29 March 2012 – “Technology can be offered as a perk, for example providing passengers in Business with free tablets,” Raymond Kollau says. 
22 March 2012 – “Passengers can look forward to a far more personalized experience in the future,” says airlinetrends.com’s Raymond Kollau. 
3 Feb. 2012 – “The concept makes perfect sense as people like to surround themselves with like-minded persons,” said Raymond Kollau. 
24 July 2011 – No major U.S. carrier offers free food on domestic flights anymore, says Raymond Kollau. 
4 May 2011 – “This is an example of experiential marketing,” Raymond Kollau said. 
10 March 2011 – “This is a novel way to pass some of the risk in fuel cost to customers,” Raymond Kollau said. 
ANA charges for drinks on domestic flights, teams up with Starbucks to serve free coffee
1 June 2010 | Seeking to cut back on its operational costs, ANA on April 1st 2010 started to charge passengers in economy class on domestic flights for all drinks other than water and green tea. Instead, passengers can purchase drinks from ANA’s ‘My Choice’ paid catering menu. Beverages available for sale include premium mandarin orange juice, Darjeeling tea and onion gratin soup. Wine, champagne, sake and shochu served in ANA’s business class are also sold in economy.
Two weeks after introducing its paid drinks policy on domestic flights, ANA teamed up with Starbucks in a ‘tryvertising’ campaign to promote the launch of Starbucks new VIA instant coffee brand in Japan. Since April 14, the day Starbucks launched its VIA coffee brand in Japan, ANA has served complimentary Starbucks VIA coffee on domestic routes. The free coffee service has just ended on May 31st, and ANA now charges 200 yen (USD2.20, EUR1.80) for a cup of Starbucks Via.
Both brands benefited from the joint sampling campaign: offereing passengers in economy a free cup of coffee allowed ANA soften the introduction of its paid drinks policy a little bit. Starbucks, meanwhile, hoped to change the inferior perception associated with instant coffee by letting consumers try its new product for free in a relevant setting. In September 2009, Starbucks held a similar campaign with United Airlines when it introduced its VIA brand in the U.S. Passengers onboard United flights could sample the coffee and take home some free VIA sachets as well. Besides this one-time offer, United Airlines also serves regular Starbucks coffee in-flight for free.
About Raymond KollauFounder of airlinetrends.com. Spends his day monitoring the global aviation industry for commercial innovations in response to changing consumer behaviour. Besides working with clients in the airline industry, Raymond also has a part-time position as consumer trends analyst at leading consumer trends agency trendwatching.com.
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