A Better Way for Airlines to Make Money
The airlines will start selling ad space on boarding passes that originate from their sites, reports The Wall Street Journal and every airline blog on the Internet (including this one). Delta American, Continental, NWA, US Airways and United inked a deal to display contextual advertising, coupons, and weather information around the itinerary flight details in the upcoming months. Some of the initial advertisers will include Boulder’s very own Crocs, Cirque du Soleil, and Omaha Steaks.
Bravo! Finally the airlines are getting creative and finding ways to add to the bottom line that don’t involve sticking it to their passengers! It remains unclear as to how much the airlines will make in this endeavor, but they all own a minority stake in Sojern, the company responsible for adding the additional content to the passes. They will split the revenue evenly from ads displayed on each itinerary when passengers check in online. Passengers can, however, elect to print the pass sans advertising.
Apparently some travelers are resisting this blatant attempt to sell them stuff. My advice? Let ‘em do it. In fact, encourage them. Anything to dissuade the airlines from the endless list of fees and surcharges related to air travel. I’ll look at ads all day long if I can still have a ‘free’ Diet Coke in the air.
