American Express logo in front of a stock chart (Getty Images)

Amex buys all the restaurant reservation apps so it can save seats for its ritziest cardholders

American Express spent $400 million to give more seats to its highest-paying members.

7/5/24 5:14PM

A couple of weeks ago, American Express announced that it acquired Tock, a high-end reservation and table management app that offers bookings at more than 7,000 restaurants and wineries, for an astounding $400 million, or $57,142 per restaurant that it’s partnered with. This comes five years after it purchased Resy for ~$200 million.

Why would a credit card company spend more than half a billion dollars on two restaurant reservation apps? So it can reserve a subset of reservations for holders of its most expensive credit cards. From Amex’s press release:

“Restaurants are one of our largest Card Member spending categories within Travel and Entertainment, with $100 billion in volume in 2023,” said Howard Grosfield, President, U.S. Consumer Services, American Express. “We’ve been offering unique dining benefits, exclusive access, and special experiences to our Card Members for years through Resy and Global Dining Access by Resy. Now, we can connect even more premium customers with the most exciting restaurants, while providing merchants and restaurants more technology to help their businesses thrive.”

According to American Express’s website, its “Global Dining Access by Resy,” where the company offers exclusive reservations to different restaurants, is available to account holders of some of Amex’s most expensive cards, such as its Hilton Honors Aspire Card ($550 annual fee), Platinum Card ($695 annual fee), Delta SkyMiles Reserve Card ($695 annual fee), and Centurion Card ($10,000 initiation fee, $5,000 annual fee).

This really is a galaxy brain move by American Express. Apps have made it virtually impossible to get a reservation at half of New York’s nice restaurants, but if you own the apps, you can then save a portion of available reservations each week for your highest-paying customers, enticing new diners to shell out $695 for a Platinum Card.

“Oh, you can’t get a reservation at 4 Charles Prime Rib? That sucks. We have 20 tables available this week if you upgrade from your Gold Card. It’ll only cost you $695.” For some diners who are already considering paying $1000 for a table at Carbone, it’s a bargain! If American Express can upsell enough customers, then the $400 million sticker price will more than pay for itself.

My takeaway from this is that, if you’re a startup founder, perhaps you should focus on building a reservation service for Michelin Star restaurants, not the 47th Gen AI platform of 2024.

Max Knoblauch5/29/26

The Trump administration is reportedly planning a 50% made-in-America requirement for USMCA tariff relief

Qualifying for USMCA-related lower tariffs may soon require more US-made vehicle components, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to introduce a 50% US content requirement for vehicles covered by the trade pact to receive lower tariffs. The content would be measured by cost, according to the WSJ.

There currently isn’t any US-specific requirement for those lower tariff rates, but in order to receive preferential tariffs, vehicles are must contain at least 75% regional content (components made in North America). Per Reuters reporting, the Trump admin is seeking to raise the regional requirement to 82%.

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Overall, Tesla will likely have the easiest time qualifying for any stricter requirements. The automaker’s vehicles contained the highest amount of US/Canadian content in 2025, according to American University research. Ford, GM, and Stellantis all scored lower.

Notably: the underlying government data that many domestic content measurements rely on intentionally combines US and Canadian components, so it’s difficult to know exactly how much of any given vehicle is specifically US-made.

Exclusive | Trump Administration Wants Autos Under USMCA to Be at Least 50% Made in America

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Tom Jones5/29/26

The $640,000 Luce makes the average Ferrari look like a bargain

Put aside the shape; put aside the smoothing out of Ferrari’s iconic sharp edges; put aside, even, the calls from former Chairman and President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to “take the Prancing Horse off.” On the grounds of price alone, Luce detractors might have a point.

By now, many of us will have read the criticisms of Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, as the Luce — which was unveiled to the world earlier this week and promptly saw the company’s shares crash out in New York and Milan — gets subtly shaded by competitors online and not-so-subtly shaded by basically everyone else.

What makes all of this worse for Ferrari is that, even by the luxury car maker’s notoriously high standards, they’ve slapped a pretty hefty price tag on the Luce, and the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna, has already been forced to defend the €550,000 ($640,000) price point, saying yesterday that it’s “fair to pay for innovation,” per Reuters.

While Ferrari’s cars have been getting more expensive of late, as recently as 2022, Ferrari’s average revenue per car sold was around $340,000. At nearly twice that price, this new electric model is obviously proving a little much (visually, conceptually, and financially) for many loyal and long-standing fans of the Prancing Horse to stomach.