News and notes from around the interweb:
- I don’t like paying Disney even more either but you have to do the math, and once you’ve already committed to go…
Took the fam to Disneyland last month.
$25 gets you a Genie + pass, which probably saves you 5 hours of waiting in line.
One ride with 2 hr wait took us 6 mins.
Yet, vast majority don’t want to fork over the $25.
They believe their time is worth less than $5/hour
— StripMallGuy (@realEstateTrent) January 26, 2023
- Love this.
Not a new one—
But, I am partial to a good meme, especially when it ties one of my kids’ favorite movie characters together with an aviation factoid. 😄 pic.twitter.com/iqujcGthvc— Stephanie (@airport_girl) January 26, 2023
- I understand the snark but this totally misses the point. Centurion lounges are better than ‘bad coffee and free newspapers’ and not the value proposition for the Platinum annual fee. If you use card credits against costs you’d have incurred anyone (airline fee, Uber, CLEAR, Saks, Digital Entertainment for stuff like SiriusXM and NY Times) you’re making a 40%+ ‘profit’ on the fee.
Then you get Hilton and Marriott Gold, National Car Rental Executive and Hertz Presidents Circle status, Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts benefits (there’s a credit for that too!) and also lounge access… Centurion but also Escape, Priority Pass and Plaza Premium as well. Here I ignore Walmart+ which just strikes me as off-brand. There’s definitely value here, but I usually don’t visit Centurion lounges anymore.
Amex has an incredible business model.
Convinced tech + finance professionals to pay $695/year in fees for a metal credit card, which grants you the luxury experience of waiting 45 minutes to get into a crowded airport lounge at 7:25am with bad coffee and free newspapers. pic.twitter.com/DIOvFO3QMZ
— Chris Bakke (@ChrisJBakke) January 26, 2023
- 50% jump in JetBlue TrueBlue enrollments last year and this carries over into cobrand acquisition.
- Videos of singing and joking flight attendants, and other inflict antics, were a regular staple of Southwest Airlines social media before the holiday meltdown. They’ve been largely absent for the past month. But then this crept it, so maybe nature is healing?
@SouthwestAir #2335 What a fantastic crew aboard. Here is how we started out pic.twitter.com/yOAcfuqBl7
— steve gajewski (@reno4ski) January 27, 2023
Not everyone can access uber, not everyone still reads newspapers, and those that do like newspapers don’t always like the NY times. Lounges have limits and now guests aren’t allowed with the platinum card unless they spend more money on the card in a year than most people make in a year. People that can afford that can get lounge access in other ways for guests. If we are really honest with ourselves do most people actually shop at Saks if they don’t have this card, I doubt it and those that can afford Saks on a regular basis don’t need $50 credits or would value their time more than the time to track down that coupon every 6 months. Don’t get me wrong I do like my Amex Platinum card but it is becoming much less valuable to many people.
A friend refers to his Mexican father in law as Obi-Juan as the guy looks like Ben
The beauty of Walmart+ is the access to the entire store delivery. Need super glue, deodorant, HaagenDazs, organic veggies, Black and Decker products? All can be delivered.