Consumer affairs

By Robert McGarvey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Robert McGarvey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which leaves us where?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by Robert McGarvey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Would you?

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

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

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

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

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

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

What about you?

By Robert McGarvey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Make your cards work for you in 2023.

By Robert McGarvey

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

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

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

Don’t forget that reality.

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

Show me the money. Now.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Btw, I am not alone in liking Blue Preferred.

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

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

Cash is king in 2023.

All hail the king.

By Robert McGarvey

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

The odd bit is how fast the benefits dollars accrue.

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

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

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

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

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

There’s a $200 airline fees reimbursement.

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

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

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

That totals $1013 in credits just on my card.

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

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

It really does become a no brainer.

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

But right now it puts money in my pocket.

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

But I am sated with my present share.

By Robert McGarvey | https://tinyurl.com/2oovcd7n

You have heard the stern advice: beware of credit cards, too much debt will destroy your business’s dreams.

That’s true — but only so far. Carrying debt at as much as 18% APR is definitely crippling to many businesses. But, when used judiciously and with balances paid off monthly, entrepreneurs insist business credit cards can be rocket fuel for powering startup growth. #creditcard #entrepreneurs

By Robert McGarvey

Are we facing a doomsday wipe-out out of rewards and perks associated with Visa and MasterCard (but not American Express – more on that below)?

Fact: Senator Dick Durbin (D- IL) has introduced the Credit Card Competition Act of 2022.  The bill is written in the opaque language much favored by Washington DC power brokers but if you believe rewards experts like Brian Kelly of The Points Guy, this is potentially a very big deal. “This bill is an existential threat to the loyalty ecosystem,” said Kelly in a webinar last week.

Understand, however, airline miles distributed by the carriers would not be impacted. Neither would American Express, although it isn’t clear why Amex is exempted.  Fine by me however because I have gotten many more rewards from Amex than from all my other cards combined.

What would be the impact of the bill? It’s backed by big retailers (think Walmart and its ilk) who grumble about the few points they pay card issuers for processing a transaction. The Durbin bill would give retailers the right to put transactions on any rails they please – think lower cost – and that means the money flowing into the traditional issuers necessarily would decrease.

So? Well, it might in fact be a big so. There are worries for all of us with this new Durbin bill. I get Diners points (worth 2.1 cents apiece per TPG), Venmo rewards me with Bitcoin – if you call that a reward (I’m down 30.6%!), REI rewards me via Capital One, 5% cashback on purchases at Amazon ($560+ so far this year). Some hundreds of dollars – maybe thousands? – flow to me annually.   

And then there are the many and varied consumer protections card issuers have offered to lure consumers into their cards. That’s everything from airport club access to extended warranties.  

Would I be willing to surrender these perks and protection in return for meaningful price discounts? Very possibly. Personally I find the points accumulation game tedious and time consuming. But are discounts in fact on offer?

NerdWallet looked at what happened with credit cards in the UK and Australia where so called interchange rates have been capped at low amounts for some time and – as expected – credit card rewards are meager and more cards now have annual fees.  Could that come to the US? Possibly.  

Merchants, meantime, say that with lower processing fees they could lower prices paid by consumers. But there is no requirement in the legislation.

In effect I am compelled to give up something that tangibly benefits me with no obvious deal sweetener for me. Why would I support this?

This is the key question: is there any chance the Durbin bill will be enacted into law this year. Definitely not as such – there just aren’t enough days on the calendar for hearings.

But as a Congress winds down it often passes an Omnibus bill which, as the name implies, is a grabbag of miscellaneous hunks of legislation.  Horses get traded, lines get added to the bill, others get erased.  Could this Durbin bill be pasted into the Omnibus?

Yep.  

What’s the probability? Not high, say the people who monitor these doings for a living. But lameduck Congresses are always unpredictable.

There’s enough worry on the parts of card issuers that they this week unleashed a media blitz to torpedo the bill. According to Bloomberg, “The satirical ad campaign features a town called “Point Less, Kansas,” where citizens have lost all of their credit card reward points. The ads show empty airports and hotels, which have been deserted because people aren’t allowed to use points to book flights and hotels.”

The video is rather funny. But a world without points might not be fun.

There’s also a tsunami of anti Durbin op-eds flooding newspapers across America.

