What’s The Ideal Vacation Length for Peak Relaxation?

By Robert McGarvey

Just how long should a vacation be?

I ponder this because in the past three years I have enjoyed month long vacations in Spain twice – but I also very much am enjoying two night camping trips around the Southwest. Is one length better than another?

Note: I am pretty sure I am not ready for a month-long camping outing.  Would the back hold up doing 30 nights on hardback dirt?

But I’m intrigued by this question, as is WaPo which just ran a piece that explored exactly this question.  

Reporter Andrea Sachs pointed to research that claimed “H&W [health and well-being] increased quickly during vacation, peaked on the eighth vacation day and had rapidly returned to baseline level within the first week of work resumption.”

Your mileage may vary. 

Sachs added: “‘Overall, my conclusions are that the optimal vacation duration is (almost) impossible to investigate because you cannot assign people randomly to vacation durations,’” Jessica de Bloom, one of the study’s researchers, told The Washington Post by email.”

That’s the rub.  

And it gets more complicated still.  It may vary in one individual, at least I know it does in me.  I have done many cruises and, honestly, around about the 8th day  I am counting down to the voyage’s end.  I have enjoyed the first week but then I simply get bored with the routine on the ship and I want to escape regimentation.  Pronto.

But then there are my month long trips to Spain where I’ve walked hundreds of miles along the Camino de Santiago and, yeah, around about the time I’ve entered Santiago I am plotting my way home – but that’s after a month on the path.

There is one point on which vacation researchers agree: vacations increase life satisfaction.  Hard to argue with that, even if it seems a rather nebulous claim. 

I also will admit to going 10+ years without a vacation as such, in the years right after moving to Los Angeles. I had been I had been a northeast corridor guy – Boston to DC – my entire life until the move and LA and the nearby environs all seemed so different I kept myself busy locally. I also traveled a lot for business in that era and that alone filled my travel quota.

So do we know anything about the proper vacation length? Sachs added this from the research: “We should take several shorter vacations throughout the year instead of blowing all of our leave on one epic trip.”

Hmm. You must know multiple Europeans – Germans in particular – who every year take a month long vacation. The ones I’ve talked to, swear by the recuperative value of a long absence from work.  

My guess is that the answer to the what’s the ideal vacation length question is entirely individual – and, in my case at least, the ideal length varies with what I am doing on holiday.  In some cases a couple days is about right, just as in other cases I’m all in for a month.

Another, important variable – noted by Sachs – is how long it takes to get where you’re going.  If it’s a two hour drive to Sedona, as it is for me, two or three days on the ground (in my case, literally) is about right.

If it’s a full day going to Lisbon or Madrid, as it is for me, a lot longer on the ground is required before I begin to feel the trip has had an impact on me.

As I pull on this string I increasingly begin to believe that this is a case where research is done because it is done.

What can we positively conclude from the many threads of research:

Vacations are good for us

Vacation leave us refreshed.

But not all of us need a vacation every year and, as for the right length, it all depends on how long it took to get there, what we are doing, and what we will be returning to.

If it feels right to you, well, it is.

How Much Would You Pay For a Loyalty Membership?

by Robert McGarvey

Don’t think the question is academic. Here’s a firm prediction: we will all be seeing more loyalty plans that involve fees and probably we will pay to join some.

Part of the reason: Wall Street loves recurring fee income. Zuora, which bills itself as an expert on the subscription economy, says: “To investors, the  primary appeal of recurring revenue models is the value of predictable recurring revenue, particularly in comparison to one-time transactions. For example, a $20 million dollar company with eighty percent recurring revenue can count on sixteen million dollars at the beginning of every year. That figure is stable and predictable. Management can plan and invest accordingly.”

Yep.

Already we are chronically pinged to join Uber One ($9.99/month – don’t ask me what the bennies are; I haven’t joined), DashPass via DoorDash (also $9.99/month, altho free to some Chase credit card holders), Panera’s Unlimited Sip Club ($11.99/month buys a free beverage every two hours), and now hotel operator Ennismore has launched its Dis-loyalty club where members pay $18/month to belong.

Watch: if this Ennismore play catches on, many more hotel groups will follow suit. They are desperate to wow Wall Street and a loyalty program with a membership fee would be just the ticket.

And Dis-loyalty just may catch on. Its monthly fee is high but it builds in real value for users.

