Apple dumps Goldman Sachs, 25 tips for traveling with a baby and did Marriott make a mistake by nixing free night certificate extensions? All that and more in this week’s Saturday Selection, our weekly round-up of interesting tidbits from around the interwebs (links to each article are embedded in the titles).
Apple dumps Goldman Sachs
In 2019, Apple ventured into the wacky world of credit cards with the release of the Apple Card. What was billed as a “credit card reimagined” was a sleek-looking, no annual fee card that gave you very little in the way of rewards: 3% back on Apple products and 2% back on purchases made with the card via Apple Pay (that squeaky, airy sound you hear is the “credit card reimagined” balloon deflating). Apple’s partner in this world-changing endeavor was Goldman Sachs, a well-known investment bank that hadn’t dabbled much in credit cards, but was chomping at the bit to “revolutionize the credit card experience” alongside its new buddy. After underwhelming with the revolutionary card, the groundbreaking pair set out to reimagine savings accounts and “Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL),” or what was previously known as “financing.” Unfortunately, Goldman wasn’t much of an issuer and things got rocky, with long customer-service wait times, poor engineering and even accusations of gender bias with card approvals. On top of that, the bank lost billions of dollars. Apple’s not one to suffer bad products, so last week it sent Goldman a “Dear Sachs” letter, giving everyone an opportunity to walk away and still be friends. It sounds like Apple will have no shortage of suitors willing to step up to the plate, including on that might be the “Ultimate Reward.” Bloomberg has the details in the linked post above, or you can read about it via Reuters here.
25 tips for traveling with a baby
I have a massive family. Eight brothers and sisters with over 40 nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews. Let’s just say I’ve spent enough time around infants and toddlers to make me not underestimate the effort and energy that it takes to travel with one (or several). But I’m always so impressed by folks who do (including our own Nick Reyes, who’s just shy of a digital nomad with his family of four). Seeing a new, or even old, place through the eyes of a young daughter or son can completely change your own view of the world. But it’s such a different experience, with its own set of challenges, gotchas and things to consider. I loved this recent post by Nomadic Matt that covers his “25 Tips to Traveling with a Baby.” It’s practical, thoughtful and full of great info for those folks who think that parenthood doesn’t mean you stop seeing the world.
Did Marriott mess up when it ended free night certificate extensions?
In points and miles circles, Bonvoy isn’t just Marriott’s reward program, it’s also a verb. In a similar way that “Googling something” now means to do an online search, being “Bonvoyed” means getting cheated or treated unfairly. There’s even a t-shirt that you can buy on Amazon (“Regrets Reimagined). Like many long marriages, it’s tough to remember exactly where all this started, but now it’s safe to say that many Bonvoy members just…don’t…trust…Marriott. So, last week, when Marriott ended its officially unofficial, yet ever so torturous, policy of extending the expiration date of free night certificates, there was a predictably disgusted response from the gallery. Not so fast, says Your Mileage May Vary. They note that Marriott’s “new” policy is really just enforcing what’s actually written and, more to the point, it isn’t outside of the how other hotel chains treat their respective free nights. They write, “People shouldn’t have counted or relied on on the goodwill of Marriott to use their free nights after the expiration date. They should have been aware of the risks of getting Bonvoyed.” Bonvoy me once, shame on you. Bonvoy me twice…
Airline flies to the wrong airport, then pretends it meant to
Several years ago, my wife and I moved into new house about 2 miles away from our old one. It was in a different part of town, enough so to be a different exit off of the freeway. My brain didn’t want to move, I guess, because for a couple months afterwards, probably engrossed in the latest episode of Frequent Miler on the Air, I kept trying to go to our old home. Once, I even got all the way to the new owner’s driveway before realizing I was actually in the wrong place. Evidently, airlines sometimes do something the same thing. Several years back. a Delta pilot mistakenly landed a commercial jet with over 100 passengers at a military base several miles away from the airport that he was actually supposed to be at…and it turns out that plopping an aircraft with dozens of civilians in the middle of an active base takes awhile to unwind. Last week, there was another example, this time in Nigeria where a plane operated by a carrier with the comforting name of Fly2Sky landed at an airport in a city that was about 200 miles from where they were supposed to be. Upon landing, the crew announced that they were in the correct airport, then deplaned the passengers, who quickly realized that they weren’t where they were expecting to be. The pilots blamed the airline, saying they were given the wrong flight plan. The airline says the plane was intentionally diverted because of “weather.” In the meantime, recordings have shown that air traffic controllers repeatedly asked the pilots if they were going to the correct airport, and the pilots repeatedly insisted they were. It’s a classic case of he said, she said, they said, the other folks said differently and then everyone changed their story.
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Tim, as the FM resident Japan expert, do you intend to publish an overall guide to traveling/staying/seeing Japan anytime soon?
I wonder what “Bonvoy Me 15 Times” would be. Somebody could do a holiday song about the 12 days of Bonvoyed.