $100 in miscellaneous charges on a three night stay).

There’s $20 in WalMart credits against purchases that I made.

That totals $1013 in credits just on my card.

There’s also maybe $20 monthly in cellphone protection (valued at $10 per phone), and some value also for the purchase protection on items bought with the Plat card.

Thow in maybe $250 in airport club access (mainly Delta lounges).

It really does become a no brainer.

When the math turns against the card I’ll drop it.

But right now it puts money in my pocket.

And I am comparatively lazy about maximizing value out of the 100+ Amex offers that are dangled in front of me. I’m sure there’s more savings to be had.

But I am sated with my present share.