I shared a week and a half ago that American Airlines was selling off wine that it had in storage with fewer flights and customers in premium cabins. American partnered with Vinesse, a company known for offering lots of frequent flyer miles to reward customers’ buying bad wine, to handled the sales.

At American’s “State of the Airline” event following Thursday’s earnings call, Chief Customer Officer Alison Taylor was asked about the program, and joked that there must be a correlation between her being Australian, and being asked to talk about alcohol. She shared that,

• On Wednesday Vinesse reported “they had more hits in 3 hours than they normally do in two weeks”

• The partnership sold over 400,000 bottles in just the first 3 days.

Taylor described the effort as being about “reconnecting with customers” and to “showcase our brand..even [for customers] who aren’t traveling” and help them “aspire to the Flagship experience” offered in lounges and on board. Taylor claims notes have come in from customers who say they’ve never flown business class but might choose to buy up to it now that they’ve experienced American’s business class wine program (!).

American’s managing director for flight service added that his mother asked him if the “Flagship Cellars” offer is a good deal or not, though “she usually drinks boxed wine.” And he went on to describe “2021 as a hangover of 2020 thanks to Flagship Cellars.”