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Most of the international flights I've been on have had the flight attendants offer luxury watches, perfumes, electronics and the like.
I'm sure they're just going to emulate how those other airlines have run it.
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@bornonbord: at least the flight i had back from europe had wine a chocolate for sale. i can forgive trying to sell me belgian chocolate
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@bornonbord: Sounds like 'Times Square Airlines' to me. I wonder when 'Canal Street Air' will take flight.
Of course, the airlines MUST charge for baggage due to increased fuel costs. Loading the planes with ionic breeze units and rotating tie racks, that's different.
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These guys have a lot of balls. They raise prices, tack on baggage fees, eliminate food service on domestic flights, make it hell to redeem vouchers and now airline travel is just aggravating.
Now they want to hawk luxury items while you are trapped in their cabin.
This has to be a cruel joke.
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I'll bet the train tickets sell REALLY well after four hours on the tarmac.
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@Coles_Law: I was thinking about that too. I'm thinking it's more local train travel than a major distance, but why would an airline want to sell tickets to a competing form of transportation?
@hotdogsunrise: Maybe to someplace they don't go or they codeshare? Continental somehow codeshares with Amtrak for certain routes (mostly the DC-NY-Boston corridor with some branches off that trunk).
Currently, the average amount a passenger spends with an airline after purchasing a ticket is $1, according to statistics prepared by GuestLogix. At Ryanair, by contrast, Mr. Cawley said customers spend on average about $15.
Comparison fail. RyanAir is a no frills airline. You fly with them knowing that everything is à la carte. RyanAir's customers have to spend a bit more because nothing is included.
That shouldn't be the case with AA.
I wonder how much \"mile high\" activity will be required for those \"commissions\"?
Dear airlines, please do the ONE THING I pay you for, fly me to my destination with a minimum of kerfluffle.
No fees for the first piece of baggage, a decent meal on a 6 hour cross-country or trans-atlantic flight and some entertainment.
Make sure the pilot isn't drunk or high and is not distracted.
Thank you very much
This is a great example of a bunch of people repeating the same idea without anyone asking if it is a good idea.
So now flying will include all of the irritating things it currently does along with the added annoyance of the cash register style upsell like you get when you try to pay for something at a mall retailer.
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@bohemian: Next they'll be sure to include at least one baby on board with an ear infection who cries non-stop. And you can pay to get noice-cancelling headphones. What a deal!
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hum, interesting.
obviously there's space limitations to stocking all the garbage, i mean merchandise, on-board, but what if they were to have stuff stocked at a hangar, so you could order stuff on the plane, and have it waiting at the gate when you landed? (this would probably only work for smaller electronics, accessories, watches - who is going to carry an ionic breeze through the Charlotte Douglas airport?)
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@gStein_has joined the star bandwagon: but thats the kind of stuff they can stick in a vending machine.
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No, thank you. I'll just wait until I land and get my tickets at the cheaper, retail price.
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This isn't aimed at me and you. It's aimed at people too stupid to think about what they buy and how they buy it, or people too rich to care.
That is the only market that American companies care about now. They'll sacrifice everything else to get it...even if the total number is far smaller, it's far more profitable.
Oh, and if they have to annoy the shit out of everyone else to do it, so be it. Hitting everyone is the only way to make sure you get the rich, the retards, and the rich retards.
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@TechnoDestructo: Nice theory, but it doesn't work.
Rather than expounding for several paragraphs; which company earns more: Neiman-Marcus or Walmart?
@mianne:
Okay, fine, it's not all of them. It's just everything that isn't a fast food place and isn't in a strip mall.
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How about lowering the airfare or getting rid of the dang luggage fees in exchange for making a sales pitch to us once we're a captive audience?
Well, that should make air travel even more pleasant and comfortable.
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As if the earlier story wasn't enough to prove that AA just doesn't get it.
Simple rule for all businesses: Make your customers happy, don't treat them as bottomless cash dispensers.
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I went to a movie tonight and was forced to watcg 21 minutes of commercials from showtime until the movie started. Not including the commercials before the showtime. At least I had the option of laving the theater. I could not imagine being trapped on a plane with sales pitches and come-ons.
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@t0ph: I love the commercials. I love trailers, and we're usually at a movie 20 minutes early, and I like sitting in the dim theater, watching commercials. It's weird, I know.
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@pecan 3.14159265: I don't mind the trailers, but if I wanted to watch commercials, I'd watch TV. Get them off the goddamn screen.
You know what I do? I come early to get a good seat, and if I'm not with someone, I bring a book and my booklight.
@pecan 3.14159265: I love the trailers also, but I am not kidding there were like 10 minutes of Sprint commercials among others. Previews are the best, I even like the trivia they put up at some theatres.
By the way, The Men Who Stare at Goats was just alright, it was a good effort.
