by Robert McGarvey

I have stepped into the Weimar Republic. Not the good parts – the free speech, a genuine democracy and excitement bubbling through philosophy, painting, architecture – but the galloping inflation that pounded the mark into near worthlessness,

Of course I am actually speaking about airline miles and I will tell why momentarily.

First, a history lesson.  The 1920s Weimar Republic was yoked by crippling debts from WW I and a ruined economy.  The upshot was a currency in free fall.  As reported in Smithsonian, “In January 1923, a dollar cost 17,000 marks. Just three months later, in April, that figure reached 24,000. The numbers skyrocketed each month, reaching 353,000 in July, 4.6 million in August, 98.9 million in September, 25.3 billion in October and 2.2 trillion in November. The sorry climax arrived in December, when the exchange rate topped out at 4.2 trillion marks to the dollar.”

The hyperinflation was so vigorous that if you were given a 100 mark note at noon, you would have spent it by 12:05, on just about any tangible goods likely to hold value from shoes (they didn’t have to fit you) to beer, butter and bread (the three building blocks of the German diet in that era).

My thesis today is that air miles are on the precipice of becoming kin to the Weimar mark as ever more miles are handed out as welcome mats for taking a new credit card through miles accrued for buying a Big Mac with an airline credit card.  There simply is no way to count how many miles are distributed daily.

In the old days we earned our miles the honest way: by flying. Now we earn them every way and of course we earn so much more.

There aren’t many more flights however. In 2004 there were 630 million domestic flight enplanements.  In 2019 there were 811 million. (The numbers from 2020 – 2022 are Covid tainted.)

That’s around 25% more enplanements.

In 2002 there were 119 million passengers boarding international flights at US airports.  In 2023 there were 175 million international passengers.  That’s a significant jump, yes, but think about all the extra miles we earn.

Just this morning I picked up 260 Amex rewards miles at a periodontist!

That’s the prelude that explains why yesterday I used 302,600 Delta miles to buy two coach – not comfort class, coach – tickets to Madrid from Phoenix in July.

I wiped out the miles earned as welcome rewards on a couple of Delta credit cards and emptied all but 3000 rewards miles at Amex.  Yesterday I woke up with over 300,000 possible Delta miles. Today I have under 10,000 in multiple accounts, kind of the spare change amid couch cushions.

And I don’t regret any of it, don’t feel bad about what I did. Indeed I celebrate and commend likewise to you.

A few months ago I did a similar wipe of a Southwest miles stash.

How many miles are you hoarding?

Remember: the smart credo today with airline miles if you have ‘em, burn ‘em. Because tomorrow they will be worth less.

As for why, specifically, I cashed in the miles now for July flights, it’s that I anticipate vigorous demand for flights to Europe again in summer 2024.  The economy is roaring (the pessimists who say otherwise simply are wrong or perhaps are just lying for political purposes).  Flights to Europe will fill up.  I wanted as much choice as I could get and that meant shopping early.

Maybe there are better uses of miles – perhaps in acquiring merchandise. I never have, can’t say, but I doubt it, simply because the machinery that now cranks out miles for just about everything we can do or buy is well oiled and relentless. Thirty years ago it was a rare month when I accrued 5000 miles – that basically meant I’d flown from LAX to Dublin – whereas now it is the exceptionally rare month that I don’t bring in 5000 miles via credit cards.

You too probably.

Airline miles today are a 2024 equivalent of the German mark a century ago. That’s just fact.

If you have miles, burn ’em before they are further devalued.

By Robert McGarvey

Just what have I learned after four camping trips in 2023, eight nights of sleeping on the ground in Bryce Canyon, Sedona, Lake Roosevelt AZ, and Verde Valley AZ?  

Keep in mind I am a camping newbie.  I never camped as a kid growing up in urban New Jersey and only once had I been persuaded by an editor to write a camping story and I literally packed it in and checked into a motel after one night.  That failed experiment was around 30 years ago.

Why did I decide to give camping a real go in 2023?

The underlying goal has simply been to break out of my comfort zone and to embrace nature.  There are lots of ways to break out of a comfort zone. For me camping was an obvious choice. After a lifetime of urban living I had chosen to shatter my beliefs about what I needed in my daily life.

The big plus: getting out into nature just is good for us.  There is testimony from so many, from Thoreau (“we can never have enough of nature”) to Frank Lloyd Wright (“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you”).