First however, what’s an Ennismore? Part of Accor, it’s a collection of 75 hotels and 150 restaurants including The Hoxton, 21c Museum Hotels, SO/ Hotels, SLS, and Mama Shelter. Dis-loyalty perks are real. 50% off just opened hotels, 20% off a first stay at a hotel, 10% off return stays, 10% off food and drink at the 150 restaurants, a daily free coffee or tea daily at any of the restaurants and bars.

Did I mention there are no blackout dates?

Notice: you don’t have to earn points, or even track them, to be eligible for a benefit. If the benefit is part of the program it’s yours for the taking.

Live near an Ennismore property, for instance, and a daily coffee would put you richly in the black on a membership. Add a monthly restaurant meal and also a hotel stay and, suddenly, Dis-loyalty is like winning the lottery.

For Ennismore it’s a win too: that member doesn’t need to be marketed to.

And, again, investors love this kind of recurring income.

Personally I belong to a number of loyalty programs: Bonvoy, Hilton, Avis, National -all with elite status via Amex Plat. I also belong to Delta Sky, American Air, Southwest frequent flyer programs. I pay for none.

Would I pay for any? Sure, for the same reason I pay for Amex Plat – if the program paid for itself.

But only if it did.

I would not pay for any that I belong to because I just don’t get enough value to justify it.

But Ennismore’s Dis-loyalty definitely does deliver value if you work it: “As a lifestyle company, with roughly 40% of our gross revenue coming from restaurants, bars, and coffee shops, once you do the maths, it doesn’t take much for you to work out the give-get,” Sharan Pasricha, Ennismore founder, told Fast Company.

One hitch with Dis-loyalty is that hotel reservations have to be made at the Dis-loyalty website. Accor Live Limitless points also are not earned.

But for people who already stay at Ennismore hotels and live near restaurants and already use them, at least a little, Dis-loyalty is a deal. The Fast Company writer notes that Ennismore is opening a new resort this fall in the Maldives – with rates starting at $1282. Stay just two nights at 50% off is $1282 in savings – which would pay for 5+ years of Dis-loyalty.

And the name itself encourages that. It’s called Dis-loyalty because it’s aimed at people who like to try new things, said Pasricha.

I can definitely see a US based boutique hotel group embracing this idea – perhaps Ace or the Standard. Maybe a prolific restaurateur – maybe the Bobby Flay club or the Danny Meyer Pack. The key is to load a program with enough perks to make membership pay for itself.

This is a trend I expect to explode – if the hoteliers don’t screw it up.

Heat Kills: Visit Phoenix Now and See the Wretched of the Desert

by Robert McGarvey

Here’s the good news about the record setting Phoenix heat wave where day after day highs are greater than 110 and night time lows are above 90, sometimes even 95: so far the impacts on Sky Harbor Airport are minimal.  The airport says that it is good to fly up to 122 and we haven’t quite gotten there.

That is the end of the good news.

The rest is all bad.  We are in the longest, hottest heat spell in recorded Phoenix history. This is felt by all of us but especially by the 5000 or so unsheltered Phoenicians who live outside on the streets and sidewalks. They are dying this year – at least six so far this year but there will be more.

Yesterday I saw this misery on the faces of 100 or so who had come indoors at a church to get a few hours of relief.  I was there, with 10 volunteers, to bring them lunch as they sat indoors in air conditioned comfort.

For them the problem isn’t the daily high it’s the night time low which is so high it amplifies the Phoenix Heat Island Effect which is a fancy way of saying our concrete and asphalt roads and sidewalks and buildings absorb and radiate heat and this cranks up our temperatures 10 to 15 degrees.

There is only one 24 hour heat respite shelter available in Phoenix. There are over 100 daytime shelters with ac and there are unofficial ones (libraries, shopping centers, anyplace a homeless person can duck into to get some water, use a toilet and get a few minutes of cool air). But the nights are the worst this year.

For some years now I have coordinated a group that feeds homeless in Grace Lutheran’s downtown Phoenix Heat Respite Program. I got involved because on my daily walks downtown I saw misery that I had never seen before, not even walking in Manhattan and Jersey City on frigid winter days.  Cold kills, make no mistake, but if there were a homeless misery scale I would bet Phoenix at 118 is worse than Jersey City at 8.

