United Becomes Latest Airline to Deploy Flight Crews to Pitch Credit Cards

Andy Luten was fast asleep, part way through an American Airlines flight a few months ago when an overhead announcement pierced the silence and woke him up. It was a pitch from the flight attendants for the American Airlines co-branded Barclays credit card: sign up today and get special deal just for this flight. After the pitch, cabin crew paced the aisles, holding up applications and answering questions. Frustrated, Luten fired a complaint into the Twitter ether and tried to get back to sleep for the remainder of the flight. Luten's experience has become common on American ever since the airline officially merged with US Airways and launched its co-branded Barclays credit card. And though disruptive, the p