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In the high-stakes premium travel race of 2025, every major credit card issuer is trying to claim the loyalty of affluent travelersand airport lounges have become the most visible battleground. American Express is refreshing its Platinum Card and launching a new fast-format Sidecar lounge. Capital Ones Venture X card has become a darling among travelers, thanks to its hyperlocal boutique-style lounges. And Citi has returned to the ultra-premium arena with the $595 Strata Elite card. As for Chase? Fresh off raising its Sapphire Reserve annual fee to $795 and launching its Sapphire Reserve for Business card, the finance giant is now signaling that its lounges arent meant to be carbon copies of existing models. Theyre meant to be destinations. That direction becomes unmistakable with the opening of the newest Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club at Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas. The two-story space arrives on Wednesday, December 3, with a marquee feature: Chases first-ever champagne parlor offering bar cart service, sparkling wine, mimosas, seasonal spritzes, and tray-passed bites. [Photo: Chase] Its theatrical, indulgent, and distinctly Vegasan early clue to how Chase sees the next phase of luxury travel benefits. Were super excited about this lounge, Dana Pouwels, head of airport lounge benefits at Chase, tells Fast Company. A key focus for us with the Sapphire Lounge strategy is really bringing the best of the city into the lounge and really creating a destination that customers want to go to and visit different locations so they can learn something new. In a year when premium cards are escalating their lounge and concierge offeringsand, in many cases, their feesChases champagne lounge doesnt just offer bubbles. It offers brand differentiation. Why Las Vegasand why now Las Vegas was Chases sixth-most booked domestic travel destination in 2025, and it plays an outsize role in Sapphire Reserve customer behavior. Other issuers have staked new ground in Vegas, too: American Express is preparing to open its Sidecar by the Centurion Lounge location there sometime in 2026. Capital One is adding another of its boutique-style lounges at LAS as part of its 2025 expansion. [Photo: Chase] Chase’s stepping in with its own conceptrooted in sense of placeunderscores the citys growing importance as a travel loyalty battleground. This lounge is really about capturing the vibrant energy of Las Vegas, Pouwels says. We went for bold, shimmering finishes . . . but then we paired that with desert-themed touches that celebrate the unique landscape of the region. Chase uses each lounge to test new ideas, an approach that contrasts sharply with the uniformity seen in many airline-branded lounges. A highlight, specifically for me, of this lounge is we are doing our first-ever champagne parlor . . . another fun way for us to do something unique and different on this lounge, Pouwels says. This experimentation is part of Chases signature. Its Phoenix lounge introduced a pre-bookable Airstream kitchen. San Diego features hyperlocal seafood dishes. And Boston brought wellness treatments into the fold. We test different concepts in each market . . . due to customer feedback, Pouwels says. That is a differentiating factor for us as we think about the lounge landscape overall. [Photo: Chase] Culinary partnerships as a national strategy In Vegas, that means chef David Chang’s Momofuku brand. Momofuku has been part of the Las Vegas community for nearly a decade, and so they’re really the perfect partner for us here, Pouwels says. Theyll be bringing some favorites . . . like spicy cucumber salad, crispy nori potatoes, and then their famous pork bun. Other markets showcase similarly intentional partnerships: Philadelphia: Middle Child Clubhouse dishes, Elixr Coffee, and a local craft beer garden celebrating the citys brewing heritage. LaGuardia: Fairfax dishes and coffee from NYCs famed Joe Coffee. San Diego: Oscar’s Mexican Seafood and Groundwork Coffee anchor a West Coastinspired menu. This consistent commitment to locality differentiates Chase from other airline lounges and gives Sapphire Reserve a culinary identity distinct from the Platinm Cards chef collective or Venture Xs local brewery collaborations. The fee hikeand what lounges have to do with it Chases decision to raise the Sapphire Reserve annual fee to $795 earlier this year puts it squarely in competition with the Amex Platinum ($895) and Citi Strata Elite ($595). Meanwhile, Capital Ones Venture X remains significantly lower, at $395, drawing attention from cost-conscious premium travelers. To justify a nearly $800 price tag, Chases lounges must deliver real, experiential value. [Photo: Chase] The lounge strategy is really based on creating experiences for our card members on the end-to-end travel journey, Pouwels says. The reason that we open lounges in the first place is really to make travel better for card members. And even as some competitors are tightening guest access, Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve for Business card members can bring two guests for freea meaningful differentiator as United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Amex adjust their policies to curb crowding. What sets a Sapphire Lounge apart from competitors? Pouwels frames it in terms of personalization and flexibilitytwo things travelers increasingly demand across card ecosystems. We really think our lounges are differentiated, unique, personalized, and really focused on elevating that customer’s travel journey, she says. Chase aims to meet travelers where they are: Guests with hours to spare can enjoy sit-down dining, wellness spaces, and private suites. Guests with mere minutes can benefit from grab-and-go options, specialty coffee, and quiet seating zones. It doesn’t really matter whether you have 15 minutes or whether you have an houryou still want a great lounge experience, Pouwels says. A lounge as a loyalty engine In a year when premium cards are redefining what luxury meanswhether its Amexs chef-driven menus, Venture Xs locally brewed perfect airport beers, or Citis sweep of high-value lifestyle creditsthe Las Vegas Sapphire Lounge shows how Chase plans to compete: through curated destination immersion. The champagne parlor is more than a novelty. Its a glimpse of Chases long-term bet that the future of loyalty isnt just about pointsits about places. And if Chases evolving lounge strategy stays on this course, the airport might soon become travelers first taste of their destinationnot just the place they pass through to reach it.
