Have you ever had another airline’s branded items on your flight?

The Flight Detective
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Corporations are naturally quite protective of their brand and logo. After all, it is the major identification for the business, plus it is the link between you and your customer. Airlines put their corporate identity on everything, which is another way of saying there are logos all over the place.

The first time I flew in a plane, I took in every detail and vividly remember the green and gold East-West Airlines logos. They were on napkins, the meal tray liners, safety cards and more (strangely, the cabin crew uniforms were maroon, completely unrleated!).

Another Airline’s Items On A Flight

Around the world, airline catering businesses serve multiple carriers on a daily basis. They stock the trolleys that the cabin crew use to serve the meals and drinks.

A colleague of mine was travelling from the Canary Islands to Ireland on Aer Lingus recently. Instead of water cups with either no logo or the Shamrock logo of the Irish airline, he was confronted with something else.

Much to his surprise, his drinks arrived in Lufthansa cups. There is absolutely no link between the two airlines, so obviously someone at the catering company got things wrong. Either that or they had run out and used anything to hand, which is perhaps the most likely reason.

It is still a little bit shabby and something airlines wouldn’t like. You don’t fly one airline and expect to see another airline’s service items on board (we will ignore aircraft hired in to cover for fleet shortages). It is not really great and it does stands out.

Overall Thoughts

In the grand scheme of things, it is not that big a deal. Even so, corporations are quite rightly very protective of the image they portray to customers.

Aer Lingus passengers receiving Lufthansa water cups could have been worse. Imagine if it had been items from an airline that had recently been in the news for all the wrong reasons? Impressions count.

Have you ever come across another airline’s branding on a flight before? What kind of thing was it? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Irish251 on Flickr.

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ChuckMO

During mergers I’ve often had previous airlines’ items on the new brand. Running out the backstock for the most part. Ozark napkins on a TWA flight, Northwest cups on a Delta flight etc…

JAXBA

A Qantas child’s meal on a British Airways flight. It was the PER-AKL leg in the early 90s.

Bcf

Had Aloft napkins in a Radisson in Florida

dave

I had another hotel brand’s toiletries once.

I think it was Holiday inn shampoo,soap etc in a Best Western, or maybe the other way around.

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