Great Idea, Rediculous Explanation

I was "fortunate" enough to be on a US Airways international flight the day after the company announced that it would be charging for drinks during its beverage services.  I suppose that my $1,498 ticket entitled me to a "free" beverage in the firm's eyes.  Lucky me...

There is nothing special or unique about the airline's beverage service; choose your drink, receive it with a napkin and bag 'o' peanuts... that's it.  What caught my eye was the marketing and service message on the napkin.  In a novel and simple manner, any passenger can enroll in US Airway's frequent flier program.  While not something I would ever do (prefer to fly nearly any other airline), I found the ease of the enrollment process compelling.  And utilizing the omnipresent napkin with a captive audience is a cost effective communications vehicle.

In order to enroll, all a passenger had to do is text basic information - name, email, and zip code - to a standard 6-digit number.  That's it. Or is it?

Look at the napkin on the right. There are two visual examples of what to do. On the left, under the words "example:" is signifies using parenthesis before and after the data to be sent.  On the right of the napkin, in the screen of the BlackBerry, the same information is shown sans parenthesis.  So which one should an interested passenger (clearly not me) use?  And the bigger question is who approved such confusion to exist within 1.5 inches of each other on a napkin?

One-hundred percent avoidable if someone had merely looked at this through the eyes of a customer, a passenger in a plane's seat.  This all may be moot now, however. 

The day after I received this napkin I took a domestic US Airways flight where drinks... yes, even water and Coke... came with a $2 price tag.  Of the 60 or so people on my 45 minute flight, care to guess how many purchased a drink?

Four... just four passengers. 

Let's wrap up this story with a little math. 

• Before the "Pay For Drink Rule"- 60 passengers on a flight, 50-60 drinks served with no incremental revenue (except the guy from Wisconsin who ordered a beer at 1:15 for $5), 50-60 opportunities to capture more enrollees in the frequent flier program.

• After the "Pay For Drink Rule"... 4 passengers purchase a beverage (4 * $2 = $8),  56 do not yet experience for their first time ever that if they wanted one they'd have to pay (is there a dollar value on that? let's simply leave it with a YES), no more than 4 get the opportunity enroll in the frequent flier program (some of the 4 may already be enrolled). 

I think maybe US Airways has bigger issues to think about...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IF YOU HAVE READ THIS FAR, PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO COMMENT... THE VALUE IS IN THE CONVERSATION, NOT MY RAMBLINGS...