Who needs personal televisions or hot meals in first class when you have TikTok?!
American Airlines teams up with TikTok
A new partnership has today been announced between American Airlines and TikTok, whereby American Airlines customers can access TikTok for free inflight:
- This is only available on Viasat-equipped aircraft
- Customers are limited to 30 minutes of free TikTok
- This is a “promotional offering,” so presumably isn’t permanent
To access this, customers should enable airplane mode and connect to the “AA-Inflight” signal. Once connected, customers will be redirected to aainflight.com, and there they can simply click on the TikTok ad for free access.
American claims that “only on American” do you get “free access to TikTok.” I think American should check with Northeast alliance partner JetBlue on that, as the carrier offers free Wi-Fi to all passengers, and you can access TikTok there.
As American Airlines’ Managing Director of Premium Customer Experience and Onboard Product describes this:
“Faster Wi-Fi allows us to deliver diverse inflight entertainment options and invest in innovative partnerships with platforms like TikTok. Customers play the lead role in helping us better understand what content they want during their inflight experience and TikTok is one of the platforms they love on the ground, and we’re thrilled to work with Viasat to give customers free access to TikTok while they’re in the air as well.”
The press release then goes on to explain what TikTok is, stating that the platform is “on a mission to inspire creativity and bring joy through short-form videos.”
Is American Airlines trolling us?
I mean, look, I guess 30 minutes of free TikTok is better than not 30 minutes of free TikTok. At least as long as people wear headphones.
But bigger picture, am I the only one who almost feels like we’re being trolled here? United announces that all narrow body mainline planes will get nice new interiors that include personal televisions, while American rips TVs off planes and introduces… 30 minutes of free TikTok on your own device?
And the person who is quoted in this announcement is American’s Managing Director of Premium Customer Experience and Onboard Product (how those two things go in the same sentence at American is beyond me)?And then she says “customers play the lead role in helping [American] better understand what content they want?” And TikTok is what they came up with?
It would all be funny if it weren’t so sad…
Bottom line
American Airlines passengers can now enjoy 30 minutes of free TikTok per flight as a “promotional offer.” This announcement almost makes me want to make a TikTok about the state of American’s inflight product, or something (I promise no dancing, though!).
What do you make of American Airlines’ TikTok announcement?
Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.