Understand this: tent camping is not comfortable.  The ground one sleeps on is hard and in my case that is with a sleeping pad, an inflatable sleeping pad, and a sleeping bag good to 20 degrees.  My goal isn’t to create a comfortable night’s sleep, it’s to create a night’s sleep and this gear – plus a camp blanket – has given me enough comfort to get a restful sleep even when the night time temperature fell to around 26F as it recently did in Clear Creek campground in Verde Valley (and the forecast had called for temps in the mid thirties).  

After every trip I add something new.  Not to achieve comfort, just to get a little better at camping.

The last trip prompted me to accept that the inexpensive tent I had wasn’t what I needed and so I splurged on an Aurora Highrise Tent that is tall enough so that I can stand up in it – and unless you’ve done it you have no idea how awkward it is to change clothes sitting on a sleeping bag.

After a few miserable efforts to cook on a camp fire I bought a Coleman propane stove which makes it easier and quicker to make coffee in the morning, cook soup in the afternoon, and even crisp Spam for an evening meal.  No, I haven’t (yet) partaken of the freeze dried foods favored by dispersed campers but even that stuff needs a jolt of hot water to make it edible.  But neither have I taken up ambitious camp cookery, although I did buy a copy of a camping cookbook authored by long ago neighbors of mine.

Camp fires, by the way, are great – for ambience and morning warmth.  I’ve built one at every campsite but after it took me a half hour to get water boiling for coffee on my first camping trip, I opted for the faster propane route for food and coffee.

But there’s still more to buy – indeed I now have a bag packed with miscellaneous smalls that have proven to be necessities. Such as an axe (for firewood), a butane lighter (for lighting the fire), a mallet (for pounding tent stakes into the ground), aluminum cookware and aluminum plates and cups, a tent footprint (essentially an under floor that prolongs the life of a tent’s floor in the desert where sharp rocks and cactus needles are enemies), a tent lantern and also headlamps for finding the lavatory in the night.

I’ve also expanded my camping wardrobe to include a base layer which is gear to keep warm at night.  Mine now includes thermal underwear, heavy sweatpants, a thick Helly Hansen hooded sweatshirt, and a knit cap (heat escapes the body through the scalp, they say at campsites). There also are sandals to quickly put on.

Approximate cost of this gear: all in it’s around $2000.

But my 2024 camping plan already includes reserved stays in Organ Pipe National Monument, Joshua Tree, Sedona, and Chiricahua National Monument (which could soon become a national park).  I figure around 20 days in 2024. I’ll get my money’s worth…and I’ll do it in nature.

All the while attacking my comfort zone limitations. I do not urge you to camp. I do urge you to set a 2024 resolution to attack one of your cherished comfort zones. It may not feel good but it is good for you.

By Robert McGarvey

Reuters dropped the bomb: Exclusive: US scrutinizing airline frequent flyer programs: “The U.S. Transportation Department is scrutinizing the frequent flyer programs of major U.S. airlines for potential deceptive or unfair practices, the agency said Thursday as regulators step up oversight of the airline industry.”

The trigger of course is the Durbin-Marshall bill that’s in the Senate where the Senators complain about “troubling reports that airlines are engaged in unfair, abusive, and deceptive practices with respect to these loyalty programs.  For example, reports have suggested that airlines are changing point systems in ways that are unfair to consumers, including by devaluing points, meaning it takes more points than initially marketed to achieve the promised rewards.”

There’s no questioning reality: airlines do, routinely and seemingly arbitrarily, devalue points.  Just last month Southwest sliced 4% off the value off its Rapid Rewards. Just this month Alaska Airlines significantly devalued its miles.  

The devaluation part is beyond debate. But even so I do not expect meaningful federal restraints regarding how airlines manage their miles programs.

Miles are big money for airlines. United lifted the kimono when it valued its loyalty program at north of $21 billion.  That program is worth more than the rest of the airline.

Delta meantime expected to pull in around $7 billion this year from American Express and much of that money is for rewards miles.

The carriers will fight with all their considerable might to derail federal efforts to control how they manage their awards programs.

I do not see the regulators prevailing.

Airline rewards strike me as an updated iteration of S & H Green Stamps, which were everywhere in retail during the 1960s.  I personally remember hijacking some of my family’s green stamps and cashing them in for a Zippo lighter.  I also remember losing all interest in the stamp programs immediately thereafter.  

S & H Green stamps actually had a stated cash value – they carried the note: “Value 1 ⅔ mills” which is 1/5th of a penny. But their real value was cashing them in for consumer goods, everything from blenders to dolls and of course cigarette lighters.  I know nobody who ever claimed the cash value, ever.

