Sen. Dick Durbin complains to Pete Buttigieg about airlines “force-feeding” credit cards and other branded products.
After you’re in your seat and have your belt fastened and you’re on your underway, there’s an announcement usually comes around in most airplanes. Not about just critical safety issues, but incredible credit card and frequent flyer opportunities. It’s almost like the farmhand force feeding a goose on his road to foie gras the information that is jammed on you, and then the flight attendants walk up and down the aisles and pass out. These cards for applications for their branded credit cards, they stand at the door as you leave the aircraft. It’s a it’s a heavy sell. It’s it’s a hard sell. And you ask yourself why? Why are they spending so much time doing it? I think you know the answer because major airlines make more money off their branded credit cards in your pocket than they do off their aviation operations. It turns out those big airlines are actually credit card companies that happen to own a few airplanes.