Consumer affairs

by Robert McGarvey

In a typical year, maybe 25% of us redeem credit card rewards for travel – but about the same number don’t redeem their card rewards for anything in that year.  Some probably are accruing points to redeem for a splashy something but others probably will never redeem the points. Keep that indifference in mind as you read on.

Meantime, both Visa and MasterCard have entered into a consent decree that will reduce so called swipe fees (aka interchange) by some $30 billion.  Merchants paid around $72 billion in interchange fees in 2023  so that $30 billion is a big chunk of the money that’s involved.

But there would be still more cuts if Senator Dick Durbin’s Credit Card Competition Act were enacted into law.  

Here’s what the CCC would do: “The Credit Card Competition Act of 2023 would enhance credit card competition and choice in order to reduce excessive credit card fees. It would require the largest credit-card issuing financial institutions in the country—those with assets over $100 billion–to enable at least two credit card networks to be used on their credit cards instead of just one, and at least one of those networks must be a network other than the Visa/Mastercard duopoly.”

Big merchants – WalMart – like the CCC and very much want to use low fee pipe to process card charges. 

Durbin of course is an enemy of long standing of airline loyalty programs which he sees as contemporary variations of the three card monte that used to be played on tourists in Times Square.  Said Durbin a couple months ago: “For years, airlines have profited from employing deceptive and unfair practices within their frequent flyer and loyalty programs.” Ouch. But what he says is true.

And now the U.S. Travel Association – a lobbying organization funded primarily by huge travel companies such as Amex, Marriott International, Visit California and United Airlines – has produced data that, reports Travel Weekly, “shows that even a 10% decrease in travel booked via credit card rewards would mean 1.5 million fewer trips and $4.3 billion in lost economic activity for local travel businesses.”  (Note: The USTA has not taken a formal position on the CCC.)

What’s missing here? A good argument that if a significant chunk of credit card processing were switched onto low cost rails that generate less fee income for credit card issuers card rewards would significantly decrease. That causality is assumed…but there’s absolutely no proof it would happen. When Europe moved to shift more card processing to low cost rails a decade ago, the same fears were trucked out by travel groups – airlines in particular – but the rewards continued, said the National Retail Federation in a March statement.

There’s no reason to think that, were the CCC enacted into law, that, poof, the credit card rewards we accrue and use would instantly vanish.  They won’t.

Might awards begin to require more points (or miles) and be harder to claim? Almost certainly that’s probable – but that’s because in every recent years good rewards (such as international flights) have gotten pricier.  That’s happened without CCC.  It will continue happening because, remember, we are playing three card monte with a dealer who never loses. Never.

Fear mongers point to the 2010 enactment of other Durbin legislation that capped debit card fees. Said Brian Kelly, founder of The Points Guy, at a Washington DC event sponsored by the US Tourism Economy Alliance to stir up opposition to CCC, “Debit card rewards disappeared, literally overnight.”

True enough but, again, there’s no proof that what befell debit cards would happen to credit cards which are entirely different financial instruments and that produce a variety of income streams for financial institutions that issue cards – such as interest income on card balances and annual card fees. In 2022, according to CFPB, card issuers pulled in $130 billion in interest and card fees.  The issuers won’t be hurting if their interchange income is cut a bit.

Bottomline: put away your worry beads.  Legislation won’t take away your credit card travel rewards.

In March this blog featured a piece Will Shrinking Credit Card Swipe Fees Mean the End to Rich Rewards for Us?  That piece looked at the expected impacts on rewards of the Visa/MasterCard cuts of interchange fee – slim to none in my estimation. 

by Robert McGarvey

Rip up that script from “The Graduate.” You’ll remember the scene where a middle aged man takes Dustin Hoffman (the graduate) aside and offers him one word of career advice: Plastics. That was 1967 and, indeed, plastics has had a great run – but now it is demonized as worse than air travel.

Read that last sentence again because many of us have begrudgingly embraced the belief that air travel is poison to our planet but now a new report has come out from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that says – to quote the headline in The Hill – “Plastics industry heats world 4 times as much as air travel, report finds.”

The Guardian added: “‘the plastic industry is ‘undermining the world’s efforts to address climate change’, said Heather McTeer Toney, executive director of the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Beyond Petrochemicals campaign, which helped fund the new report.”

The aviation industry contributes just 2.5% of the planet’s carbon emissions.  The rub is that only a tiny percentage of the globe’s population flies and so the whole planet suffers because of the few who fly.  Even so, flying does not contribute that much to global warming.

Not when compared to plastics.  Reported The Hill: “if plastic production remains constant, by 2050 it could burn through nearly a fifth of the Earth’s remaining carbon budget — the amount of carbon dioxide climate scientists believe can be burned without tipping the climate into unsafe territory.”

The Hill added: “emissions [from plastics plants] are equivalent to those of about 600 coal plants — about three times the number that exist across the U.S.”

Plastics have another toxic payload besides air pollution: “Plastic accumulating in our oceans and on our beaches has become a global crisis. Billions of pounds of plastic can be found in swirling convergences that make up about 40 percent of the world’s ocean surfaces. At current rates plastic is expected to outweigh all the fish in the sea by 2050,” according to the Center for Biological Diversity. 