Do understand that S & H owned and of course controlled the distribution centers where stamps were traded for goods.  S & H naturally bought merchandise at wholesale, sold at retail, and it had complete control over the value it attached to stamps in those trades.

Of course there was grumbling about how the stamp companies priced their merchandise.  But we played and continued to play because, well, it was all free.

It wasn’t of course. Grocers for instance paid the stamp companies for the stamps that were handed out to grocery shoppers.  The stamp companies in fact were wildly profitable, in part due to how they valued the merchandise stamps could “buy,” but also because of the fees exacted from retailers (who naturally raised their prices to pay these new costs).

The stamp companies were cash machines. For instance: Curt Carlson built his fortune on the back of his Gold Bond Stamps. When he died in 1984 the New York Times obit reported: “For a corporation whose more than 100 separate companies include the Radisson and Regent International hotel chains, T.G.I. Friday’s and half a dozen other restaurant chains, several travel agencies, a cruise line, the nation’s largest marketing services company, vast real estate holdings and a host of other operations in 140 countries, the Carlson Companies had distinctly humble beginnings.”

The Times continued: “At a time when some local department stores were seeking to assure repeat business by giving customers Security Red trading stamps, exchangeable for premiums, Mr. Carlson realized that such stamps would be ideal for grocery stores, whose identical products left them little room to distinguish themselves from the pack.

Acting on his vision, Mr. Carlson created the Gold Bond Stamp Company in 1938, with a $55 loan.”

Understand, it wasn’t regulation that killed off the various retail stamp companies. It was the death of consumer interest, as alternatives – such as airline miles! – seemed more suited to the times.  Who wanted a free toaster where the same effort could produce a free flight to Paris?

The time will come when airline rewards programs fade away. We may be nearing that time as more consumers find it very difficult to trade miles for flights they want – 70% of us have stashes of miles.

By some counts as few as 8% of airline rewards miles are redeemed in a year.  The argument is that we are stockpiling them as we aim to cash in a big trip – but just maybe we will never have enough points because the airlines keep moving the goalposts.

Airlines will continue to mint rewards miles until we lose interest.

I just don’t see the carriers changing their ways. Not this year, not until we and they wake up and stop caring about miles.  We’re a long way from there.

By Robert McGarvey

Are we finally at the end of resort fees?

Sometimes called amenity fees or – my favorite – urban amenity fees.

So some now think that is now happening and a flash point was when Joe Biden used his State of the Union speech to call for an end to junk fees and he specifically called out “resort fees,” noting they are often charged by joints that don’t even qualify as resorts.

Even when it in fact is a resort, do you use the pool, the gym, or property wi fi? I never use the first two – can’t recall the last time I did – and I use hotel wi fi only when I can’t create a hot spot on my phone, a vastly more secure connection anyway.

It is laughable that resort fee defenders say that resort fees deliver more value than the charge itself but they don’t acknowledge that many who pay the fee get no value at all from it. Literally zip.

Not laughable is that nowadays it has become very hard – perhaps impossible – to talk your way out of paying the fee. A decade ago, maybe. Not now.

Enter the Hotel Fees Transparency Act, introduced in the US Senate by Senators Moran (R-Kan) and Klobuchar (D-Minn).

Said Moran: “This commonsense legislation requires hotels and other short-term lodging providers to display and advertise the total price of their room, so Kansans can be certain that the listed price is what they will pay at check out.”

Said Klobuchar: “Too often, Americans making reservations online are being met with hidden fees that make it difficult to compare prices and understand the true cost of an overnight stay. This bipartisan legislation would help improve transparency so that travelers can make informed decisions.”

The American Hotels and Lodgings Association (AHLA) supports the legislation: ““The Hotel Fees Transparency Act is an important bill that will create a single standard for mandatory fee display across the entire lodging ecosystem – from hotels to online travel agencies, metasearch sites, and short-term rental platforms,” said AHLA President & CEO Chip Rogers. “We know consumers shop for travel across multiple sites, and this bill is a pivotal step toward creating a more transparent booking process for guests.” 

AHLA says, by the way, that 6% of hotels charge resort fees. Google takes a stab at a number and estimates 10+ percent.

So what’s the catch? Why is AHLA backing the bill?  Partly it’s because there are more efforts in state houses (California for instance) to ban resort fees. The California law bans “offering a price for a good or service that does not include all mandatory fees or charges other than taxes or fees imposed by a government on the transaction.” That language provides no wiggle room.