I remember asking a career letter carrier in Jersey City – he had so much tenure on the job he had his pick of routes and his was a few streets lined with big, leafy trees that give shade on hot days and catch a lot of rain on rainy days – which was harder for him, summer or winter, a 100 degree/98% humidity summer day or an 8 degree winter day.  He did not hesitate.  Summer, he said, because Post Office regulations and local laws limited how much he could strip down whereas in winter he could always add another layer.

You see this in action in Phoenix in summer. Many of the homeless wear so little it skirts up to public lewdness but the police don’t do much – in fact they do as little as they can get away with regarding the homeless except when lately platoons of them have been dragooned into clearing away homeless tent encampments in what people call The Zone downtown, an area that had housed around 1000.  Yes, that is classic whack a mole – the cops know it, the homeless know it, everybody but a judge and some city officials knows it.  

Back inside Grace Lutheran yesterday, we served a lunch of beef tacos (nobody requested the vegetarian option we were prepared to provide), rice and beans, housemade pico de gallo, salad, a horchata drink, and housemade cupcakes.  We brought a Catholic priest – from St Mary’s Basilica a few blocks away in downtown  where most of our volunteers are parishioners – and he said a short prayer before service commenced and he, along with some of our volunteers, dined with the homeless because they are we and we are they.

Did we do any good? In past summers – and I think I’ve done this eight summers now –  I had no doubt we brought a few hours of pleasure to the homeless.

This year, I know we did no harm, but did we actually help in this season of misery? 

Yesterday I found myself thumbing through Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth and thinking about writing The Wretched of the Desert.

The faces and the bodies of the Phoenix homeless this year are those of people in a death camp and they know they are. They are angrier, more aggressive, more on edge.

It is harder to reach them.

But we try because someone has to.

And that is on us because there is nobody else.

To donate to Grace Lutheran’s Heat Respite program, follow this link.  We at St Mary’s have adequate funding for our heat respite work, by a donation from a single donor.  But we also encourage donations to Andre House which nightly feeds around 500 homeless year-round and where many of us also volunteer regularly.  

Rewarding Cards: The Generational Differences and Rich v Poor

by Robert McGarvey

Baby Boomers, stand back. We – and of course I am a Boomer – no longer are the leading consumers and cravers of credit card rewards. Guess what, we are not in second place either.

This is according to Morning Consult data that looks at share of an age group that belong to a travel rewards/loyalty program. That could be anything from belonging to Marriott’s Bonvoy program to collecting airline miles through accumulating Amex rewards points.

Personally I do all three.

But I am also aware that we are speeding on fast forward into a generational shift in the travel business where Boomers, who have been the industry’s stars for perhaps 40 years, are moving to the sidelines.

We will not be replaced by Gen X. Just not enough of them and, apparently, they are not avid collectors of points. Morning Consult says just 38% of Gen X (born 1965-1980) belong to a travel rewards program. That puts them in fourth, last, place in the generational claim to be top of the travel pile.

Where are Boomers (1946-1964)? Third place with 41% of us belonging to a travel rewards program.

Gen Z (1997-2012) has 42% participation.

And hats off to Millennials (1981-1996) where 48% – almost half – are in a travel rewards program.

Why? eMarketer observes that travel costs are up significantly “so travelers will likely turn to loyalty and rewards programs even more for perks or discounts.”

And costs are in fact up. Per NerdWallet, “the overall cost of travel is up 18% compared with April 2019 and up 2% versus the same month in 2022.”

Some prices are up a lot more: “U.S.-to-Europe tickets are averaging $1,300 round trip, per deal-spotting site Hopper — a 50% jump from last year. Tickets to Asia, meanwhile, are up a staggering 70% compared to pre-pandemic figures, averaging nearly $2,000 round trip,” reported Axios.

It’s a no brainer to use points and miles – especially for international airfares – this year.

But you know the question that is not addressed in these data: how many different travel rewards programs do individuals belong to? I can think of three airline programs I belong to (and a fourth where I have a handful of orphaned miles), two hotel programs (Hilton and Bonvoy where I have elite status in both via Amex Plat), I have two airline credit cards, of course there’s Amex Plat and that rewards program, there’s a stash of points at Diner’s Club. That’s nine that I am aware of and I am sure there are memberships that I have forgotten.

