Questions and Answers

Our old pal Lucky wasn’t interviewed, but the New York Times seems to have these articles every so often.

In short: they argue (among other things) that these cards and their worth are often just emotional and symbolic and count on one’s irrationality.

[URL]https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/27/your-money/airline-frequent-flier-credit-card.html[/URL]

Great read! Thank you for sharing.

For the general, everyday consumer – I would agree with that argument. Most of us who frequent this site are the exception, not the rule.

Considering barely 1/3 of Americans have a passport, the number of people leveraging the tips and tricks that a lot of us use is very small.

I’d bet the average American family spends maybe $100/week on their credit card, dreams of a family vacation in Florida, and couldn’t tell you what a lie-flat business class seat looks like. For them, why bother investing in an airline credit card? The Capitol One Card, or something similar, is their best bet.

Or, if you’re that 20% of AMEX users who carry a balance each month – you really shouldn’t have a rewards card anyways!

[QUOTE=”rickyw, post: 56681, member: 1436″]
Considering barely 1/3 of Americans have a passport, the number of people leveraging the tips and tricks that a lot of us use is very small.
[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the reply! Just wanted to cite this bit because I’ve always read varying percentages of Americans who hold a passport (I wonder if it’s increased since 9/11 for ID purposes, or if the Passport Card (which I don’t have) is included in these figures. And how up-to-date the figures are (whether or not people are traveling on a passport — I do wonder if more have gotten it for ID purposes).

Because a) Americans who travelled to Mexico or Canada (and some of the possessions or nearby islands never needed a passport in the past. I think even Bermuda but maybe that’s changed these days. Anyway, the US is pretty big, and I’ve often felt that you travel far enough from one state through several others, and you’re in another country! (Maybe it’s less that way now with television and the like reducing some regional differences).

But anyway, I always felt the implicit critique behind this “Only [a certain percentage] of Americans hold a passport” wasn’t entirely fair and didn’t tell the whole story. Because, after all, Europe’s pretty small comparatively, and has short travel times between countries. Just think it’s a little more complex than passport figures.

Just thinking aloud here….