You know the drill if you’ve flown in the past several months. Depending on the airline, the flight attendant will come over to the PA system towards the end of the flight for an announcement. While most announcements are alerting passengers of turbulence or the need to store your laptop computers, this one is different. This announcement is a sales pitch; there’s no way to avoid it.
Airlines and their employees take different approaches. Some, like AA, start with phony pretenses like, “We’ve had several passengers ask us during the flight how they can earn more miles!”
While some employees play it a little fast and loose with the details about what you’ll get with those miles, you have to wonder if it might be a good deal.
Come on, now. It’s the ultimate car salesman pitch of, “Once you leave the lot, this offer’s not good anymore.” If you can only sign up on the plane, you’re a captive audience with a limited timeframe to decide. This is why they wait for the end of the flight to make the pitch. If they do it too early, and the flight has WiFi, you could look up to see if it’s a good offer. They don’t want you to do that.
However, these can be better offers than those available to the general public. Airlines offer increased signup bonuses while on board. I’ve seen up to 10,000 extra miles, lower spending requirements or cashback bonuses. Not all bonuses are good. The worst was a flight where if you signed up on board, you’d get 500 extra miles. Woo-hoo!
I found a thread on Reddit in which flight attendants from several airlines, including American, United, Delta, Frontier, Spirit and Jetblue, have said that they receive a commission when passengers sign up for cards during the flight. However, flight attendants might also be required to make such announcements or risk being penalized.
Final thoughts
If you’re flying with an airline and are considering getting their co-brand credit card, check out the current bonus before you get on board. That way, you’ll know if the offer you’re getting is worthwhile signing up for on the plane. Now, I know some people would be leery about filling out a paper application with your financial information. However, with all the information hacks and data breaches happening nowadays, does it seem like pen and paper is any less safe?
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