When you call American Airlines reservations they’ll offer to transfer you to Avis or Budget for a rental car. Sometimes I’ll say yes just to bump up the conversion numbers. I don’t actually want to speak with Avis by phone – I’ll compare rates across agencies, I’ll do it online, and I’ll search various deals. I’ll always get a better deal comparison shopping myself, and it’s easier to see and assess my options when they’re on a screen in front of me.

I’ve never looked into how valuable the lead generation business is for an airline sending its customers over to book rental cars. United Airlines once thought being the ‘total trip provider’ would be such a good business that they spent the 1970s and 1980s buying Hilton, Westin, and Hertz. (United changed its corporate name to Allegis in 1987 – and the enterprise was such a disaster they divested all of the other companies and changed their name back to UAL Corporation just 11 months later.)

The Avis warm call handoff business may not be as good as it used to be. Regardless, American Airlines is switching what their call center agents pitch to customers – and it seems like an obvious play. Instead of suggesting Avis, how about a credit card from Citibank? According to an internal company memo shared with View From The Wing this changeover takes place May 15:

American Airlines has two co-brand credit card partners. Barclays can market their AAdvantage products inflight and in the airport (but not within 100 feet of an American Airlines club). Citibank gets the rest of the channels. The inflight channel is so important that when the airline stopped serving snacks at the start of the pandemic, ostensibly to limit contact between flight attendants and passengers, they were reminding crew to hand out paper credit card applications. Only about 14% of passengers are co-brand credit card customers.

In-person sales to an audience likely to be disposed to the product are highly effective. That’s why they extended incentives to airport agents as well. Now they’re bringing telephone agents into the picture.

Co-brand deals are the primary source of revenue for major airline frequent flyer program, and the AAdvantage program often represents the entire profit for American Airlines in a given quarter. Taking advantage of all opportunities to encourage customers to get the card is one of the most leveraged things that the airline can do.

They have to take care not to annoy customers too much in the process, though. Inflight card pitches shouldn’t be done before 8 a.m., or on redeye flights for instance. And reservations agents should be encouraged to decide when a call has gone well enough that a customer will be receptive – rather than making the ask every time.