Onboard credit card sales pitch of a lifetime

By: Ben Schlappig

Published: April 3, 2010

28 comments

Yesterday afternoon I was flying from Seattle to San Francisco with a friend on ~~USAirways~~ United. I realize as of late that United flight attendants are paid a commission for all the Mileage Plus Visa applications they accept, so occasionally I’ve seen them add something about the credit card to the post-takeoff announcement, like “ask a flight attendant if you’d like an application and would like to earn 30,000 bonus miles.”

Yesterday, however, one of the flight attendants took this to an extreme. His first announcement, which came about half way through the flight, was at least two to three minutes:

“Ladies and gentlemen, I have great news for you. Your flight has specifically been targeted for this special offer which United is only offering on select flights. If you apply for a Mileage Plus Visa on this flight you’ll earn 30,000 bonus miles, enough for a free roundtrip ticket on United or our partners. We only have a limited number of these applications onboard so I’ll be coming through with them shortly. This is an offer you can’t get elsewhere.” He went on and on.

Then, about five minutes later he gets on the PA again — “ladies and gentlemen, I only have a couple of these applications left, so if you’d like one please ring your call button. The first five people that hand these applications back to me will get a complimentary glass or our house red or white wine. So hurry up and get those applications to me.” Then he made another announcement later saying this was the final opportunity to take advantage of this amazing offer.

I think he collected about 8-10 credit card applications on this flight of 100 people. The other flight attendant told us that this guy makes $400 per trip on credit card applications, which I’m betting is about as much as he makes otherwise. Holy cow!

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Jay Guest

October 31, 2015, 4:27 am

Being that I am a flight attendant, reading everyone's responses are quite fascinating lol. It is not just United, or Alaska, or American etc. It is every airline. My airline included. I can also tell you that yes commission is involved but its not that easy to get, the people have to get approved yada yada. Anyways, what I was going to say is that credit card sales are not an option or random its actually mandatory. The reason you sometimes won't here an announcement is for one of two reasons. 1. They were not stocked on the aircraft. 2. Some of is flight attendants do not like sales and just won't do them if all can agree. Some flight attendants are great at sales and do not care what people think about them so they can push like a car salesmen and that's great of they can because on the contrary of what many may think our pay is not well off. As far as the few of you filing a complaint is honestly pointless because credit card announcement is mandatory so they will not care. That is all and as far as this Gay argument above. Their are equally gay and straight flight attendants. Ironically it won't matter if they are saving you from a medical emergency or an evacuation because we are all trained the same at the end of the day. Lol toodaloo

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Gilbert Guest

May 9, 2010, 11:11 am

Wow. Talk about hijacking a good post... The topic was how interesting (or annoying) some of the in-flight sales pitches have become. I am not too keen on filling out my personal information on a piece of paper and handing it to a stranger either. The days when I would do that at the drop of a hat just to get a free t-shirt are long gone I'm afraid... As far as the subject of the flight attendant's sexual orientation, it's not even germane to this conversation. So what if he's gay, straight, bi or otherwise? Does it make the credit card application any more appealing? Or the sales pitch more annoying? I think not so please keep your prejudices to yourselves and just enjoy the friendly skies... Sheeeshhh... Who uses stewardesses anymore anyway??? Hello, 1975 called and they want their bigots back...

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nmmercer Guest

May 1, 2010, 10:16 pm

This may be the same flight attendant I flew with SEA->IAD a few months ago. I think the CC is a good way for UA to pad revenue and I didn't find the presentation intrusive, although it does sound like he has developed it a bit more and it might be borderline annoying at this point. Incidentally, at the conclusion of that flight some months ago, I did ask for his name and sent a compliment in to the 1K desk.

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Larbo Guest

April 7, 2010, 8:21 am

Yawn, Why did you capitalize "Boyfriend", and what is a "busexual" (someone who has intercourse with buses)? If your boyfriend is doing men, that means he's a gay guy who's willing to sleep with you too. Most male stewardesses are indeed gay these days. There's nothing wrong with that... most hospitality jobs performed by men are similar in that respect. I wonder, however, why so many of them feel like they need to draw attention to it by being so overtly feminine and dramatic.

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JAR Guest

April 6, 2010, 4:22 am

Hmmm, if they keep pressing that over the PA with multiple announcements, that's really obnoxious. But if they're offering a drink to those who signup, clearly they have the ability to give me a second complimentary soft drink so I sure will ask for one.

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