I’ve written in the past about inflight duty free sales, which you’ll still find on many international airlines.
It’s an interesting business model, because it’s expensive to essentially fly a “store” around the world, and the value also typically isn’t that amazing, despite tax savings. However, you have a captive audience, so it seems to work for some airlines in some markets.
On the topic of inflight duty free sales, I wanted to cover a noteworthy promotion that’s currently available with two airlines, as I don’t recall ever seeing anything quite to this level.
ANA & JAL selling Hibiki 100th anniversary whisky
All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) seem to have a promotion at the moment, whereby the two airlines have an exclusive duty free item that can only be purchased by first class passengers. Specifically, both airlines are selling the Hibiki 100th anniversary whisky in a commemorative box.
Each first class passenger is limited to purchasing one bottle. ANA seems to be charging 50,000 JPY (~330 USD) for this, while JAL is charging 60,000 JPY (~395 USD). It appears that the airline is loading enough for each first class passenger to purchase one, but even if there are extras, first class passengers are still limited to purchasing just one.
There are threads in both the ANA and JAL forum on FlyerTalk about this, with people sharing their experiences (here’s a picture of the purchase someone made).
I’m not a big whisky drinker, but this seems to be incredibly rare, and isn’t even available for purchase with a vast majority of retailers, even in Japan.
This is an interesting approach to duty free
I find this promotion to be fascinating on a couple of levels. For one, it’s unusual to see certain duty free items almost being a perk of flying in certain cabins. It’s not just that something random is being exclusively sold in a cabin, but many would consider the opportunity to buy this to be a legitimate perk of flying in the cabin. I don’t want to suggest that it’s Birkin-esque in terms of the buying process, but it’s still creative.
Some people may enjoy picking up a bottle of this to have at home, given how rare this is, not to mention the nice presentation. However, there’s quite a bit of discussion about how this could even be sold at a profit, either online or in a liquor store.
For example, on eBay I see people trying to sell the empty bottles of this for hundreds of dollars. Meanwhile one of the few websites that seems to be selling a full bottle is charging $1,799.
So anyway, if you do find yourself flying ANA or JAL in first class in the coming weeks (I’m not sure how long this promotion lasts), this is something that could be worth keeping in mind.
Bottom line
If you’re flying ANA or JAL first class in the near future, keep an eye out for the Hibiki 100th anniversary whisky, which can exclusively be purchased by first class passengers. I’m not a whisky drinker, but if I were on an eligible flight, this would probably be about as tempted as I’ve been to make a duty free purchase (well, in my post-Hello Kitty era, at least).
If you were flying ANA or JAL first class, would you buy a bottle of the Hibiki 100th anniversary whisky?
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