Similar legislation is percolating in Pennsylvania. Rep. Nick Pisciottano, the bill’s author, said: “You get to see the price, the whole price, and nothing but the price at the very beginning so you can make your decision on whether the real cost is worth it.” 

You don’t need a weatherman to know which way this wind is blowing.

Then there’s the mounting push against such fees at the federal level, from the White House to the Senate. With the House in a dysfunctional condition it’s unlikely to see meaningful legislation on this emerging, but the Biden White House and the Consumer Federal Protection Bureau which has targeted “junk fees” – everywhere from banks to hotels – seem intent on wiping out resort fees via executive actions.

All that is why AHLA backs the Moran – Klobuchar bill. It looks to the industry trade group to be a lesser evil than, say, the California law or what CFPB might cook up.

But will that bill in fact mean the end of resort fees?

Very probably the moniker “resort fee” will vanish.  But we may start seeing more creative naming that is intended to skirt around the language of legislation. The Los Angeles Times has reported that some Las Vegas strip restaurants and bar have imposed fees nearing a 5% surcharge that’s labeled a “concession fee,” whatever that means.  

Hotel industry watchers of a cynical mind believe we will see ever more creative labeling that’s intended to pick a few more dollars out of our pockets. Put me in that cynical camp.

The only way that won’t happen is if we scream – loudly and often – that these fees by any other name are just as repugnant.

By Robert McGarvey

I laughed out loud as I read the AFAR Magazine headline: “This Is Your Last Chance to Score a 75,000-Point Bonus With Southwest’s Credit Card Offers.”

Rubbish.

Yes, that particular initiative expired but there will be more. Very possibly better.

The reality is that US consumer debt keeps trickling ever higher – it’s now $17.29 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.  That number is fed by home mortgages, student loans and credit cards.

Now dig into those numbers.  Home mortgages have dipped substantially as consumers flee from >7% rates on 30 year fixed rate paper. As I type this the rate is 7.44% for a consumer with good credit.

That number has triggered a halt in trade up transactions as homeowners with >4% loans just say no to trading up to a new, bigger home because that would entail maybe a doubling of their mortgage interest rate.

Student loans, meantime, have edged up but just a bit and there’s also rising anxiety that this market may go bust as more people decide to forego a college degree. College enrollment has dropped by 10% in the past decade.  

And then there’s the story in my mailbox.  At least once a week I get a “pre-approved” credit card offer, nowadays frequently a cashback card with promises of maybe $300 in cash after spending around $3000 in the first 90 days.  Call me skeptical but I have taken two of these offers, just to see if the money was that easy to earn. It was.  

I am not accepting offers of new cashback cards because the two new cashback cards I have are now stashed in a wallet I don’t use (it’s a storage case for unloved credit cards).  

That’s because Venmo just (temporarily) raised its top cashback rate to 6%!  I have that credit card and am now using it a lot more. No other card in my wallet hits that number. Venmo wins.  For now.

The point of all this: banks are tossing out ever sweeter offers in order to prop up their cashflow as mortgage monies slow and skepticism about student loans rises.  Credit cards suddenly look like the safest bet for bankers who want to keep their income flowing.

As for airline mileage cards, this year I opened two such cards – Southwest and Delta.  I already used the Southwest miles and will use the Delta miles in a month or so. I don’t much use either card anymore because I get better returns on the cashback cards (6% vs 1 or 2% on the airline cards).

So, yes, I am beginning to eye new airline cards because I am a follower of the Brancatelli Law that the only way to win the airline mileage game is by scoring tasty signing bonuses. The bonuses are easy money.

Which brings me back to the Afar commentary on the Southwest card.  The bonuses – understand – are funded by and driven by the issuing banks. They want their cards in more wallets so they can hope to earn more swipe fees. (And they also hope their lobbyists can strangle the Credit Card Competition Act which big retailers are trying to push through Congress and the bankers are fighting back because it would lower swipe fees.)

For now, the bankers are operating on the assumption that the swipe fees will continue to flow in — and that means, by the way, that it isn’t banks that are funding those welcome bonuses but rather consumers who pay in cash (and thus get no rewards).

The bankers are bribing us with what amounts to free money from their perspective and if we actually begin using the cards that will produce more swipe fees for them so they win again.

Right now I am pretty sure I will soon see a generous bonus on an Alaskan Airlines card – one arrives seemingly monthly but I haven’t bitten. But with just a few more miles to sweeten their offer I will.