So plastics are fouling our air and our water.

There’s now  a dust up between environmental groups – that want to see much less plastic on our planet – and the plastics companies who insist that recycling can fix many ills.  

But there’s also evidence that plastics recycling can create additional planetary toxicity.  Reported the Washington Post: “A recent peer-reviewed study that focused on a recycling facility in the United Kingdom suggests that anywhere between 6 to 13 percent of the plastic processed could end up being released into water or the air as microplastics — ubiquitous tiny particles smaller than five millimeters that have been found everywhere from Antarctic snow to inside human bodies.”

Plastics recycling is also something of a con:  Reported NPR: “The vast majority of plastic that people use, and in many cases put into blue recycling bins, is headed to landfills, or worse, according to a report from Greenpeace on the state of plastic recycling in the U.S. The report cites separate data …which revealed that the amount of plastic actually turned into new things has fallen to new lows of around 5%. That number is expected to drop further as more plastic is produced.”

Where does all this fit into a traveler’s life? Many of us have guilt about flying. Of course we can seek to fly less and every flight not taken – with a Zoom call substituting – indeed cuts carbon in the air. I still recommend that and seek to practice it myself.

But chew on this:  it may be as – or more – impactful if we also seek to dramatically cut our personal plastics consumption.  And we use lots of the stuff. According to the University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems, “At 139 kg per capita per year (not including fiber and rubber polymers) North America has the highest per capita plastic consumption in the world.”

Remember this too: plastics are made from fossil fuels.  

The Hill closed out its piece with this: ““While global leaders are trying to negotiate a solution to the plastic crisis, the petrochemical industry is investing billions of dollars in making the problem rapidly worse,” said Neil Tangri of the University of California, Berkeley….“We need a global agreement to stop this cancerous growth, bring down plastic production, and usher in a world with less plastic and less pollution.”

So next time somebody grumbles at you about flying tell you have one word for them: Plastics.

by Robert McGarvey

Is it time for me to shuffle my premium card?  For longer than I remember Amex Plat has been my premium card but a headline in the New York Times caught my eye: “Now Arriving at an Airport Lounge Near You: Peloton Bikes, Nap Pods and Caviar Service.”  The subhead elaborated: “In recent months, a handful of exclusive credit card lounges have opened in airports in the United States. More are coming this year.”

The storyline of course is that now Plat has competition, particularly from Chase Sapphire Reserve ($550 per year) and Capital One Venture X ($395 per year).  Amex Plat is $695 per year, the priciest of the bunch.  Is it still worth keeping?

Probably the key premium card benefit is airport lounge access and, frankly, as I mentally scroll through recent flights I struck out at Denver Airport (the wait time for Centurion entry was longer than I had), at Love Field (no clubs), and walked away from a couple of Delta clubs because the lines seemed too long.

But that does not add up to an instant Amex Plat fail. The calculus is more complicated.

For starters Amex has many more Centurion clubs (14 including one in Phoenix, my home base) than Chase (3 – JFK, LaGuardia, Logan) or Capital One (3 – DFW, Denver, Dulles). Plat and Sapphire Reserve both throw in Priority Pass which I’ve found useful in Europe, not so much recently in the US.

Only Plat is currently in Phoenix – a huge plus for me – but Sapphire says it has a Phoenix club on its roadmap.

Amex also includes Delta club access if you are flying Delta (which I often am) and, yes, a 10 visit limit kicks in next year but I pray I won’t need that many entrances anyway.

So far I see Amex Plat retaining a big lead over the competitors, at least regarding club access.

That may not mean so much. As I noted above, when planes are packed as they are nowadays, so are airports and that especially means the clubs.  In the past year or so I’ve flicked a mental switch and no longer need club access.  If I get it that’s a plus but if I don’t, I shrug and carry on.

Then, too, I honestly don’t give a hoot that Capital One apparently is equipping its clubs with Peletons – which I have never used and don’t plan to. Nor am I salivating about Sapphire’s private suites – with caviar service! – $2200 to book! In a war of shiny objects look for me on the sidelines.

With Plat there also are useful benefits in addition to club access. There’s a $200 annual Uber credit ($15 per month, with $35 in December) and a $240 annual digital entertainment credit which pays for my NYTimes subscription.  There’s also free Walmart+ access ($12.95/month), a $200 hotel credit, and a $200 airline fee credit.  Right there, the annual fee is covered and my wife’s $195 card is paid for with a $100 Saks credit and $189 for Clear.

Could I make out as well cashing in perks at Chase Sapphire or Capital One Venture? Very probably.

But if my Amex Plat fees are in effect reimbursed in credits, why would I bother switching?

Another Amex Plat plus is the ease with which Membership Rewards points transfer into Delta miles.  

There simply isn’t a good reason for me to switch cards.

