You've probably seen the influencer videos about the magic VIP greeters who whisk you through crowded European airports. The Journal's travel columnist booked one for her arrival in Rome. She paid $491 for herself and her 84-year-old mother, with a 10% discount she found online. The verdict was mixed, and inside it is a useful way to think about any splurge.
A greeter met them shortly after they deplaned and grabbed her mother's carry-on. Early on, the columnist wondered what she was paying for, because there was no speeding through the airport at first. That wasn't the service's fault. Her mother uses a wheelchair, and Rome is an airport where you take a bus to passport control. They waited 20 minutes for a wheelchair the VIP perk couldn't conjure. The value came later. A priority line at passport control saved maybe 20 minutes. The greeter grabbed a luggage cart and pulled their bags off the belt.
Where it paid off
The real magic was the taxi line. There were at least 100 people waiting for the fixed-fare ride to central Rome. The greeter politely moved them to the front in minutes, to plenty of side-eye. For two tired travelers off a red-eye, that mattered. The columnist's honest take: she wouldn't pay $491 for most trips, but for special occasions, or when you have to hit the ground running, it can make sense. The backdrop is an industry charging for everything. Frontier's fare revenue per passenger hit $67.82 in the latest quarter, up 71% from $39.74 a year earlier, as airlines unbundle the ticket. The same airline dangled a premium-economy upgrade on her nine-hour flight for $296.
Her advice: do the math, and ask which upgrade would bring you the most joy.
Our read
This is a Cash Flow story, module M5, and the planning point is the columnist's own. The question is never simply is this worth it. Almost any comfort is worth something. The useful question is which splurge, of the ones I could buy, gives me the most. She had two in front of her, a $491 greeter and a $296 seat. Ranking them beats agonizing over each one alone.
That's a tool for more than travel. Most households have a fixed amount of fun money and an unlimited supply of things to spend it on. The trap isn't spending it. The trap is spending it by default, on whatever's dangled at checkout, instead of on what you'd actually choose. Here's the check this week. Name your three most recent discretionary purchases over $100, and the next one you're considering. Rank them by how much joy each gave or would give per dollar. Most people find one or two they'd happily repeat and one they wouldn't. That ranking is your spending plan, and it beats a budget that just says no. A fixed-fare taxi line for a tired 84-year-old might top the list. A bag fee you forgot about won't. If you want a framework for the fun-money side of a plan, that's a genuinely enjoyable fifteen minutes.