I almost took a 60,000 mile TAP card bonus last week.  But I didn’t because I know better is coming.

I just need to be patient.

Right now we can wait because, honestly, a better welcome deal is coming.

But watch the mortgage market. If rates dip below 5% and volumes go up…our card welcome bonuses may get pinched. But that day isn’t in view.

Wait for the right card deal. It will come.

By Robert McGarvey

The headline in a Phocuswire piece caught my eye: “WHY SMART AIRLINES WILL FIND VALUE IN PRIORITIZING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.”

Put aside the obvious jab that airlines and smart is an oxymoron rather like a kindly sadist – the terms just don’t go together.

However, I also don’t think airlines and customer experience belong in the same sentence, at least not when there is the suggestion that they care about our experience.

Exhibit A in my case that they don’t care is a Wapo story I’d read the day before: “Self-serve snack bars are coming to a flight near you” proclaimed that headline. 

The pettiness is in the details. The Wapo piece reported that United is initiating self-service snack kiosks on some flights out of O’Hare.  In doing this United joins The JetBlue Pantry which is available on some flights.

At the United kiosk coach passengers will be able to gorge on a veritable groaning board of delicacies consisting of a “limited supply of water and the snacks offered during the complimentary service,” said United.

Wapo elaborated that the feast would include “items like fruit bars from That’s It, Undercover chocolate quinoa crisps and Savory snack mix.”

Time for a sanity check: would you give a hoot about any of this?  Would you walk down the aisle to grab your share?

I won’t.

Let us say you are on a long flight in coach – cross country, say.  You anticipate being hungry at the four hour mark.  Would you not have bought a sandwich at an airport restaurant or maybe brought some personal favorite snacks from your favorite market?  I know I would.  

For years I have had a thou shall not eat airline comestibles policy – except on international flights (where I eat out of boredom). It’s a good rule, I commend it to you and if you do need to eat inflight bring your own grub.

Back at Phocuswire, a thesis of that piece is “Any airline working to recover passenger volumes, regain loyalty with millennials and engage Gen Z – who are fast becoming the dominant market – must be seen to be improving the customer experience for their passengers.”

We Boomers apparently have been cowed into docility by a quarter century of airline penny pinching. The young ones who increasingly are doing the bulk of travel demand better. Good on them.

Marketer Matthew Walker, the author of the PhocusWire piece, goes on: “What happens when a generation whose retailing experiences have been shaped by on-demand services, no-questions-asked refunds and same-day delivery encounters an industry that has historically never met those expectations, but now in recovery is struggling more than ever?”

Let me suggest to airline execs that Gen Z are not going to be wowed by a sampling of mediocre, leftover snacks and if those execs are hoping that this ploy will persuade passengers to become loyal, well, that is fantasy.

A generation won’t be bribed by a free snack.

What would persuade flyers to evidence loyalty to a carrier? Fewer flight cancellations and delays, to start.  More free perks such as baggage check.  No cost flight rescheduling by the passenger.  Credible and stable awards programs. These are things that matter. (And, yeah, Southwest already has two of the four handled but it definitely struggles with the first and it’s devaluing its miles come January.)

A snack doesn’t matter. What, it saves me a couple bucks!

Trend research says that what we want in travel today are experiences – but that really means good experiences.  Airlines today, at their best, seem to provide just the minimum and if there are no failures we strike it up as a success.

But we don’t like it, not a bit. We suffer it.

We fly because there is no genuine alternative for many of the trips we take.

In Europe, yes, there are growing options for train travel and I have been quite satisfied with my trips on the rails there.

But in the US our only choice often is to fly.

It’s not a good choice.  But when it’s the only choice we take it.

Just don’t think a small bag of pretzels will buy my affection.

By Robert McGarvey

Black Friday, Cyber Monday and now there is Travel Tuesday. Do you have your credit cards out and ready to snare boffo travel deals on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving?

I do not.  I’ll tell you why.  I buy when I want to, not when merchants want me to.  It’s that simple.

I also have never joined a Black Friday scrum at WalMart, tho the sheer chaos of the hurly burly is strangely appealing to me. Nonetheless I do not want to fight to score a bargain on a big screen TV I will rarely if ever watch.

As for Cyber Monday, it was created – back in 2005 – to stimulate consumer interest in shopping online and doesn’t that now seem a quaint idea?  Rarely does a day pass for me when some item I have bought – typically from Amazon, but also REI, occasionally WalMart and still other sellers get in the mix – doesn’t arrive at my door. I really don’t know who needs a Cyber Monday today.  

