American Airlines To Charge For Blankets, Pillows
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Feb 9 2010, 7:02 AM
American Airlines quietly announced last week that it would eliminate free blankets in coach and sell an $8 packet that includes a pillow and blanket starting May 1.
The change is for flights over two hours in length to and from Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, the Caribbean and Central America. The airline will join JetBlue and US Airways, which began charging $7 for a pillow-and-blanket set in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
via intransit.blogs.nytimes.com
The news was broken on the travel blog Joesentme.com. According to the airline, the decision was based on consumer surveys.
Joe Brancatelli, the site’s publisher, chimed in with this great piece of analysis: “American executives run focus groups on blankets?,” he said. “You think they’d look for customer focus group data on what fliers think about American’s worst-in-the-nation on-time performance, its atrocious baggage-handling ability or the hideous condition of its planes.”
I didn't think it was possible for travel charges to get any more ticky-tack but this one takes the cake. Just another reason to avoid flying American. Ridiculous.
American Airlines quietly announced last week that it would eliminate free blankets in coach and sell an $8 packet that includes a pillow and blanket starting May 1.
The change is for flights over two hours in length to and from Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, the Caribbean and Central America. The airline will join JetBlue and US Airways, which began charging $7 for a pillow-and-blanket set in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
via intransit.blogs.nytimes.com
The news was broken on the travel blog Joesentme.com. According to the airline, the decision was based on consumer surveys.
Joe Brancatelli, the site’s publisher, chimed in with this great piece of analysis: “American executives run focus groups on blankets?,” he said. “You think they’d look for customer focus group data on what fliers think about American’s worst-in-the-nation on-time performance, its atrocious baggage-handling ability or the hideous condition of its planes.”
I didn't think it was possible for travel charges to get any more ticky-tack but this one takes the cake. Just another reason to avoid flying American. Ridiculous.
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