Imagine a world where an airline actually gave you solid gold, just because you flew with them. It sounds like a fantasy, but the good people at Alaska Airlines used to do just that, issuing gold ingots to their customers.
These were used a promotional tool and must be among the most unique ideas in aviation. Now you tell me, if an airline was issuing you with pure gold, wouldn’t you go out of your way to make a booking? I know I would!
What is it with Alaska Airlines and gold?
Alaska Airlines had form with unusual promotions involving the precious metal. In the 1960s, they introduced the Golden Nugget Service with a whole theme around the 1890s gold rushes. Aircraft cabins, seats, crew and ground staff were all outfitted to the theme.
Showering passengers with gold ingots!
It all started in 1979, when Alaska Airlines gave out 5-gram gold ingots to promote their new Anchorage to San Francisco route. They were valued at about US$40 at the time (today those 5-grams would be worth US$350-$400) and cost the airline around a million dollars.
By 1982, a one month promotion started to promote the Seattle to Anchorage service. All passengers paying for First Class or full fare Economy received 5-grams of gold, worth about US$75 at the time. Fares were US$474 round-trip, so the gold really offset the price in a really unique way. Why discount the fare when you can keep it higher and give people free metal?
Overall Thoughts
Well, there you have it, Alaska Airlines gave out gold ingots to people. Today this wouldn’t fly, because the price of gold is so high. Airlines would see that as money straight out the door… but it would be a very cool thing for an airline to do.
Apparently these promotions were so popular with some forward thinking people that they would buy gold off other passengers during flight. Now if they held on to those, it was certainly a very smart investment and worth a pretty penny today.
I have to put in a big thank you to this UPI article from 5 February 1982 for providing a good bit of the detail. Thank goodness there are news organisations with the cash to put their archives online. It’s very helpful indeed.
Did you ever fly on a flight where they gave out gold ingots? Perhaps you got some via the Gold & Travel programme? Let me know if you did and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Alain Durand on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.
Golden Nugget 727 via Yesterdays Airlines.
Ingots by Dan Steffy on Facebook.
Gold & Travel image via Bidsquare.
fyi 5g of gold in 1982 would be worth $693.55 in today’s dollars.
if you’d have sold the gold in 1982 and bought alaska airlines stock instead, you’d have ~$3,750.
Ahh, if only we had 20/20 foresight, we’d all be rich!
In Oct 1982, they ran a contest when they opened up service to three LA area airports: In 25 words or less, describe “How To Get Around LA.” The Grand Prize was a trip to Disneyland and the next prize was a 5 gram gold ingot. I won the ingot (too bad I don’t still have it!) with the following poem: “Swim or sail on sandy surf, hike or bike on harder turf; but if you rise above the crowd, Alaska Air will serve you proud.” The award letter was signed by John F. Kelly, VP Marketing
Awesome, I love how you remember the competition and the poem! That’s brilliant and what a nice poem. Very descriptive and immediately gives you the image of California. Nicely done – and thanks for sharing that, always nice to have another data point about how they went about giving out the gold. Appreciate it!