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United discontinuing inflight duty free sales.

View Poll Results: With UA discontinuing inflight duty free after March 31, 2017
Have purchased UA inflight duty free in the past year
16
9.58%
Have not purchased UA inflight duty free in the past year
151
90.42%
Voters: 167. You may not vote on this poll

United discontinuing inflight duty free sales.

Old Mar 18, 2017, 10:30 am
  #31  
 
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The products they hawked always seemed to be aimed at a particular client base of which I am not a part. So good riddance.
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Old Mar 18, 2017, 11:46 am
  #32  
 
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I bought the pmco bear once and a few liquor bottles but only due to the 10% elite discount as that made the deal slightly better than i could find in the ground.
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Old Mar 18, 2017, 12:01 pm
  #33  
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I bought some things over the years - usually skin care. 10% 1K discount came in handy.

One time several years ago I had a trip LAX-LHR & had to work the entire overnight flight because an unexpected presentation was going to be required when I landed/went to mtg, but my laptop battery wasn't going to last (this was pre normal outlets in the seat). I remembered they had one of those converter type things that plugged into the then seat power, as part of the duty free offerings. I talked to the purser, told him I was in a jam & really needed power before the normal mid-flight duty free, & he agreed to open up duty free once we created cruising altitude. He did, I bought it & worked the flight.

Ironically, while I was in the air the credit company thought there was fraud on my account because of the in-flight purchase, & shut down my account when they couldn't reach me. I found out when I landed & went to use the card at the hotel & it was declined. I was furious. Especially when I pointed out (calling them from the front desk) that if they looked at my account history, there were lots of flights & hotel charges on my card, so duty free would not really be outside the norm since it was a United charge.

Cheers.
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Old Mar 18, 2017, 12:26 pm
  #34  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
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DL did it Aug 2014. AA did it Mar 2015. It took 2 more years but I'm glad UA finally jumps on the bandwagon.

Back then, Korean Air even stopped ptv inflight entertainment while duty-free is on going. KE even woke up everyone in the middle of flight with a loud duty-free ad video probably longer than safety announcement. I've seen Asiana and KE FAs began to sell duty free while front door was still opened (flight wasn't in delay) or before reached cruise altitude. But those FAs earn hefty $$ (typically 1/5~1/2 of salary) through the duty free commission. US carriers were never that aggressive but I guess some FAs may miss commission $.

Last edited by bobbybrown; Mar 18, 2017 at 12:32 pm
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Old Mar 18, 2017, 12:55 pm
  #35  
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Originally Posted by bobbybrown
It took 2 more years but I'm glad UA finally jumps on the bandwagon.
You mean OFF the bandwagon, right
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Old Mar 18, 2017, 1:01 pm
  #36  
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The last time I bought duty free was 3 years ago on LH FRA-DEN and only because I had a 75 euro "we're sorry" voucher. Was memorable because even though I mentioned to the FA that I wanted something for my wife, she started to hit on me even going so far to say that "I'll be in Denver for 2 nights and I'm staying at the downtown Marriott."
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Old Mar 18, 2017, 1:37 pm
  #37  
 
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Originally Posted by narvik
Oh gosh, I hope not!
Is there -or would there be- ANYONE who actually signs up for a credit card based on someone standing at an airport or in a plane offering this???
You'd be surprised. My mother literally did just that. These things work or they wouldn't do them.
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Old Mar 18, 2017, 1:55 pm
  #38  
 
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So much liquid had to be a good bit of extra weight on planes. Wouldn't mind a sky mall type online ordering where it's waiting for me on arrival at select hubs
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Old Mar 18, 2017, 2:03 pm
  #39  
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Even with the ridiculous margins, it was hard to believe they were making money hauling those carts around with so few purchases.
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Old Mar 18, 2017, 4:55 pm
  #40  
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Originally Posted by narvik
Oh gosh, I hope not!
Is there -or would there be- ANYONE who actually signs up for a credit card based on someone standing at an airport or in a plane offering this???
Apparently so.

I could see having the FAs hawk the cards a la US Air as being revenue-neutral if no one signs up so no harm in trying - after all - the FAs need to be on board working the whole time anyway, what's another announcement. But obviously there are costs (I'd guess almost 100% to Chase) to setting up a booth in an airport (rent?), paying someone to staff it, likely costs for the staff (contractors) for travel/parking, etc. Obviously, if Chase wasn't making money on it, they wouldn't want to be paying those costs.

Kind of like the unsolicited direct mail pieces, 100% of which get thrown away in my house and by most people I know. But if they weren't getting enough response from them, they wouldn't be mailing them.
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Old Mar 18, 2017, 7:24 pm
  #41  
 
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I have bought jewelry gifts for my wife from duty free several times when Valentine's Day or her birthday were close. I agree with most - it's amazing they kept it going this long. Not that I'll really miss it - but it's another thing to reminisce about.
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Old Mar 18, 2017, 8:19 pm
  #42  
 
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Another copycat move that DL did years ago. UA think outside the box.
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Old Mar 18, 2017, 9:00 pm
  #43  
 
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Originally Posted by emcampbe
haha, funny...a year and a bit ago, I was flying on SQ, and entertainment system wasn't working for me and my wife. Comp they gave us was 75 SGD each toward duty free - apparently that's the only way they will compensate.

So we found a few things, including the model SQ plane to purchase. Turns out they didn't stock the SQ plane (as well as one of the other two things we wanted) - FA said they haven't seen the model SQ plane onboard for quite a while.
For those model planes (and other SQ products you might want), better request them by email > 7 days in advance.

No model planes on my recent flights either. Once managed to purchase 6 on one go. Before a recent flight, had requested 7 but they had only managed to load 1.
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Old Mar 18, 2017, 9:22 pm
  #44  
 
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Originally Posted by kettle1
Another copycat move that DL did years ago. UA think outside the box.
They did. By not following suit immediately, they differentiated themselves from the masses They looked at (as suggested by other posters) the order in the air and delivery on the ground option as well as a couple of other options, but ultimately came to the conclusion that between flight attendant commissions, costs involved, and low rate of usage, it was not sustainable in any form.
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Old Mar 19, 2017, 2:33 am
  #45  
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Duty Free really make no financial sense for Americans. You can buy cigarettes and liquor cheaper at your corner liquor store and even cheaper at Costco, but for passengers from countries with high taxes on liquor, they will buy.
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