American Airlines Could Probably Learn From United’s New In-Flight Credit Card Pitch
Credit card pitches are a staple of airline travel. Airport kiosks used to be the most annoying manifestation of this. Walking through a terminal, you could hear sales folks imploring you to stop by for a fabulous deal. Those were the most annoying pitches until I boarded a US Airways flight.
US Airways made a habit of having flight attendants make announcements during flights. Phrases like, “We have a great deal for you today” and “You’re going to love this exclusive offer” would boom over the PA system. Flight attendants would come through the cabin offering applications to fill out. Just in case you missed the first announcement, they would sometimes make second announcements. I mean, they wanted to be sure you didn’t miss out on this great deal. Sometimes, it wasn’t even the most lucrative sign-up offer.
Unfortunately, those pitches made their way onto American Airlines flights when the two airlines merged. Certainly not the best part of any of my flights.
I was on a United Airlines flight recently where they performed the credit card shakedown in a much more tasteful way. The crew walked through the cabin with little free boxes of mints for everyone. The boxes had a code for a United Airlines MileagePlus Explorer card offer.
The Final Two Pennies
I much prefer this style of pitch to the announcements and credit card application being shoved in my face. The offer itself isn’t horrible. It’s a bit better than the standard offer on the United website right now. The website sign-up offer is for 50,000 miles, where the “mint” offer includes a $50 statement credit. I did just receive an “invitation-only” offer for 70,000 miles in the mail, so it’s technically not the absolute best offer on the market right now.
Mints versus speeches? I’ll take the mints.
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Speeches start July 1.
Is that confirmed? Please, no.
I laugh at all you mileage Whore dogs,,you would stoop to anything to gain miles, Air Tran we dumpster dived for cups for free trips.l
Give me a break, I will take every mile they give me..
I applied for 5 AA cards at 100k per card.,a few years back..been playing this game over 20 years.,,
american hustling and huckstering. Emblematic of the failed empire. No values, no virtues, no narrative other than –get money, get more money, and expand.
Morris, while that is the generally the goal of public companies (get money, expand), it can certainly be done in more tactful ways.