US Airways to Sell Pillows by End of Year

Contributing Editor Carl Unger believes that every trip is worth taking. He loves an extended trip to Europe as much as he enjoys exploring the towns and landscape near home. Basically, you'll find him wherever there is good food, fresh air, and plenty of stories to bring home.

Carl has been writing for SmarterTravel since 2005. His travel writing has also appeared on USA Today and the About.com Boston travel guide.

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As I reported back in August, [[US Airways]] plans to follow JetBlue’s lead and sell onboard pillows and blankets. Now the airline hopes to begin the sale of these items by the end of the year, according to Bloomberg News. US Airways already charges passengers for food and beverages onboard.

US Airways spokesman Morgan Durrant told Bloomberg, “This was a natural extension of the a-la-carte pricing we’ve been rolling out this year.” Durrant also says the airline expects passengers to be generally accepting of the idea, or at least tolerant of it, as they have been with the airline’s other changes this year. This outlines a theme emanating from US Airways lately, which is that the carrier’s new policies (fees and charges for nearly everything) are here to stay no matter what.

It will be interesting to see how many people buy the pillows. My sense, based on reader comments and some quotes from US Airways people, is that the beverage initiative has been successful not necessarily as a revenue generator (people aren’t buying beverages in droves), but as a way to cut costs and clean planes more efficiently. The pillow idea may be aimed at a similar type of success, which in this case would be eliminating the expense and hassle of cleaning and restocking pillows.

Tell me, Today in Travel readers, will you buy one of US Airways’ pillows? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.

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