Which brings us to Travel Tuesday which, Google’s BARD AI engine tells me, was invented by Hopper in 2017.  Supposedly, Travel Tuesday has 50% more travel deals than Black Friday. The question has to be: Do you want any?

The other question is: Can you actually score them?

This coming year my personal travel interests are narrow and specific.  I already have four camping weekends planned and this will take me from Sedona to Organ Pipe National Monument and Joshua Tree. I will schedule more as the year evolves. I also have plans for a summer month in Madrid (yes, I know it’s hot but I live in Phoenix and needn’t say more). And a family trip to Virginia. That’s busy enough for my personal travel schedule.

That’s not to say I am closed to additional travel opportunities but if I were to buy on Travel Tuesday I would want a deal.  Something compelling. Will I find one?

Four years ago Travel + Leisure ran a story with this hed: “‘Travel Tuesday’ Might Not Be the Best Time to Find a Flight Deal After All.”

That’s to be expected.  With so many of us expecting to score real deals, sure, travel providers will shovel all kinds of stuff out to us with a banner waving “Travel Tuesday” deals and, as P.T. Barnum may have said (or may not have but he should have), a sucker is born every minute. We are bombarded with messaging – both advertising and ‘journalism’ – that tells us there are big deals to be had on Travel Tuesday so why wouldn’t we expect what we see online to be just that, a good deal?

Hopper, meantime, is busily shouting about the deals it anticipates seeing on Travel Tuesday – and some are indeed tasty such as half off Bali hotels, flight deals to Bali, London, Paris, and, even better, Hopper lets users of its mobile app set price alerts so that when a deal in fact posts to a destination you’ve flagged you’ll be alerted and, presumably, will have a decent change of snaring it before it vanishes.  That Hopper wrinkle – the price alerts – is a good feature for bargain hunters. If you are determined to play the Travel Tuesday sweepstakes, download it. Let Hopper do the hunting for you.

I stress that because there will be innumerable travel “bargains” to sort through. Many will be dross dolled up to appear to be bargains and many will get bought by the unobservant.

Hyatt for instance has 20% off at participating hotels in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East for travel booked by December on stays that take place by April 30.  To which I say big deal.  Travel already is slowing to many international destinations and winter always is a cheap time to travel just about anywhere. If you want to travel in the winter you will just about always find deals, no need to shop on Travel Tuesday.

In a casual search I already see many, many similar “deals.”

For Travel Tuesday to have any purpose, we need better.

Such as? Rather than see lots of deals that hold no interest for you, more good advice is to follow the social media accounts of travel providers that intrigue you. Very likely they will announce deals on their own channels on Travel Tuesday.

But – above all – know what deals you really want before you go hunting.  It just is too easy to think, wow, 75% off a Bayonne motel, I gotta grab this.  Some offers are cheap because, well, that’s the most they will bring in.

Happy searching – you just may score big!

Me, I’ll sit this out. When bargain hunters are out in numbers I take that as my signal to lay back.

By Robert McGarvey

The cheering you hear is mine.

I am celebrating that in the past year I have closed two airline credit cards – a United card with Chase ($95 annual fee) and a Barclays red card with American ($99).  Nope, not big bucks but I cannot recall the last time I used the United card or flew United and living in Phoenix there is scarce good reason for me to do that.

As for American, it is the second biggest carrier out of Sky Harbor – Southwest is ahead by a handful of flights – but I have a new Southwest card in my wallet and, honestly, I always have preferred the SWA platform with no checked baggage fees and no flight change fees.  The exorbitant fees imposed by other carriers – fingers pointing at you, American – for such services just make no good sense.

I took the SWA card to get the signing bonus, which I already used on a pair of tickets to Dallas, but I am comfortable shifting my trade to SWA for now and, besides, the annual card fee is only $69.

I also have a new Delta card – $99 via Amex – which I took for the mileage bonus (60,000) – and Delta is the third busiest carrier at PHX. A distant third, but it has revitalized terminal 3 at Sky Harbor and I have flown it to Europe twice in as many years.  

You could say that I have traded a pair of losing cards for two new cards of the same ilk but – in a temporary way – I have made out fine with the free tickets to Dallas and I’ll soon cash in the Delta miles.  I also have a pile of Amex miles that of course transfer into Delta SkyMiles so, probably, in today’s airline math I’ll wind up with two tickets to Spain in exchange for a lot of miles.

Does that make me a winner?