Know too that the Durbin bill is not an especially partisan bill. It can get support (or opposition) from both sides of the aisle. This also is a big business brawl. It’s big processors and issuers versus big retailers.

Where are us, the pubic? Nowhere to be seen. The trickiest bit right now is that knowledge of this measure among the public is slim.  

And if it’s buried in an Omnibus bill it likely could become law without anybody noticing.  

Now’s the time to write your US Senators and member of the House.  Here’s a tool to find yours.  

******

Delta Lost Hiking Poles Update. Regular readers will recall that I noted that my hiking poles went missing on an October flight from Madrid to Atlanta to Phoenix. They made it to Atlanta but they fell off the radar.

I filled out the Delta forms and, honestly, had forgotten about them.  

This morning – December 5th – they showed up at my apartment.

By Robert McGarvey

I never had liked Spanish wine.  Every so often, for many years, I eyed a great price on a Spanish rioja at a supermarket, bought it, and regretted this. The wine – no matter the label, but you probably know the supermarket staples – always seemed stubborn, astringent, the kind of wine that demands to be accompanied by food, lots of food to cover up the taste.

I remember the moment my thinking changed. I was in Villafranca del Bierzo – a stop along the Camino de Santiago – and sat down at a restaurant’s outdoor patio. The very short wine list puzzled me. Most of the wines were said to be of the mencia grape, which I had never heard of. Turns out, Bierzo is ground zero for the grape, which grows in northwestern Spain and Portugal.  If the Camino de Santiago had an “official” wine, it should be a mencia because they share the same geography.

Just one sip and I became a fan. This is a floral wine, you taste the fruit. It sips well without food but can accompany food too. Some call it the Pinot Noir of Spain, although I am unsure that’s much of compliment because post Sideways that wine has been grossly overproduced and much of today’s bottles in the US are tasteless.  

Mencia is a wine with a sure but not pugnacious taste.  By now I have had dozens of bottles, just about always in the $10 – $25 range and that’s in restaurants. 

Here is what Wine Folly says about this wine: “When you look at a glass of Mencía, you’ll notice its deep red color with subtle hues of violet towards the rim. The color tells us that Mencía has high anthocyanin (the red pigment in wine). On the palate you’ll be greeted with peppery flavors of sour cherry, red currant and pomegranate along with a bitter cherry pit flavor which comes from the wine’s tannin.”

The bad news: Mencia is not very available in the US. One place to look: Total Wine. The store near me in Phoenix presently stocks two labels. You might have similar luck where you live.

What about white wine? Two years ago if you had offered me $1000 to name any Spanish white wine – label or varietal – other than cava, I would have failed.  We all know cava, a drinkable sparkler much cheaper than champagne (but not nearly as good in most instances).

Is there anything else? In the past 14 months, I can testify that I had glasses of very pleasant whites on my Caminos but, as often is the case with Spanish wine, not much makes it over to us.  

There are exceptions however. The Washington Post’s Dave McIntyre sings the praises of Rubus Private Selection White Wine Verdejo 2021. He calls it “a racy white, with flavors of apricot, jasmine and honeysuckle, a garden in a glass.”  The wine is a private label of a US importer. If you can’t find it, a similar wine – lacking McIntyre’s stamp of approval – is Palma Real Rueda Verdejo which Total Wine sells for around $15.

Another lavishly praised Spanish white is Daterra Viticultores Manzaneda Gavela da Vila, a Galician wine – meaning Camino territory – that the New York Times’ Eric Asimov says is “a mild orange cuvée, slightly tannic, fresh and alive. It has lingering flavors of dried fruits and flowers and an intriguing texture.” This one is probably tough to locate in a local wine shop but it is available online. Prices for various bottlings run from $20 to $40.

I have a shopping hack for you however that is an easy way to get to know Spanish hooch. Head to a nearby Trader Joe’s.  The one near me in Phoenix reliably has around six Spanish reds to buy.  Occasionally there are whites too. None has cost me more than $9.99 and, for a mind blower, try the La Granja 360 tempranillo which will set you back $3.99. “A great everyday drinking wine.” says Trader Joe’s Sommelier (not affiliated with the company).

Don’t be surprised that TJ’s knows Spanish wine. Germany is the leading importer of quality Spanish wine and TJ’s ownership has deep – and very rich – German roots. We import more Spanish wine but mainly bulk wine for blending. The Germans know good Spanish wine.

