I love a good Twitter rivalry between airlines, so we can see which airline is really best at social media.
On Wednesday United announced that they’re bringing back free snacks in economy beginning in February 2016.
Here’s what United will be offering:
Customers on flights departing before 9:45 a.m. will receive a morning stroopwafel – a Dutch, caramel-filled waffle that pairs perfectly with coffee or tea, as shown on UnitedAirtime.com.
Flights departing after 9:45 a.m. will offer packaged savory snacks, such as an Asian-style snack mix of rice crackers, sesame sticks and wasabi peas or a zesty-ranch mix of mini pretzel sticks, Cajun corn sticks and ranch soy nuts.
It’s certainly a nice move on United’s part, and perhaps it reflects just how low the US aviation industry had sunk for a while. Hopefully American matches, since both Delta and United now offer free snacks. Not even getting a free bag of pretzels on a transcon is pretty pathetic.
Perhaps the best part of the announcement, though, was the shade the airlines threw at one another on Twitter. They were #TalkinSnack, if you will.
It started with United Tweeting their announcement about offering snacks:
JetBlue responded with the best of the interactions, both in terms of the shade and the hashtag:
United clearly doesn’t know how #TalkinSnack works, based on their response:
Delta decided to get in on the action:
And then JetBlue established their Twitter dominance with this:
American stayed out of this discussion… wonder why. 😉
Well played, JetBlue PR team… well played!
You have to look at the bigger picture. This is the domino effect of more sustained competition from international carriers. Hence the reason both DL and UA recently ditched their US-Dubai routes as they can’t compete with foreign companies. Regardless of the reason (i.e. subsidizing by governments, etc.) doesn’t matter to consumers like myself. All we care about is the trickle-down effect and how it will benefit the end user. This is good news and more to come.
Sorry if I sound cynical but really how excited do you think I am going to get over a 10 cent snack that is not even good for me.! Really I wonder how stupid do these airline PR people really think we all are. Stop the hype and give us something that we really want, like for instance, greater award availability!
Hopefully American will follow the other major airline's "innovations" the way they are going to with Advantage and bring back snacks too....
HA should of stepped in with free meals. That would of been a good one.
Ben -
You should check out Southwest's 'Throwback Thursday' post yesterday.
Really??? United offering stroopwafels? That's awesome! Don't care too much about the Twitter 'fight', but it's awesome to see this Dutch treat being served in the US. I should start stroopwafels.com and sell them online ;)