I doubt I'd ever fly AA again (for other reasons), but this is just another example of how inconsiderate they're willing to be for the sake of profit. Wearing earphones for the duration of each flight might help passengers ignore these come-ons.
It's just not right to do this to a captive audience.
@Shoelace: i wonder if you could manage to keep headphones and mirrored sunglasses on for the whole flight.
if the flight attendant has to watch him/herself trying to vend luxury goods, they might just be embarassed enough to move on
@catastrophegirl: Mirrored sunglasses sound like a good idea too, though we may have to hold up a little sign saying 'No thanks' for especially persistent panderers.
What they really need is a shopping mall. Take out about half the seats and put in a Nordstrom. Maybe an LL Bean store.
A dance club would also be a good idea. They'd have to check IDs but that shouldn't be much of a problem.
Finally, the flying casino complete with poker, slots and prostitutes.
Bet they make a fortune.
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@H3ion: okay, to be fair, the casino and dance club plane might be kind of fun. I hate to fly, so any distraction from that would be welcome. if only that was what they were offering.
@pecan 3.14159265: if Tony Stark was on the plane, I'd do whatever he asked, dance club and all.
Now-defunct Skybus tried selling watches, perfume, and other schwag. It failed. (And yes, the flight attendants were paid on partial commission.)
Still, tickets to Broadway shows, Disney theme parks, and such, I could see being sold on board. At the same time, I saw on an American flight from DFW to Paris-CDG that their flight attendants are not so enthused at the idea, right down to the name badges: one said that he was a \"Professional Flight Attendant-NOT A WAAl-Mart Associate\". (Gotta love those stuttering AAs...)
I don't see this as so bad really. I often carry some of my glass art with me, as long as I can have equal time to sell to the attendants, I'm cool with that :D
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Anytime anyone ever mentions selling items on an airplane, all I can ever think of is Zug's Airline credit car prank. The calls the head of Executive Office's and pitches her their credit card. The best part is that she will not admit what they are doing is annoy even after saying what he is doing is annoying.
You should read the whole thing it is great
[www.zug.com]
@Gaianna:
I forgot to say the best line from the whole thing.
JH: You know why? Because you're not captive on a plane.
Short-short Flights: The flying waitresses barely have time to do the complusary safety briefing and then pass out the 1/4 can of soda to do much of a selling spiel.
Medium-short range Flights. Skip the peanuts. Might have 30 minutes to strong arm passengers to buying some crap.
Standard (medium range) flight. Skip the pseudo-meal that sometimes might happen, skip the peanuts. Got a FULL Hour, maybe even 2 hours to twist my arm.
Cross-Country. Hello, Mother-Load. 3,4 maybe even 5 or 6 hours of arm twisting, begging and pleading.
I suddenly see a number of senior flying waitresses signing up for the short-short flights.
This could go one of two ways.
First, airlines could negotiate for some neat exclusive offers from the tourism industry. After all they're coming to the table with a completely captive audience to exploit, why wouldn't Disney cut prices a little bit if American Airlines agreed to pitch Disney World over Universal Studios on flights going into Florida. If that's the way it happens, fine by me.
Second and far more likely the Airlines decide that they have a captive audience likely to make bad impulse purchases and start schilling a bunch of crap deals and products at intolerable mark-ups.
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Whenever I see something that interests me in the SkyMall magazine in the seat pocket, I take the page home with me and look for it elsewhere on the internet. Guess what? I always find it somewhere else for much much less.
This whole thing will just serve to distinguish some airlines from others. Like the ads currently running for Southwest, where the baggage handlers are scoffing at the other guy's baggage fees. I think that ad is great.
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Ahhh It's sad to see the dinosaur airlines slowly sink deeper into the tarpit.
Good GOD. It's bad enough I'm bombarded with advertising on TV, in magazines, on the radio and everywhere I go, but now I'm going to be solicited by FLIGHT ATTENDANTS???
Don't they have better things to do? Hello, airlines...I think so!
Fuck. No.
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I'm just praying they actually create this national high-speed train network they keep saying is coming into play so we can all stop using airlines. Let's face it, the airlines, the FAA, and TSA have eliminated any actual joy that comes from flying.
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I've been on many flights that do this - it's not at all obtrusive. The flight attendants point out a catalog early on. That's all they do. Midway through the flight, the flight attendants simply ask if anyone is interested in anything in the catalog. They come through the aisle with a cart, you stop them if you want to buy something. If not, they keep on going. It's REALLY no skin off anyone's back. If you desperately need an obscenely expensive watch, then buy it. No one is stopping you from doing this on the ground, either.
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It's bad enough when they pitch credit cards to a captive audience on the plane. This sounds like it could be pretty awful.
@Orv: All the annoyance of telemarketing with the inability to hang up the phone, at 35,000 feet. I swear, if they wake me up from my Xanax nap to try to sell me something, they'll need to land the plane in Boston to arrest me.