American Airlines’ Casper Partnership Elevates Its Branded Amenity Offerings

This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.

Earlier this year, American Airlines announced its partnership with global sleep company Casper to offer a best-in-class sleep experience to travelers seated in long-haul international and transcontinental First or Business class and Premium Economy.

The airline will provide these travelers with a suite of advanced custom sleep offerings and products designed by Casper’s engineering team, including a mattress pad, duvet, pillow, day blanket, lumbar pillow, pajamas and slippers, with the exact offering varying based on cabin and route. Casper spent months researching to better understand the challenges of sleeping during air travel, and the products were designed to specifically better in-flight sleep.

American Airlines’ partnership with Casper follows the airline’s existing partnerships with Cole Haan, 3LAB Skincare, C.O. Bigelow Apothecaries, and Clark’s Botanicals. Products from these brands are distributed throughout its premium cabins: first and business class on international flights and first class and business class on domestic transcontinental flights.

These partnerships are a win-win situation for both American Airlines and the brands they’ve partnered with. The brands offering the amenities get to have their products tried and tested by a whole new audience of potential customers. Meanwhile, American Airlines can provide their travelers with a unique, elevated experience, as well as benefit from the “hipness factor” that most of these brands are associated with — especially when it comes to attracting millennial business.

The airline’s focus on having best-in-class offerings provided to its premium travelers illustrates how legacy travel brands are working to address today’s consumer needs. They’re building relationships with innovative partners and becoming merchandising platforms for smaller brands. It’s no longer enough for travel brands who want to compete in today’s competitive market to simply offer an acceptable travel experience, especially for those who want to gain and retain the loyalty of high-spending luxury and frequent business travelers. Today, these brands need to go above and beyond with the personalized, curated and memorable moments they’re offering.

This content was created collaboratively by American Airlines and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.