The real question is if you don’t have a premium card, do you need one?  My advice is to work through the fees and perks of the three leaders, factor in your specific needs and location and take it from there. Look at all three cards, sure. Your main goal: get the premium card for free once available perks are cashed in – and be realistic about the perks you’re likely to grab. Yes, there’s a $300 annual Equinox credit for Plat cardholders are I know I’m not going to use it so it’s value to me is nil. Many credits are cool but will you really use them? Be realistic – nay, ruthless – in assessing the real usefulness of the many perks that come with premium cards. You’ll never use most of them, I know I don’t.

But I still find real value in Amex Plat. Your mileage might vary.

By Robert McGarvey

On Tuesday Mastercard and Visa dropped a bomb on their swipe fees that had been long expected and yet now we’re left to sort out what it means and, in particular, for those of us who pursue credit card rewards so we can live the high life for less.

You might think this is much ado about small change but the National Retail Federation says the pennies add up fast.  “Applied to millions of transactions each day, swipe fees are most retailers’ highest operating cost after labor, driving up consumer prices by more than $1,000 a year for the average household and hurting retail sales because consumers buy less when prices go up. Swipe fees have grown from about $20 billion a year when NRF began tracking them in 2001 to $160.7 billion in 2022.”

A lot of hands grab change out of this till. Northwestern’s KelloggInsight sums up what happens: “The merchant bank…pays a fee to the network and a fee to the card issuer called an ‘interchange fee.’ The issuer, meanwhile, pays its own fee to the network and delivers rewards to the consumer—rewards funded by interchange fees.”

Those credit card rewards add up of course.

In my case I have bought pairs of tickets from Phoenix to Madrid three times in this decade with points and also a pair of tickets to Dallas. There’s also cashback, I don’t know how much I’ve gotten in recent years but I can tell you I’ve accumulated $1098 in Bitcoin with a Venmo rewards card and that’s just one of a half dozen cashback cards in my wallet.

And then there’s the Visa/Mastercard explosion. What they did, to settle a class action suit, is agree to cut so called swipe fees 20% which will save merchants some $30 billion over five years.

That *may* result in lower prices at retail although there is skepticism in many quarters that we’ll see this happen. But a reality is that merchants of course do pass on swipe fees to consumers, just as they pass on their electric bill and their shoplifting losses and a loud complaint has been that it’s America’s lower income folks who pay with cash who pay the bills that fund our rewards.

So why aren’ merchants cheering this move by the two big card networks?  And they aren’t. “The settlement does nothing to actually bring competitive market forces to swipe fees or change the behavior of a cartel that centrally fixes rates and bars competition,” Christopher Jones, a senior vice president of government relations at the National Grocers Association, told the New York Times.  

But the reality is that the credit card industry will have less cash to toss around and so they will be looking to make cuts in costs and a likely place to look is at credit card rewards.  Will there in fact be meaningful cuts there? Is the era of free flights over?

Well…the era of free flights is largely over anyway except for power players who scoop up card sign up bonuses that indeed can be rich.  Trying to accumulate enough points via spending alone is downright difficult.  Ditto for just accumulating honest miles via flights.

Personally I believe sign up bonuses will continue to be rich as card issuers battle it out to gain top of wallet status in our pockets.  Issuers may make it harder to qualify for their cards but the cards will be out there despite this settlement.

I also believe that airlines, because they know they have issued immense numbers of miles, will continue to raise the tariff for redemption.  When coach tickets to Europe in peak summer months can and do fetch 100,000 miles you know that winning the game has just gotten harder. And it will get still harder.

Another wrinkle to the settlement is that merchants will now be able to charge different fees to process different cards.  Reported the NYTimes, “Merchants will also be permitted to adjust their prices based on the costs associated with accepting different cards, while letting customers know why some cards — typically business cards and those with more rewards and perks — cost more than others.”

Does that mean much? Too early to say. Some merchants are grumbling that implementing a range of charges for cards adds complexities to retail that may not be easy to implement.  Others also worry about consumer grumbles when their favorite card with rich rewards now involves a higher fee for use at retail.  But we already see a version of that where many merchants decline to accept Amex, complaining about the fees.  And we have survived that.

Bottomline: it’s too early to panic about losing out on credit card rewards and it’s pretty much a certainty that this small settlement will not trigger huge cuts in credit card rewards…just as it’s unlikely to produce cost cuts at checkout. 

We may have to shuffle our card use preferences but hasn’t that been an ongoing practice for some years already?  Probably we do need to pay more attention to cards and perks right now, as the impacts of the settlement play out.

But there’s no reason, not based on this settlement, to toss in our cards and stop playing.  Not yet.

By Robert McGarvey

We all know that travel today is different and so is the traveler who in many cases, simply is much younger as Millennials and Gen Z elbow aside Baby Boomers.  A generation that for essentially its entire life has always been catered to suddenly isn’t the prime target, not in the eyes of many businesses, hospitality very much included.

So just who is the guest of tomorrow and how do travel providers need to respond?