Never forget that when we play the miles game it is akin to playing blackjack with chips – but the dealer continually and seemingly arbitrarily devalues your chips. That white chip was worth $1 a minute ago, now it’s worth a dime, and there’s no recourse.

So it goes with airlines and miles in a world of dynamic awards pricing which is a b-school way of saying we’ll charge what we believe the market will suffer.

Dynamic pricing also means that, suddenly, we need huge stacks of miles to get anything worthwhile.

Of course there are those “sales” where, say, 35000 SkyMiles will buy a roundtrip to Europe – but I do notice nobody tells us exactly how many or even approximately how many discounted roundtrips have been loaded into the system. I do look for them, I do, but rarely for more than five minutes because I see this as an updated snipe hunt.

The only way not to be a loser in this game where miles are continually devalued is to shuffle airline credit cards, signing up for new ones and collecting bonuses while dumping cards that have served their purpose. Yes, I know that in many cases you can only collect the signing bonus once on a particular card – but I have no plans to re-up with United or American unless I move to a city where I’d be a fool not to.  I also know that some card issuers – Chase for instance – keep track of how many new cards you get and will decline to issue a card if you’ve opened a lot of new cards anywhere.  (The Chase 5/24 rule.)  And I know that there may be penalties if you close a card too quickly after collecting a bonus. The issuer may even want to claw back any bonus you’ve collected.

But, like me, you probably have a few dusty and little used airline cards in your wallet that impose annual fees – shut ‘em down is my advice. Do it pronto. Even though the norm seems to be you have to call to close an account (although you can open the account online). Make the calls.

The airlines, remember, are playing us for suckers because their profits now come not from flights but from the bulk sales of points to card issuers such as American Express and Chase. In 2022 alone, Delta took in $5.5 billion from AMEX.  

Know the new rules. Know your goals. Play to win. That’s the only way not to be a loser in the miles and rewards games of 2023.

By Robert McGarvey

U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill. and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan. don’t like frequent flyer programs. Indeed, they seem to think them scams and, said the senators in a joint statement, they have “requested information from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) about the actions they are taking to protect consumers against unfair and deceptive practices in airlines’ frequent flyer and loyalty programs.”

And do note, Durbin – a longtime senator – is a powerful guy in the chamber. He is no back bencher, he is leadership.

Their statement continued: “there are troubling reports that airlines are engaged in unfair, abusive, and deceptive practices with respect to these loyalty programs.  For example, reports have suggested that airlines are changing point systems in ways that are unfair to consumers, including by devaluing points, meaning it takes more points than initially marketed to achieve the promised rewards.”

The airlines cannot with a straight face deny that they have in fact devalued points.

They also adroitly use low cost sales – such as a recent Delta sale where as few as 34,000 SkyMiles bought a roundtrip to Europe.  The sale is legit as far as that goes but it is brief and availability is limited.  And that cost has no relationship to what you are likely to in fact pay today.  

I just did a search on flights from PHX to MAD, depart January 3, return Jan. 9, and the cheapest flight was 50,000 SkyMiles, half again more than the teaser rate.

What did the Senators say about “abusive and deceptive” practices?

The Senators added in their statement, “airlines can make changes to their points programs without notice to consumers, as long as the programs’ terms of service reserve the right to do so.“

Sometimes that means we need to top up our mileage total to buy a rewards ticket and that may mean we buy miles from the airline.  The senators  note that is not smart shopping: “consumers can spend three cents to purchase a point worth roughly one cent.”

A bottomline here is that – as Brancatelli has preached for many years and I have joined his chorus – when you got miles, burn ‘em.  Miles do not gain value over time, they lose value.  They are a depreciating asset, rather like a boat or almost all cars.

The senators remind us that originally frequent flyer programs were created to reward loyalty. They did indeed. I remember a friend who was fiercely loyal to American, whereas I flew whatever flight was most convenient for me.  And then in the mid-eighties he cashed in a trove of American miles and rewarded himself with a trip to Egypt, where he had wanted to go since he’d been a kid. It cost him zip – he even had enough miles for hotel accommodations.

I have to admit I still did not change my focus on convenience but at least I had come to understand why some people became very loyal to a particular carrier.

Along the way, however, airlines changed the rules. They shifted their business model to making profits not on flights but on the sale of miles.  

Integral to that gambit is persuading us to take branded credit cards – and I personally have a Delta and Southwest credit card in my wallet – and of course we earn more miles by spending on the cards.  Observed the senators, “these programs incentivize consumers to purchase goods and services, obtain credit cards, and spend on those credit cards in exchange for promised rewards—all while retaining the power to strip consumers of those rewards at any moment.”

So what are the senators seeking to do? They have written Secretary Buttigieg of DOT and Director Chopra of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau asking what they are “doing to protect consumers against unfair and deceptive practices in airlines’ frequent flyer and loyalty programs.”

In particular the senators want answers to these four questions:

·         Are DOT and the CFPB aware of these alleged practices by the airlines regarding frequent flyer and loyalty programs?

o   If so, please detail how DOT and the CFPB are planning to address these practices.

·         Do DOT and the CFPB have the regulatory authority needed to adequately protect consumers from these unfair and deceptive practices?

o   If not, please explain if additional authority from Congress would enable DOT and the CFPB to effectively regulate airlines’ frequent flyer and loyalty programs.

Will airlines give a hoot? Not as long as we still collect miles, use their credit cards, and otherwise behave as though we believe their Monopoly money has real value. Why should they change if we don’t?

by Robert McGarvey

I am here to testify: I have now flown without airport clubs and I have survived. I tell this story down below.

But, first, the day started at Sky Harbor in Phoenix where I was just able to squeeze into the Centurion because, by my count, there were a very few empty seats when I entered around 8:30 am on a Friday.

There was a line at the coffee machine and a line at the breakfast buffet but, to be fair, the buffet (don’t tell my cardiologist) featured tasty scrambled eggs,  decent ham slices, and sausage links (pork).  I am not sure I could have rustled up a similar breakfast at the many airport restaurants – but maybe a breakfast burrito ($11.99) at Bobby’s Burgers would work (I’m something of a Bobby Flay fan but have not yet eaten at this new Sky Harbor outpost). Add coffee and a tip, that’s $20.00. Possibly too the Brioche Breakfast Roll at Mark Tarbell’s The Goods, $16.49.  Coffee and a tip and it’s $25.00. Tarbell, incidentally, is a celebrity chef in Phoenix, although I don’t think he has a national profile.

Score one for the Centurion – a good breakfast, acceptable coffee, and, yes, a place to sit.  The space was crowded but certainly outside at the gates was no better. And I saved $20 to $25.

Where my eyes opened wide however was at my destination, Love Field in Dallas where, as far as I can tell, there are no clubs, certainly none that I have access with Amex Plat, Priority Pass or Diners Club. Absolutely none.

Arriving there, that was of no consequence since we were in a hurry to exit the airport and get to downtown Dallas and into Nobu for what was an excellent omakase dinner.  Understand, I am no fan of chef’s “tasting menus” – usually too many courses, too much ego.

But the advantage of omakase is that it’s assembled by people who really know what they are serving whereas I am no expert in sushi or Japanese cuisine.  

And at Nobu the omakase is lovely.  

It was on the return flight from Love where I learned to really accept flight without clubs and, you know what, it’s not so bad.

For starters I cut down how much time I planned to spend in the airport.  I had been allowing a sizable chunk of time to provide for time lost to security in getting to the gate and, in the event my passage through TSA was fast, I always had a club to retreat to.

Lately, however, TSA Pre has worked fairly smoothly and swiftly so I often have had an hour to spend in a club and these clubs really aren’t worth an hour, not on any kind of regular basis.

At Love I had maybe 40 minutes until boarding after clearing security – and there happened to be a Starbucks with no line near the gate so I bought a latte and grabbed a seat. I pulled out my phone and skimmed email. There probably was noise around me but I didn’t hear it – I was immersed in my reading, sipping my latte, and oblivious to my surroundings.

Pretty soon Southwest had us assemble in its idiosyncratic queue where I was in position A 40 which meant I had most of the seats available to me.  Within a couple minutes I was in the plane, seated and back on my phone, this time reading which I did until we landed in Sky Harbor, maybe two hours, fifteen minutes later.

Did I miss the ritual of the club?

Nope.

Truth is, I came to the club life rather late in my passenger life. Perhaps because when I started flying for business, the ritual at the companies I flew for was to stop at an airport bar, have a beer or a martini to “calm the nerves” (not that I had a fear of flying, but such drinks were expensable in that era so why question the ritual) and in those years the bars were usually oases of quiet.  

Honestly I didn’t know I “needed” a club until I got the Platinum card and, rather quickly, I found myself addicted to the club stop.

Just maybe I am now breaking that addiction.  One flight at a time.

If I can do it, you can too.