Amenity Kits

[HighFlyer]

Airlines have been giving out amenity kits for years and i guess its a sign of quality for the airline to offer an amenity - a bit like the toiletries in your hotel - they are an added cost to your room but you kind of expect them, and expect top hotels to have decent toiletries.

'Forbes.com' have an award category for 'Best Airline Amenity Kit' in their yearly 'Best First Class' round-up, so i think that amenity kits are an expectation, regardless of how useful they really are. To be honest, i sell my kits on eBay as i have no use for them especially the latter OB wallet, although you can bet i'd mention it in a TR if i didnt get one on board.

Virgin were quite different in their beginning by offering amenity kits to Y passengers, although back in those days the amenity kits for both Y and J were of real substance and value. Nowadays the cost cutting seems to have got in and IMHO there isnt a lot of value in the OB kits. I would rather see a smaller kit but with more quality items inside that are actually of use to me on a flight. Bring back the nice metal VS pens (everyone needs a pen) and quality earplugs (some branded ones like 'airplanes') and a few mini cosmetic items like some nice Moulton Brown (or even Cowshed) moisturiser, hand cream and a mini (and useable!!) toothbrush and toothpaste.

I just cant help looking at the latest amenity kits and finding it hard to tell the difference between the Y items and the J items. I find the Polo's and breath strips a bit cheap and i just dont get the feel of a quality product from them.

Just my $0.02 ...

Thanks,
Sarah

Originally posted by HighFlyer
Bring back the nice metal VS pens (everyone needs a pen)

The Pen i got from my OB kit last month broke the first time i used it of the A/C what a joke!

I guess from reading everybodies comments the amenity kits are not overly popular in their current form. VA has in the past always been at the front in new and bold ideas, maybe its time they became the market leader in this area by offering something completely different.

Ive never checked out an OB item (bar a keyring that came into my possesion) - so cant vouch for quality IMO - however I have a tailor whose done me a few suits (before you get carried away, I buy a selection of jackets for resale & the suits were done as favour @ trade prices [8D] ) and frankly, I wouldnt want anymore from a suit...
I agree - a lot of the amenity kits could be improved greatly (not that Ive had many , but I have read about several )
If airlines are paying, I can understand the cost cutting measures re: current economics ... however a poor quality freebie without much thought (such as CLs for woman & cheaper quality extras) is surely more harmful to a reputation than no ammenity kit at all??
Withdrawing them completely probably isnt an option now as there would be many pax who would miss the kit... even though it may not be up to much, its still nice to perceive that your getting a little something for nothing [ii]
Its something that doesnt put me up or down... I could count on one hand the number of kits Ive kept. Although were I to go UC I might be tempted to keep the CLs & KeyRing (at least they have a use for someone who wears cufflinks & has several sets of keys [y])
However, for the record - if I wanted to save £1000 I could fly Y & buy the cufflinks on eBay [:w].
I never used to like cufflinks much , but have now come to quite like them, although most of my favourite shirts dont take cufflinks[:?]

[Scrooge]

Carnival cruise lines has been doing this for years,they get paid to stock samples of various companies toiletries in each cabin,for the most part im amazed at the quality of the stuff they have to offer,very un carnival like and im equaly amazed that VS isn't using their amenity bags in a better way.