My point is that maybe Boomers still are the princes and princesses of rewards travel because we just might belong to a lot more programs than members of other generations and we almost certainly have bigger stashes of accumulated points and miles, simply because we have been at this a lot longer.

But there is one more data point to mull: Morning Consult data show a powerful correlation between participation in a travel rewards program and income. Makes sense. Travel for business usually is associated with higher income jobs and leisure travel is the province of those with discretionary income. Why collect miles and points if you don’t travel?

Just 29% of us with incomes below $50,000 belong to a travel rewards program. But 76% with incomes of $100k or more do belong.

Of course then there is the uglier side of this discussion where many economists say that it’s the poor who pay for the credit cards rewards of the rich. Aaron Klein, a senior fellow in economics at the Brooking Institute, is quoted in Vox: “The American payment system has evolved into a reverse Robin Hood whereby middle-class and working-class Americans who pay with a debit card, prepaid card, or cash are subsidizing the wealthy, who pay less for everything.”

And that’s because it’s the rich who reap the rewards — a fact shown by the Morning Consult numbers. All of us pay higher prices to pay for the credit card rewards and it mainly are the rich who get them.

My $800 Decision: Winning on the Airlines Awards Merry go round

By Robert McGarvey

Call this my Brancatelli moment.

A trip for two from Phoenix to Dallas loomed on my horizon and, suddenly, I found myself grumpy about the $800 or so I’d be out of pocket for the airfare.  That seemed downright exorbitant. And then my Brancatelli moment happened.

I was looking at my email inbox and, lo, there was an offer for a Southwest credit card.  $69 annual fee and the perks are meager – Basically 2x points on Southwest purchases and two EarlyBird check ins yearly (valued at $15 to $25 apiece).

But the kicker is a bonus of 50,000 points after spending $1000 in the first three months of the card. Use that for the Dallas fares as well as applying the EarlyBird check in and that’s around $840 in value (-$69 = $771).

I already have spent about $500 on the card – paid for my wife’s Southwest ticket for a business trip. That adds 1000 points to my tally.

Yeah, I’m probably forfeiting around $25 in cash back on other cards – round it off as $745 in savings.

Where Brancatelli comes in is with his standard advice that really the only way to win the points and miles game today is with signing bonuses.  In January he wrote this: “Get a new credit card, score the increasingly large acquisition bonuses, then get the next card for its acquisition bonus. Assuming you don’t roll over and pay interest, the strategy is the best and cheapest way to roll up masses of miles and points. It’s the equivalent of found money since you’re not spending anything you otherwise wouldn’t spend and you earn far more miles and points than you would by flying and staying in hotels–or charging to your existing cards.”

Before signing with SWA I’d found myself noodling the bizarre idea of getting an Alaska AIr card with a 70,000 mile signing bonus and what made that thinking so strange is that Alaska flies to pretty much nowhere that I am likely to go to so the card would be inert plastic in my wallet. 

Then the Dallas trip popped into my mind and, sure, SWA has the worst reputation of just about any domestic carrier and apparently the problems are rooted in an ancient computer system.  But an identified problem is a fixable problem so call me optimistic.

For some months I have preached the need for a fast spend of miles because the probability is high that they will be worth less next year. As airlines mint more miles to sell to credit card issuers they use the other hand to devalue the very same miles. Burn ‘em when you get ‘em. That’s what I’m doing with the Dallas trip.

Will I cancel the card a year from now when the $69 fee arises? Probably. You may have heard credit card “experts” saying that canceling a card will lower your credit score but if it’s true it’s only a minimal impact – unless it’s a card with a large and unused credit limit. That’s because percentage of credit used is indeed a key metric in credit scores. My SWA card has a small credit limit. It’s disappearance won’t matter to my credit score.

Don’t hard pulls on your credit – in account openings – lower your credit score? Again, it’s a marginal ding unless there are lots of new accounts.

So no worries. Last year I canceled a United card and saw no impact on my credit score.  I opened two cashback cards and an REI card and, again, no significant impact on my score. If you have prime credit (a FICO score >660) there’s scant reason to fret about these matters.

Next year I imagine I will nab a Delta Gold card – currently offering 60,000 bonus miles; $99 annual fee. That’s issued by Amex and that’s good because I think I am maxed out on the Chase 5/24 rule which denies issuance of a new Chase card if the applicant has opened five or more new credit card accounts in the past 24 months across all banks.