Americans who want to tipple good Spanish hooch benefit from the extensive Albrecht family supply chain.

Picture Hemingway in the early 1920s in Spain without much money in his pockets.  La Granja is the kind of wine he drank by the six pack in those years – cheap, drinkable, pleasant.

It’s also prototypically Spanish wine which, I’ve come to believe, is good wine without pretention. With French wines – and even the cult California wines – there are lingering doubts that maybe I am not good enough to appreciate the wine.

There’s none of that rubbish with Spanish wine.  It’s just good wine and good value. Supermarket wine racks be damned. There are good and inexpensive Spanish wines to be had in the US.  If you look for them.

By Robert McGarvey

Regular readers know that this fall I did a 150 mile Camino route through Portugal and Spain. There are two recaps in the archives.  But a trip to the Iberian peninsula is about a lot more than sweat and hills and walking in the rain.  It’s also about the very rich culinary pleasures of Spain. That’s what I will report on here.

Good thing I did so much walking because I returned home after a month weighing no more than when I left. That’s despite eating and drinking with Falstaffian abandonment.

I am pretty sure my cardiologist does not read these columns so I will reveal this fact: in past trips to Spain I stuffed myself with Iberico ham – a marvelous meat I much prefer over prosciutto – and cheeses, typically manchego, a buttery sheep’s milk cheese.  But not this last trip. I tired of both within a few days. Not that they aren’t great, but somehow I just could eat another bite of either.  

Was I doomed to starvation?

Not hardly. What I was compelled to do was look deeper in the menus and try dishes that hitherto had escaped my mouth on prior trips to Spain.

For starters, a caution: unless you have profound reasons to think otherwise, don’t eat the paella in most Spanish restaurants. I can make better at home in Phoenix. That’s because in most Spanish restaurants it is a dish meant for tourists, not dissimilar from the stuff sold on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco or any of the restaurants in Times Square.

This does not mean eat no rice. Indeed, one of my best meals was at Cool Rooms, a boutique hotel near Plaza de Santa Ana. Outside there was the raucous Spain Day celebration. Inside there was the tranquillity of El Patio de Atocha which served up Arroz seco de langostinos y zamburiñas con alioli de azafrán, dry rice with king shrimp and scallops with saffron aioli.  It was delicious and, get this, 22 Euros.  Call this a sophisticated riff on paella. The maitre d even comped a small glass of dessert wine to end the meal.

Spain also offers Michelin dining on the cheap. How cheap? For our first, celebratory meal in Santiago de Compostela – marking the completion of our 150+ mile walk – we dined at Cafe de Altamira which is a Michelin one star. No reservation was needed for lunch and on the menu is a 29 Euro menu de gustacion with an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert.  Presentation was lovely, portions small but ample, service good.

Take note: there are 211 one star Michelin restaurants in Spain, Portugal and Andorra, we’ve eaten at a handful, never with a reservation, never have had a complaint. Next time I go – note to self – I will construct an itinerary that seeks to eat at many more 1 stars.  There’s none of the stuffiness of a 3 star, nor are the prices breathtaking, but the food is inventive and good.

But not every restaurant needs a star. Another great meal was had at Hotel Chef Rivera in Padron (I also stayed the night in the attached hotel – $64 for two for a night with breakfast).  Must haves here include Gallician wine (which I prefer over the rioja which is what shows up in US wine racks), the soup of the day (typically made with local vegetables) and of course Padron peppers which are rarely available in the US.  Shishito peppers usually are substituted in the US. But the padron are far better especially when eaten in Padron – fruity, even a little sweet, slightly nutty, and plumper.  At Chef Rivera’s they were perfectly prepared, not burnt, but cooked through. Oh, and I had a steak which I never order in Spain – beef is not the local strength – but at Chef Rivera it was tender, tasty.  

Did I have disappointing meals in Spain? Not exactly. I had meals of convenience – necessitated by hunger and the availability of few options – that were blah, boring, even tasteless. I expected no better so I wasn’t disappointed. But whenever I made the effort – whenever I sought good eats – I found them in Spain. Which makes me think of one of my favorite books, Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, a memoir about dining around Paris in the 1920s.  But I’d bet that if he were writing a similar gastronomy memoir today it would be set in Spain, “the country that I loved more than any other except my own,” he wrote.  And the food is damn good.