Remember a key fact about the two prime generational cohorts, Gen Z and Millennials: they have grown up with cell phones, which became commonplace in the US in the fading years of the 20th century, and also with smartphones (introduced in 2007) and tablets (the iPad debuted in 2010). To them, ubiquitous technology is just part of life, it’s not “technology,” but how things get done, from ordering a delivery meal to summoning a car and driver or booking a haircut.

Deloitte UK decided to dive into what’s happening and issued its findings in a report.  Remember that the UK is in recession – the US isn’t, in fact the economy is the strongest among the G 7.  Fallout from Brexit may also mean that there aren’t happy days ahead for the UK.  

Probably the most interesting element in Deloitte’s musings is this: Technology enables the luxury experience.  This is a wake up call for those in hospitality who continue to think that plush fabrics, fawning staff, and lots of golden items are integral to the luxury experience.  They aren’t.

Technology has the potential to give each of us more of what we want.

Deloitte offers a sharp for instance: “using technology to tailor services to the unique demands of guests will be expected, for instance, by calculating average wait times for food delivery at airports to notify passengers who might be rushing to catch a flight.”  Haven’t you walked away from a busy airport counter because a delivery delay meant the food wasn’t going to be ready on your timetable?  And there is no good reason why a well run airport restaurant can’t calculate how long it will take for your order to reach you.

Multiply that idea out to hotels and the same principles apply.  I still remember the single worst hotel room service meal I wished I hadn’t had – I won’t name the pricey Manhattan hotel because this was 15 years ago and similar may no longer happen there – and that’s because it took an hour for the coffee, scrambled eggs and toast to reach my room and, even more staggering, everything on the tray was cold.  I pushed it all aside because I remembered there was a Starbucks a half block away.  (No, I haven’t stayed in that hotel since and won’t.) Service catastrophes of this magnitude just are unacceptable today and, hey, Mr. Hotel Man, if you can’t deliver a room service breakfast within 15 minutes at least tell the guest who has the right to curse and cancel the order. You must be able to forecast with some precision delivery times. Period.

Remember, Uber and Waymo tell you how long the wait for a ride will be and they generally are pretty accurate. If they can do it, even when confronting so many variables not in their control, surely restaurants and hotels can.

Another key idea from Deloitte is this: Creat[e] agile strategies that cater to future travellers and adapt to new market trends is crucial for the industry.

New is the magic word in that. When I reflect back on a half century of business travel I don’t see much difference between what I experienced in 1975 and what I experienced in 2000. Very little had changed.

Go from 2000 to 2024 and, wow, there are innumerable changes from the death of the taxi industry to the sharp rise of Sunday as a key business travel day and of course the generational shift. New is everywhere in travel now.

Deloitte’s point is smart however: don’t take what we see today for granted as tomorrow’s reality. It probably won’t be but what will prevail remains very fuzzy. Anybody who tells you they know what travel 2025 will look like is wrong and if he/she says they know what 2035 will look like they need psychotropics.

As for where Boomers fit into all this, do you remember that phrase that popped up everywhere from 1965 to 1975, don’t trust anyone over 30? (The phrase, incidentally, is attributed to U C Berkeley student Jack Weinberg who was not in fact a Boomer and who turned 30 in 1970.)

In 2024, I‘m expecting to start regularly hearing, don’t trust anyone over 60. Why should they

By Robert McGarvey

Is camping the new luxury? So says Travel + Leisure, a publication that I can’t say I turn to as a mainstay source but in this instance it won my attention. That’s because, as regular readers know, for the past six months I have had a monthly habit of spending a couple or three nights tent camping, something I had no history of doing but suddenly – inexplicably – I was seized by the desire to sleep on dirt.

Maybe T + L has insight into what motivated me.

“We see travelers seeking out activities that require more mental and physical exertion,” Misty Belles, vice president of global public relations for Virtuoso, a network of luxury travel advisors, told T + L. “C-suite clients in particular want experiences that go beyond their comfort zone. Executives at the highest levels are willing to push boundaries, and they like to test themselves.”

I am no c-suiter but I’ve spent my life working with my brain and a keyboard and, as I age, I am attracted to wholly different kinds of activities. Admittedly I do not fit the tent camping demographic. Just 10% of tent campers are Baby Boomers and older.  (57.7% of RV owners, by contrast, are Boomers.  That just holds no appeal for me right now.  A few years from now, who knows.)

But I find myself attracted to pushing my personal boundaries.

What I like about tent camping is its utter strangeness for me.  It’s way out of my comfort zone.

Each camping trip brings me new challenges. Last month in Joshua Tree CA, it was wind that threatened to blow away the tent. And then I remembered I’d read something, somewhere about guy lines, strings that make a tent set up taut.  I was sure I didn’t have any so I drove to a nearby town bought some strings – not exactly guy lines but a workable substitution – and an hour later I had the tent secure.

Of course I also found when I was taking the tent down that, amid the stakes provided with my fancy tent, there already was a small packet of genuine guy lines. That’s ok. Tomorrow I am heading to a campsite in Sedona where there likely will be wind and rain so this will involve all my guy lines to keep the tent taut and the inside dry.