This merry go round will keep on spinning.  Grab the bonuses and use them fast. That – to repeat – is the only way to win in the rigged airline awards game.

Why now may be exactly the right time for a credit union c-suiter to ask for more money

by Robert McGarvey

You know the line “it was the best of times, the worst of times” – thank you Charles Dickens – but this just might be a key thought for credit union c-suite executives to mull on right now. That’s because we are in a time of paradox and “a very volatile environment,” said Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO of Bethpage Credit Union and now a partner with OM Financial Group where he focuses on SERPs, supplemental executive retirement plans.

So does “volatile” mean it is not a good time to push for a pay hike – and a more generous retirement package – at a credit union? You might think.

But not if you ask Kordeleski.

Continued at CUInsight:

https://tinyurl.com/2jvzxl76 #creditunion

Boom or Bust: Does Your Startup Need An Accelerator?

by Robert McGarvey

You know the startup gloom and doom forecast — 70% will fail in the first five years — but here’s the question: will participating in an accelerator increase the odds of survival? Or does your startup more properly belong in an incubator?

There are upwards of 2,000 accelerators and incubators in the US, but do accelerators and incubators deliver any value?

Continue reading at Startup Savant

CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 200 Visions FCU’s Joe Keller on Credit Unions and Digital Assets

 Tell me: do you have a VP of digital assets?

Didn’t think so.

What exactly would such a position do?

Good question.

That’s why you want to pay close attention to this podcast with Joe Keller whose title – drumroll please – is vice president of digital assets at Visions, a $6 billion credit union in upstate New York.

Right, Endicott, New York. Not Cambridge Mass or San Jose Ca. 

Endicott. Which is pretty near Binghamton if that helps place it.

Keller, whose background involved big banks, consulting firms, and startups, might have seemed an unlikely credit union hire.

Keller was brought in by Visions CEO Ty Muse.

You’ll hear Keller’s first reaction to the suggestion – then discover what persuaded him that in fact this was exactly the job he wanted and why getting this right at a credit union genuinely matters.

Incidentally this show is about way more than Bitcoin.  Lots more.  We are deep into an embrace of digital assets and the institutions that get that now will have a head start.

Keller tells how he plans to help Visions get its head start.

And he also tells what he thinks a credit union’s first steps into digital assets should look like.

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.com

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It’s a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

These Investors Have Money and Want to Give Some to You: Here’s How to Win Their Investment

by Robert McGarvey

Many want, but few are chosen. Talk with investors who fund early-stage companies, and the mathematical reality is brutal. Most say they look at hundreds of companies for every one they fund.

“We have a large top of funnel, multiple hundreds of companies that we consider,” said Joe Raczka, managing partner at investment firm York IE, which focuses on early-stage companies, particularly B2B SaaS companies. “We take that number to maybe 50 that we talk with with some regularity. We invest in around one.”

Do the odds sound daunting? This is reality. However, there are winners: companies that emerge from the funnel with money in their hands.

Read the rest of the story at Startup Savant

CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 195 Gordon Flammer Datava

 Is the company name pronounced Datava, Data-va, or, what’s your guess?

Just as the pronunciation of the company’s name may prove slippery for many, so too is it difficult to neatly sum up exactly what Gordon Flammer’s company does.

But I can tell you this: when American Heritage Credit Union worked with Flammer, it grew by $1 billion. Organic growth, Not acquisition.  That has to grab your attention. Here’s a link to a CUBroadcast show about this $1 billion miracle fueled by Flammer’s unique way of looking at credit unions and their data. 

Here’s a link to a press release about the same fantastic growth.  

His starting point: a lot of software and tech tools sold to credit unions do not do what they are promised to do and, importantly, they do not solve the problem the credit union wants solved.

So Flammer takes a different kind of look at what ails a credit union and he comes up with different kinds of solutions.

Much of what the company works on is creating better sales tools, dashboards, monitors, and so on.  But there’s more in Flammer’s tool box.

Along the way in this podcast Flammer explains why his company is a CUSO – he is a big booster of the format – and he also muses about the plusses and pitfalls of working with venture capitalists. For some – point a finger at Flammer – a CUSO is simply a better path.

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.com

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It’s a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto