What took them so long? Several major airlines will start printing boarding pass ads on boarding passes for customers who check in from home or a hotel or office computer.
Remember, it wasn’t all that long ago when the airlines bribed you with bonus miles for checking in from home. Anyone seen that perk lately? Not likely. United Airlines, for example, got rid of that incentive in 2006. Others quickly followed.
Delta Air Lines will be the first with the new ads, starting this week on flights to Las Vegas. Other domestic destinations will follow. Northwest, US Airways, Continental and United have also signed up and will begin using the ads in the months ahead, according to the company that creates the ads.
Why ads on passes? The airlines own a minority stake in this new company and will split revenue from the ads. No one will give details but Al Lenza, the vice president of distribution and e-commerce at Northwest Airlines Corp., said 40 percent of his airline’s check-ins happen at its Web site, adding up to as many as 30 million customers a year.
Since this idea is easy money for the cash-strapped airlines, it probably won’t be long until they expand on it. Ads on paper cups for your $2 sodas, ads on the snack boxes, ads on the tray tables. And of course on the inflight music channels and during the movie.
In fact, I wonder how long it will take for an airline executive to hit on the idea of automatically piping the ads over the intercom system, and selling noise canceling headsets to avoid the commercials.
They wouldn’t come up with an idea that obnoxious, would they?