It may seem as though I simply did a 180 and there I was camping.  But arguably the 150 miles I walked in Spain on the Camino in 2021 and the 150 I walked in Portugal and Spain in 2022 helped to reset my mind regarding the outdoors.  Incidentally there is little camping available along the Camino – but I did spend hundreds of hours outside in nature and in the process grew to enjoy it.

What do you need to do similar? You don’t have to spend the $2000 or so I’ve plunked down to make my camping somewhat comfortable. REI offers rental gear and a camping kit costs $151 for the first night and $36 per additional night.  It has all the basics.  I’d recommend using the rental stuff for the first couple trips.  You may like it, you may hate it.

Where to do your first camping? I did mine at Bryce Canyon in Utah, a beautiful park that’s neglected by campers as most seek out nearby Zion and Moab.  

I also highly recommend Organ Pipe National Monument in southern Arizona (on the Mexican border) and Joshua Tree, 150 miles west of Los Angeles.

The marquee national parks – the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Zion – have complex reservation systems and it can take patience to get a booking. The lesser known national parks are easier to book into and that works for me.

First impressions are that the national parks and monuments are better serviced and equipped than campgrounds in national forests.  But national forest campgrounds often have more availability and, personally, I like Manzanita a few miles outside Sedona.

I have only used federal campsites.  In some states there are very good state campsites but I can’t comment specifically.

What you can’t rent from REI is the right mental attitude and you will need it.

Go into camping with utter humility. You know nothing. At least I didn’t. Be prepared to figure out everything. And keep adapting and evolving. Every trip I bring some new gear as new needs arise. Every trip I see things a little differently.

Will I ever get this figured out? I’m not betting that I will but that’s part of the excitement. It’s just fun to embrace one’s ignorance,  And that is what nature lets us do.

by Robert McGarvey

My personal experience with travel agents has been little and miserable.  A classic example — booked by a large publisher’s outside travel agency – was a room in a far off Strip hotel when I was going to Las Vegas for an event in the convention center which admittedly is not on the Strip but is nearby.  The hotel was 10 miles from the Strip and as I pointed out the cost savings in room nights would be obliterated by the taxi fares.  I was booked into the Strip hotel I’d wanted in the first place.

Just about every time a travel agent has been involved in my travels something was wrong.  I admit that is unquestionably a deviant history.  But it sets me up as keenly curious about ChatGPT’s argument that travel is an ideal use case for AI.  The initial proof of concept is an Ireland trip planner that, said ChatGPT,  “will showcase how bespoke travel recommendations can make Dublin’s rich cultural heritage and vibrant city life more accessible to visitors. This prototype has been designed to show the potential of generative AI to support unique, bespoke experiences for visitors instead of generic to-do lists.”

In a first take the Irish Times curled its lip in distaste: “The itinerary – produced by the chatbot on Wednesday when The Irish Times asked for travel advice – is not entirely imaginative or necessarily appealing to locals. But it is a programme that will resonate with the millions of people who visit the city from overseas each year searching for the craic and stout costing the guts of a tenner for a pint.”

ChatGPT’s Dublin IRA

My experiments with ChatGPT are a bit more encouraging.  For instance, I asked ChatGPT to give me a three day itinerary for exploring the history of the Irish Republican Army in Dublin.  It came up with this:

Day 1: General Overview of Irish Independence

Morning:

• GPO Witness History Museum:
  • Start your day with a visit to the General Post Office (GPO) Witness History Museum. The GPO played a significant role in the Easter Rising of 1916, a key event in Irish history.

Afternoon:

2. Kilmainham Gaol:

• Explore Kilmainham Gaol, where many leaders of the 1916 Rising were imprisoned and executed. The guided tour provides insights into Ireland’s struggle for independence.
• Collins Barracks:
  • Visit the National Museum of Ireland – Decorative Arts and History at Collins Barracks. This museum covers a wide range of Irish history, including the War of Independence and the Civil War.

Day 2: The War of Independence

Morning:

• Dublin Castle:
  • Start at Dublin Castle, which played a role in both the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations and the establishment of the Irish Free State. [Note: Dublin Castle was the seat of British power until Irish independence.}

Afternoon:

2. War Memorial Gardens:

• Visit the Irish National War Memorial Gardens, dedicated to the memory of Irish soldiers who died in World War I. This provides context for the complex relationships during the War of Independence.
• Custom House:
  • Walk along the River Liffey to the Custom House, a symbol of British authority that was targeted during the War of Independence.

Day 3: The Troubles and Contemporary Ireland

Morning:

• Dublin City Hall:
  • Explore Dublin City Hall, which features an exhibition on the history of Dublin, including the impact of the Troubles.

Afternoon:

2. Arbour Hill Cemetery:

• Visit Arbour Hill Cemetery, the burial place of many leaders of the 1916 Rising. It includes a memorial to those who died in the struggle for Irish independence.
• National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology:
  • Conclude your trip with a visit to the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology, which covers Ireland’s history from prehistoric times to the present day.

McGarvey’s Dublin Additions

As it happens I have been to the GPO, Dublin Castle, Kilmainham Gaol, the Custom House and I should visit Arbor Hill Cemetery and Collins Barracks. My verdict: I find the ChatGPT itinerary a decent start and if a tourist did only the ChatGPT itinerary it wouldn’t be a bad three days.

I would make them better however. To the itinerary I would add Croke Park, where the British Army murdered 30 people at a Gaelic football match in 1920, the first Bloody Sunday. Glasnevin Cemetery  belongs on the list too.  

I would also stop at the spot where Nelson’s Pillar once stood until a 1966 IRA bomb blew it up. This is central Dublin (O’Connell Street). The Spire of Dublin now occupies that space.

This being Dublin I also would visit a few pubs frequented by the legendary Michael Collins – definitely Davy Byrnes which also ticks an important Ulysses box.  Besides, a tourist has to eat and drink so go for pubs with important history or literary connections.

Gemini’s Counter-Offensive

No assessment of AI is complete without a look at Google’s Gemini (nee Bard).

Here is its pass:

“Dublin boasts a rich and complex history, and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) played a significant role in shaping the city’s landscape. This 3-day itinerary delves into the key events and locations associated with the IRA, offering a deeper understanding of Ireland’s fight for independence.

Day 1: Setting the Stage

• Morning: Start your day at the National Museum of Ireland – Collins Barracks ( ). This impressive building houses a vast collection of artifacts related to Irish history, including a dedicated section to the Easter Rising and the IRA.Opens in a new windowwww.museum.ieNational Museum of Ireland Collins Barracks Dublin
• Afternoon: Take a guided walking tour focused on the 1916 Easter Rising. These tours, offered by companies like Dublin Historical Walking Tours ( ), bring history to life as you walk past iconic landmarks like the GPO (General Post Office) ( ) and Kilmainham Gaol ( ), both of which played crucial roles in the rebellion.Opens in a new windowchevron_rightwanderyourway.comDublin Historical Walking Tours
• Evening: Enjoy a traditional Irish dinner at The Brazen Head ( ), a historic pub established in 1754. This pub is rumored to have been a meeting point for IRA members throughout history.Opens in a new windowen.wikipedia.orgBrazen Head Dublin

Day 2: Kilmainham Gaol and Beyond

• Morning: Dedicate the morning to a guided tour of Kilmainham Gaol. This former prison played a pivotal role in the aftermath of the Easter Rising, where many leaders were imprisoned and executed. The tour offers a chilling yet poignant look into this significant location.
• Afternoon: Head to the National Library of Ireland ( ) to delve deeper into the history of the IRA. The library archives house a wealth of primary sources, including newspapers, pamphlets, and documents related to the organization.Opens in a new windowwww.nli.ieNational Library of Ireland Dublin
• Evening: Catch a performance at the Abbey Theatre ( ). Founded by W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory, the Abbey Theatre has a long history of staging plays that explore Irish history and identity, including themes related to the IRA.Opens in a new windowwww.abbeytheatre.ieAbbey Theatre Dublin

Day 3: Reflecting on the Legacy

• Morning: Visit the Glasnevin Cemetery Museum ( ). This cemetery is the final resting place for many prominent Irish figures, including several IRA leaders. The museum offers guided tours that explore the complex history of Irish nationalism and the role of the IRA.Opens in a new windowwww.atlasobscura.comGlasnevin Cemetery Museum Dublin
• Afternoon: Spend some time at the Irish National War Memorial Gardens located at Islandbridge. This peaceful park commemorates Irish soldiers who died in various wars, including the fight for independence.
• Evening: For your final dinner, head to The Winding Stair ( ), a pub located in Dublin Castle. This historic pub offers a warm atmosphere to reflect on your exploration of Dublin’s IRA history and enjoy some live traditional music.Opens in a new windowwww.cntraveler.comWinding Stair Dublin

Additional Tips:

• Consider purchasing a Dublin Pass to save on entrance fees to many of the attractions mentioned in this itinerary.
• For a deeper understanding of the IRA’s motivations and actions, it’s helpful to research the historical context of Ireland’s fight for independence before your trip.
• If you’re interested in a more comprehensive experience, consider extending your stay in Dublin to explore other historical sites and museums.

This itinerary provides a starting point for your exploration of Dublin’s IRA history. Remember, history is a complex subject, and there are multiple perspectives on the IRA’s legacy. Embrace the opportunity to learn, reflect, and form your own conclusions.”

Gemini Wins the Jar of Jameson

Note: Gemini includes Glasnevin and my suggested pub crawl. It also, rather smartly, tossed in the Abbey Theater, a place I always go to when I visit Ireland.

For my money (although I’m using free versions of both), Gemini’s is the tour I’d recommend

Personally I plan to make extensive use of ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini (nee Bard) in planning a long stay in Madrid and now I am also going to use it to plan my monthly visits to camp grounds, particularly in identifying the best hiking trails.

Give AI a try on your next trip. You just may like what you get.

by Robert McGarvey

The Phocuswire headline caught my eye: “WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TRAVELERS FIND TOURS TOO AUTHENTIC?”  For some months I’d been monitoring a surging American traveler insistence that what they want is travel experiences that are authentic – and part of me well knew there are limits to the “authenticity” we want to experience on holiday.

In the particular case mentioned in the Phocuswire story a traveler complained loudly when during a tour of a local food market in Hanoi he came upon a whole fried dog.

What would you say and do?

As I picture this scene in my head, I am taken back 30 years to a trip I made to Sweden, sponsored by Absolut, where lunch one day was at the beach at an eel shack where the edible was eel paired with scrambled eggs and bread slices that resembled Wonderbread. Oh, and vast quantities of vodka.  

Do understand there is a long tradition of eel fishing in Sweden.  It’s now under attack but 30 years ago it was a shining example of traditional Sweden which my Absolut hosts wanted to expose me to.  On the same trip I spent a night in an historic hunting lodge where wealthy city Swedes would go, 100 years ago and probably today too, to hunt deer which would show up on the dinner table. 

I ate the venison and enjoyed it.

The eel was a different matter.

I had never eaten eel before and indeed my only experience of eel as an edible was from the scene in The Tin Drum (viewer discretion advised).  There was no way I intended to eat that thing and I didn’t. But I did eat some scrambled eggs – fluffy and tasty – and even had a few bites of the bland white bread.  Of course I swallowed my share of vodka, probably more as I contemplated the horrors of this lunch, and I don’t believe the host was aggrieved about my eel abstinence.

What I did not do is rant about eel eating. Others in my small group seemed to enjoy their bites of house smoked eel and indeed even I got that the very scene and the meal represented hundreds of years of Swedish culinary history.  

Back to Hanoi and the crispy dog – my view (which departs from that of many experts quoted in the Phocuswire piece – is that the problem is entirely the sensitive traveler’s, most certainly not the tour organizer who, in my view, had no responsibility to prepare travelers for the possibility of seeing food items that would disturb then.

Heavens, what bubble of ignorance do these people live in?  The Humane Society plainly says: “An estimated 30 million dogs are killed for human consumption each year across Asia in a brutal trade that involves terrible cruelty to animals and often, criminal activity. From 10-20 million dogs are slaughtered in China, up to 1 million in South Korea, 1 million in Indonesia, and around 5 million in Viet Nam.”

Please, don’t tell me you are surprised – indeed horrified – by cooked dog in a Vietnam market.

The world does not share our US food peculiarities.

I still remember, with a shiver, a years ago trip with a chef to an authentic (that is, for locals) food market in Bali – yes, that idyllic island – where a half dozen adorable little piglets were putting up a shriek as they awaited purchase (and one hopes swift delivery from this mortal coil). They knew their fate and they weren’t going without a howl. As for me, I shrugged and attempted to avert my eyes (and ears).

But I did not tell the Balinese to go vegan and repent for their sins. But I suppose I might have suggested they see Babe.

In France many eat horse meat which in the US we view as verboten, although how we justify chowing down on Elsie but refuse to eat Trigger is beyond me.  

In Mexico there’s rampant consumption of insects and, no, I wouldn’t personally crunch on a beetle, I also certainly wouldn’t complain about a tour that involved a stop at a bug emporium.  

We eat differently than people in much of the world do.

But the real question is how much “authenticity” do we want?

My guess is not a helluva lot.

That’s ok but, please, stop whining about it.  If you sign up for an”authentic” tour, stay quiet on the ride.

Or just stay home in the first place.

By Robert McGarvey

Effective May 1, if you want to earn frequent flier miles with American AIrlines, you must purchase tickets via the airline directly or from “preferred” third party travel agencies and websites which have yet to be named, presumably because American is trying to hammer out deals that benefit it the most. The list, supposedly, will be revealed in late April.

Miles will be awarded on Basic Economy fares only when booked via American or partner operators. No third party agency bookings qualify.

Travel agents predictably are a -flutter. “This latest development doubles down on American Airlines’ clear disregard for the travel agencies that distribute its service,” wrote American Society of Travel Advisors CEO Zane Kerby.

What about passengers? Are you applauding these changes? American believes you should.  “We want to make it more convenient for customers to enjoy the value and magic of travel,” American Airlines’ chief commercial officer Vasu Raja said in a statement. “Not only does booking directly with American provide the best possible experience, it’s also where we offer the best fares and it’s most rewarding for our AAdvantage members.”

I can’t speak for you but I don’t experience the “magic of travel” when making a few clicks on an airline website. I have no idea what Raja is saying here and rather doubt he does either.

Strange American’s explanation for the changes may be, they still may stick. American is unconcerned with travel agent ire, no matter how loud it gets. Assuming American can weather the passenger pushback against these changes (and I believe it can), Delta and United will quickly do likewise because the carriers are in a monkey see, monkey do business.  The other two surely like American’s gambit and if the water looks safe they’ll jump in.

Should we be rushing to man the barricades against these changes?

I am a North Jersey guy, a good brawl is always an appealing idea – but I don’t like to engage in sure loser fights and that’s what this is.

Little by little, airlines have been tweaking frequent flier programs to benefit them (and in a zero sum game that means we are losers).  

So too are travel agents and the first salvo in the airline war on them goes back almost 30 years, to 1995, when Delta sliced its commission payments from 10% to 5.  Now some airlines pay exactly zero and just about all have reduced or even eliminated any support services for travel agents.  That’s why some travel agents will book air only if paid a fee by the customer and it’s hard to blame them.

Hotels, meantime, have been at war over travel agent commissions for years – some simply refuse to deal with OTAs, online travel agents such as Expedia.  The hotels want to keep the money in their pockets.

Which brings us back to frequent flier miles which of course airlines see as a cash equivalent and therefore they want to maximize their control of it. So American is waving a cudgel, insisting that if we want miles (and they know we do), we’ll book with American or a “preferred” third party and those who play the miles game will go along with this rule change.

Some very occasional fliers may not, simply because they don’t know about it.

But most of us will shrug, grumble and play by the airlines’ new rules. That’s what we’ve done in the past when, for instance, we accepted the much more monumental shift of rewards flights to “dynamic pricing,” meaning what the market will bear.

We’ll do it again with this attempt by American to direct bookings into its own channels and those that benefit it the most.

Personally, I don’t much care.  For some years most of my flight bookings have been direct with the carrier anyway (except for a handful booked via Amex).  It’s just been more convenient for me to center every detail of a flight in the carrier’s mobile app.

Meantime, I’ll be bracing myself for still more erosion in the value of miles.

But, hey, at least we’ll get to experience that “magic of travel.” That’s what Raja said.

By Robert McGarvey

At 5:30p on Valentine’s Day I summoned an Uber to transport me 3.7 miles to Mora Italian, Scott Conant’s restaurant in Phoenix.  It took maybe 10 minutes to arrive, the ride also took around 10 minutes, uneventful. The trip fare was $21.67, Uber added a $4.25 booking fee, and I tipped $5.18.

That totals $31.10.  I paid $16.10 because I get a monthly $15 credit on Uber via Amex Plat.

At approximately 8:00p I summoned a Waymo driverless car.  It took around 20 minutes to arrive – “busy night,” said Google – but much of that time was spent finishing a coffee at my table in Mora.

The ride itself also took around 10 minutes.  The robot took exactly the route I would have driven.  There was nothing unusual about the ride, except that the driver’s seat was empty.  Oh – and that gave us much to comment on because for both of us this was a first time in a driverless car.  The fare totaled $18.70. No tip and please don’t tell me that in our current era of tip mania that it’s become necessary to tip to keep the robots placated.  

Which is the better ride?

My conclusion: I only get one $15 Uber credit a month ($35 in December to round the credit up to $200 for the year) and whenever I have already used that credit Waymo will get the business. It’s cheaper and more fun and also a gateway into tomorrow where robots do a lot of stuff for us.

Waymo operates in San Francisco and Phoenix and says it’s “ramping up” in Austin TX and Los Angeles County. I’m glad I live in phoenix and get to use it.

If you’re in San Francisco or Phoenix, use Waymo. It’s a ride into the future.

Mora Is Lessa

I have eaten a half dozen times at Mora since it opened in 2017 and I have been something of a fan. Early on I even had a pleasant chat with Scott Conant who was often in the house in those years.

I did not see him in Mora last night. He was missed.

I’d settled into a menu of my making: Little Gems Lettuce Caesar salad; pasta pomodoro (a Conant specialty – note the generous heap of butter); and a half roast chicken.  That was an option on Valentine’s Day and with a dessert, the tab was $190 for two.

Add in a couple negronis (lovely) and a $95 Super Tuscan (a solid buy) and the tab, inclusive of tax and a service charge, hit $425.

The meal wasn’t worth that much. 

Maybe the kitchen was simply hammered by the torrent of diners on Valentine’s Day but even the pomodoro seemed, well, mediocre and that’s the dish that propelled Conant to culinary stardom. This wasn’t a bad meal, don’t misunderstand, but it did not rise above the ho-hum.

One Open Table reviewer wrote this about the Valentine’s 2024 service: “All in all it wasn’t a great experience, food was overpriced and the quality was subpar.”  I agree and that reviewer had a problem with cold meatballs.  In our case it was the chicken that was cold and, somehow, that seemed only appropriate given the mediocrity of the first two dishes. We didn’t send ours back because there was no reason to believe there’d be improvement.

I gave the meal just two stars on Open Table. That was mainly for the outstanding negroni and the Super Tuscan which was good and fairly priced.

Sure, I understand that Valentine’s Day is not a good day at most restaurants.  It rings the cash register but the food usually reflects the hurried, harried atmosphere in the kitchen. As Delicious Magazine noted, “Even decent restaurants underperform on Valentine’s Day.”

I know all that but it’s just that I have experienced better at Mora in the past, even on very busy nights. Something was very off at Mora on Valentine’s Day 2024.

My hope is that last night simply was a miscue. I’ll give it another chance.

But if you are an out of towner who happens to be in Phoenix with a craving for Italian, my advice now is to go to Chris Bianco’s Tratto. It’s never failed me, always surprises me.