JetBlue, Don’t Push Credit Cards on Red-eyes!

If you are sick of bloggers pushing credit card offers in thinly veiled posts like “Top Ten Credit Cards for October” followed by Chase link after Chase link, then you’ll be more put off by my experience on my last JetBlue flight.

I left Puerto Rico at 9 PM for my work commute to NYC. I was almost asleep when at 10:30 PM, the lights came on, followed by a flight attendant’s voice.  It wasn’t to announce turbulence; it was a different emergency. For a limited time, passengers who applied for the Jetblue card could receive 20k miles if they completed their application during the flight.

Pushing credit cards on flights isn’t new, nor is pitching subpar offers. What was unnerving is doing so on a red-eye flight. The lights stayed on for thirty minutes as the flight attendant made his way down the aisle. Because the flight originated from PR, the extensive sales pitch was also in Spanish.

I am skilled when it comes to sleeping on a plane (see Window or Window: Side Does Matter), but when my hypnosis is interrupted, it is difficult to get back to that level of REM.

To add to my annoyance, my neighboring passenger took an application, turned on her reading light, then fell asleep with the light on. Eyeshades notwithstanding, it was an unnecessary disturbance.

I don’t know how much flight attendants make slanging credit cards. My guess is less than what bloggers make (see “Click Here!” How Blogs Make $). Whatever it is, JetBlue needs to give them a raise to make up for it to allow passengers to sleep in peace.