05-11-2010
02:24 PM
1 Love
I second all the non-Southwest (read: Sandy Nelson) comments above. I realize Sandy has to defend the company position, but it logically does not compute. The real truth is that energy drinks cost the airlines more than one ounce of liquor or a beer because the manufacture's profit margins on them are enormous. From the Christian Science Monitor, 6/7/2006: "Today the $3.5 billion energy-beverage market is 6 percent of the nonalcoholic beverage industry, which includes soft drinks... thanks to peppy consumer demand and profit margins that are three times that of soda". I appreciate Sandy's clarification that "Currently, drink coupons that include specific wording indicating they can be used for 'non-alcoholic specialty drinks' will still be accepted". Now if only that information were passed down to the flight crews. On two recent flights, I was refused an energy drink in exchange for a properly marked coupon that I received in the mail one day before the initial flight. After strongly pointing out to the Flight Attendants that if Southwest were any business other than a federally regulated airline, the consumer protection agencies would be all over them for not honoring their own coupons (Think Safeway, Fry's, etc.) plus the poor business sense of treating their most loyal customers in this manner (those are the ones that got the coupons), I was finally "slipped" an energy drink on the first flight (I was told to keep the coupon). I will now carry a print-out of this blog (with Sandy's comment highlighted) with me on all my Southwest flights until I exhaust my coupons!
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