Amex bought Resy. Chase bought The Infatuation. Inside the credit card industry’s quiet takeover of how you spend

That hard-to-get reservation at the just-opened restaurant? It might run through a booking platform owned by your credit card company. The court-side tickets and the post-game meet-and-greet? Same. The hotel you’re about to book, the car ride to the restaurant, the points that post when the check arrives—increasingly, all of it lives inside infrastructure controlled by a single card issuer. When American Express acquired the restaurant reservation platform Resy in 2019 and integrated it into its mobile app as a benefit for rewards cardholders, it was the first of its kind in an increasingly perk-heavy ecosystem that has come to encompass the credit card industry. Five years later, Amex paid $400 million for Tock, the reservation and table management service, expanding its foothold in a dining category that accounted for $100 billion in spending on Amex cards in 2024 alone. In 2021, Chase acquired The Infatuation, a restaurant discovery platform, and has since built exclusive dining promotions, food festivals, and content access into its Sapphire card lineup. The acquisitions are only part of the strategy. Amex Platinum and Centurion cardmembers get access to “By Invitation Only” events, Platinum House pop-ups, and Global Dining Collection experiences with top chefs, none of which are open to the public. Amex cardmembers get special ticket access and presales across sports, theater, dining, and live music, and Amex hosts its own member experiences at Austin City Limits. Chase Sapphire Reserve cardmembers get exclusive lounges, film panels, and dining events at the Sundance Film Festival, just as it opened branded Sapphire Lounges at JFK, LaGuardia, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, and Philadelphia, each featuring curated food from restaurant groups like Momofuku. Like Amex, Sapphire Reserve cardmembers now get exclusive restaurant reservations through Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables on OpenTable, with the list curated by The Infatuation. And Capital