username

So, I was watching Jimmy Kimmel on the Bay Area ABC station last night and a BR commercial popped up about Kitty Jet starting SFO service (today 29 Oct is the first day). That got me wonder what they think the audience is for the Hello Kitty Jet...

The commercial itself was extremely boring - basically announcing first time Kitty service to SFO and go to evakitty.evaair.com which seems to be somewhat out of dated (Hello Kitty Jet Travels with You! | ???? shows 2018). I wonder who will actually "see" it.

RandomNobody

There are a lot of Sanrio fans in the US, particularly on the West Coast.

irishguy28

Anyone in the Bay Area who wishes to fly to Taipei, or to the various connecting destinations for which BR files competitive fares.

You don't seriously think that anyone will book tickets *just because* of a Hello Kitty plane - or that the people who *might* do so are a sustainable target marget - right?

Asquared1

Flying BR17 in a couple weeks, kind of glad I'm not on Kitty service.

crunchie

Just like toys in cereal, fast food, etc... it is intended to get kids to nag their parents or just parents thinking there's something extra/special for the kids at no additional cost/effort. If prices are comparable, this is a small nudge to tip the scale in favor of BR. I'm no fan of the creepy mouthless cat but I have seen kids totally distracted for long periods by the pack of stuff FAs give them.

east_west

Wikipedia says "As of 2019, Hello Kitty is the second highest-grossing franchise of all time, having generated $80 billion in lifetime retail sales." So I suspect there is quite a large audience.

As far as I can tell, Kitty is equally (or more) popular with middle aged women (with a lot of disposable income) than kids...

Absolutely, this is the case. There are plenty of threads on this board with people talking about choosing EVA to get the HK planes... If this weren't the case, EVA wouldn't be paying the fees to Sanrio.

gengar

I know people who have literally done this, including one who paid for business class for the first time just because she wanted the HK experience in RL.

Obviously, the primary benefit to the airline is the marketing impact - but there is still a consumer segment that will actually buy in directly to the product.

garykung

Those people do exist. But I am not one of those.

nexusCFX

I booked BR over SQ on SIN-TPE because of the Hello Kitty product.

Flying TPE-SFO on Dec 1, booked a long time ago, wish it was one of the Hello Kitty flights.

It's just amusing and cute. That being said, if someone else is going to sell me a J ticket for significantly less, Hello Kitty is not going to tip the scales.

slimjin

Same here. I have zero "interest" in Hello Kitty in general, but if you're flying all the time it's just nice sometimes to have something a little different, a little fun. All else equal or roughly equal I would choose BR for HK (I also just like BR in general), but if there were a much cheaper flight on the same route that was of comparable quality, I wouldn't choose BR *just because* of HK.

GetSetJetSet

I feel like this would make me book away from BR. I love flying BR longhaul because the seat is comfortable, the food is great and it's basically like getting F for low J prices, but the Hello Kitty nonsense seems like it would ruin the calm of a nice biz cabin

TTC192Rocket

What nonsense? If anything, I feel it's too muted. Hence, I order the child's meal instead of the business class meal offering. .

lmwong1977

You can scroll back to 2018 posting when they first announced flights I think out of ORD and see it was quite popular. I haven't ridden on EVA's Hello Kitty flights, just on the regular Biz service a few years ago and service was great. The SF Bay Area has a very large Asian community so plenty of people going to-from TPE and onwards.

Hello Kitty was just always around for me (it started ~1974 - I was born in '77) and I got plenty of Hello Kitty stuff as presents from relatives growing up. So for me Hello Kitty is more nostalgic fun. I ate Hello Kitty dim sum in Hong Kong in 2015 and my sister bought me a foot-tall Hello Kitty stuffed toy. (You can see pics in my trip report) This year I rode on a
Hello Kitty branded airport train from KIX to Kyoto. I just took the first train that arrived, so it was a fun surprise to see it was the Hello Kitty one. It wasn't extensive like EVA's branding - you can see in the link how its much more subtle than the Shinkansen - now that is a pink explosion! Yikes!

United did a Spider-man branded thing for a few months to coincide with the movie release - New Spider-man Themed Safety Video & Amenity Kit - so future branding from other popular characters may happen in the future on other airlines. It's marketing, and if someone pays them enough money, it'll probably happen.

fishy21

Do you know if the Hello Kitty service is only from TPE outbound, or both ways?

garykung

Both ways. But because Hello Kitty is a special amenity, the outstation must be supported in order to have both-way services.