Rowan Bridge and Emily Holt
BBC News
Hunting
The new Sapphire lounge de Chase at the Guardia airport in New York offers card holders a luxurious space
I stand in what looks like a suite in a chic hotel – all soft lighting, marble counters, plush seats and parquet style floor.
A tray decorated with food takes the corner of my eye.
“It is a seafood tower like welcome food equipment, as well as caviar, and you can also see champagne so that customers can take advantage of it,” said Dana Pouwels, responsible for the advantages of the airport show in Us Bank Chase.
She shows me in the new Sapphire lounge de Chase at the Guardia airport in New York.
This is what to wait for a flight can look like these days – if you can afford to pay $ 550 (£ 433) per year for the correct credit card required to access the entry.
Then, once inside the new La Guardia de Chase lounge, you can then choose to pay up to $ 3,000 to access a private suite for a few hours.
All this is part of what has been described as a global arms race among the credit card companies that you probably do not know – they are in competition to outdo themselves with larger, better and daring airport fairs.
And although most of us do not have access to these salons, the experts say that we almost certainly help pay them. And they don’t come cheap.
“Yes, it’s a arms race, and they become extraordinary,” explains Clint Thompson, editor -in -chief of the flight and travel website The Points Guy. “From what we know, we are talking about tens of millions of dollars per living room.
“Like the new Centurion Salon (American Express) in Atlanta, I think they spent about $ 100 million to get there.”
Hunting
Anyone for a caviar tray before the flight?
Airport lounges are not a new concept, and credit card issuers have long joined forces with airlines to provide brand credit cards with access to the show.
But now, card issuers themselves build fairs, such as a means of directly attracting card holders – and new potential customers as well.
JP Morgan Chase, American Express, Capital One, they are all now in the living room – and the lifestyle -.
For American Express, this includes the opening of a high -end show in Midtown Manhattan.
Its place in New York Centurion is located on the 55th floor of a skyscraper, with ceiling floor windows offering a panoramic view of New York, and gastronomies and private bars.
It is designed for Centurion card holders – a card that will cost you $ 10,000 in signature on the costs, plus $ 5,000 per year. And he is only invited to get one.
“We are more than a credit card company or a payment card company, it is more a lifestyle brand, obtaining special access to concerts, bringing you into restaurants,” explains Audrey Hendley, head of Global Travel at American Express.
The issuers of the card even moved into a 21st century staple food, coffee.
Capital One has Capital One cafes – now you have a barista in a bank.
Their branch in the Georgetown district of Washington DC has all the classic signs of trendy coffee – exposed vents, bare brick walls, barista coffee machine.
The only immediate gift you could be at the bank is the neon capital panel on the wall and their brand touch screens. Look a little closer and you could spot one of their people dressed with casualness that resemble a client, but this is actually what Capital One calls for his ambassadors, here to welcome you and help you with all your banking needs.
Anyone can use coffee, but hold a OneE capital card and you get money from your infusion.
“We are creating an exhibition hall for our products,” explains Shaun Rowley, director of Capital One cafes.
“So that customers come to see Capital One in action, touch it, feel it and even taste it with our cafes. And watch them go out, as you know, delight fans and defenders for us is the return we are looking for.”
Rowan bridge
The American Express Centurion in New York is located on the 55th floor of a skyscraper
None of this looks like the kind of language you normally intend to hear financial institutions.
Dan Bennett is the head of behavior science The advertising giant Ogilvy. It says that all is marks that explain how people think of themselves and other people.
“Yes, it’s a piece of plastic with the chip that contains your money, but it’s something that really gives you a position in society,” he said. “This is something that says something about who you are. This is something that can make you feel high.
“Credit card companies are not only construction rooms in airports, they build a feeling of self. It is a bit surprising that financial service companies have managed to look at deep human drivers, then build experiences around this.
“And that is why they succeed with them because they managed to find the psychological levers to be pulled, rather than just looking at the world through a rational lens.”
Capital One
Shaun Rowley says that the objective of new cafes is to transform customers into “fans and delicate defenders”
But even if you will never have access to these places, you finally pay them, according to Lulu Wang. He is a deputy professor of finance at the Kellogg School of Management of the Northwestern University near Chicago, and studied the operation of card payment systems.
He stresses that credit cards are more expensive for merchants, whether retailers, or bars and restaurants to accept that debit cards because they incur higher processing costs.
Professor Wang claims that merchants are likely to set up prices to cover the additional cost of people using credit cards.
“We generally believe that companies, you know, they are faced with higher costs, they will adopt a fairly significant part of these costs on consumers,” he explains.
“If we impose all these costs on the merchant, it ends up being a cost that is ultimately borne by all of us as consumers. Wealthy people can use high merchant costs, high reward cards, and then it is the rest of the company that must bear this cost.”
The one who increases the cost, the direction of the travel is clear. More salons and lifestyle experiences arrive while card issuers compete.
The arms race to obtain the loyalty of your credit card does not slow down.
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