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E-Commerce
Michael Dell, along with his wife, Susan, announced on Tuesday that they are donating $6.25 billion to so-called “Trump accounts”a program that gives $1,000 of “free money” from the federal government to children in the U.S. born on, or after, January 1, 2025, through the end of 2028, while President Donald Trump is in office. The Dells’ contribution will allocate about $250 per child to 25 million children. The accounts are basically long-term savings vehicles. Michael Dell is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies, known for its computer equipment and services. Parents will be able to contribute to the accounts starting in July 2026, according to USA Today. That money will be invested in stock market mutual or index funds. Here’s what to know. Who is eligible for a “Trump account”? Accounts are available to all children in the U.S. younger than 18 with a Social Security number, and will be managed and activated through the U.S. Treasury, according to the fact sheet for Invest America. The contributions come as part of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which was signed into law this past summer. The $250 Dell Foundation contribution is separate and will go to children born from 2016 through 2024 in zip codes where the median household incomes are below $150,000 per year, according to The New York Times. What are the contribution rules? Parents “and community” (such as employers) can collectively contribute up to $5,000 per year to an Invest America account. There is no cap or limit for philanthropists, charitable organizations, or state or local government contributions. At what age can the money be withdrawn? Can it go toward college? Starting at age 18, a child with one of these accounts can use a portion of the savings for education or job training, starting a business, or buying a first home. Note: The accounts automatically convert into traditional IRAs, or individual retirement accounts, at age 18, allowing any unused funds to continue to grow. (A traditional IRA is a tax-advantaged personal savings plan in which contributions may be tax-deductible.) How can parents open an account? Learn more about the “Trump accounts” at the website for investment firm Charles Schwab, which notes: “At this time, it isn’t clear who will open the account or where it will be held.”
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E-Commerce
Apples AI boss, John Giannandrea, is stepping down after seven years on the job. Apples stock price got a slight boost on the news, as some investors saw Apple signaling a new urgency to bring AI to its devices. Following a transition period, Giannandrea will retire next spring, Apple said in a press release Monday. Most of Giannandreas AI group will now be tucked into Craig Fedherigis software development group, which owns development of the various operating systems in Apple devices. While the reasons for Giannandreas departure are no doubt complicated, its a wonder he lasted so long. For years, hes been linked to Apples failure to seize on generative AI to improve its Siri voice assistant and make the iPhone and other iDevices smarter and more personalized.He may have made errors in judgement. Reports said he waffled several times on the preferred architecture for Siri — on how much of the assistants AI processing should run on the device versus a server in the cloud. But its also possible that his plans for integrating AI into Apple products encountered friction from other Apple leaders, or were hampered by fears among the leadership team that generative AI would compromise user privacy or create new legal exposure. At any rate, by 2024 Apples leadership — including Tim Cook — had lost confidence that Giannandreas group could turn AI research into useful (and safe) AI features and products. Before coming to Apple, Giannandrea had been prolific as the head of search and AI at Google. Under his leadership, the search giant began relying on AI to refine its understanding of certain user-preferred search terms, in hopes of returning more relevant and useful results. He was at the helm of Googles AI efforts when its researchers invented the transformer language model architecture that sparked the generative AI boom and new apps like ChatGPT. Apple poached Giannandrea in 2018 to inject new life into its floundering AI efforts. This gave Apple the time and leadership it needed to develop its own models and inject its devices and services with new intelligence. Apple combined the Siri and AI/machine learning groups and put them under Giannandreas control, creating a single point of accountability for infusing the companys operating systems, services, and developer tools with AI. Giannandreas work during his first years at Apple was kept largely under wraps by the company. Fast Company, which had been granted meetings with the companys AI group, was repeatedly denied access to Giannandrea. As the starting gun of the generative AI revolution sounded with the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, Apple stayed largely silent and remained so even as its peers raced to develop their own large AI models and apps. Then in June 2024, Apple announced at its developer conference that it would bring Apple Intelligence” features to its devices, enabling them to offer intuitive and proactive help based on the users personal data. It also announced plans to use generative AI to create a smarter next-gen Siri. For a time, hope was restored that Apple would catch up with the AI revolution. But neither Apple Intelligence nor next-gen Siri have shown up. (Apple now says theyll arrive in 2026.) In lieu of its own AI, Apple tried to integrate OpenAIs ChatGPT into Siri, but the user experience is clunky. In March, Apple announced it would be taking Siri out of Giannandreas control and placing it inside Fedherighis software group. Just six weeks later, Apple removed its robotics research group (which it hoped would lay the groundwork for future Apple home devices) from Giannandreas AI group. Apple believes Amar Subramanya, the Microsoft executive theyve tapped to replace Giannandrea, can and will get things back on track. A 16-year veteran of Google, Subramanya led engineering for the companys Gemini Assistant. He has an impressive resume, and very likely a price tag to match. His hire, along with Giannandreas departure, should be read as Apples acknowledgment of falling behind its peers in AI — and a signal that it intends to catch up. Interestingly, it was Giannandreas departure that got top billing in the press release Apple put out Monday, not the arrival of a new AI chief in Subramanya. Apple stock got a slight bump on the announcement, closing up $4.25 (1.52%) at $283.10. Giannandreas departure is very much about what kind of tech company Apple wants to be in the long term. Does it want to develop and control its own AI models, or pay to rely on big AI models like Googles Gemini? Apple has distinct advantages with its sticky and trusting relationship with users, and control over both its software and hardware, including the chips inside the devices. Its in a unique position to leverage smaller, more specialized AI models running on those chips to deeply understand and effectively assist users. Whatever the move, you can expect to see a lot more focus and pressure within Apple to realize new AI features and a smarter Siri in iDevices.
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E-Commerce
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