Observation:

I’m sitting here at 31,000 feet on a Delta flight to JFK to start my 8-day trip for work. The friendly flight attendant (stewardess, air hostie, trolly dolly) stopped by and offered me peanuts and a Coke Zero. I was stunned to see my packages of peanuts. No longer does the little red package say something to the likes of “Salted nuts” or “Snack”. Printed on the package was an advertisement for the Hilton Garden Inn, and their airy soft beds with “Snooze Control.” Ads on the snacks? Hah! What will they think of next?

If there is a way to eek out a little profit anywhere on the aircraft, leave it to the cash strapped airlines to come up with an idea to capitalize on it. Delta’s latest profit announcement was pretty good, considering, and I’m glad to see them and others doing well. I do wonder what Hilton paid to put an ad on the peanut packages. I can see this in a few years: Behind the tray table in front of you will be a computer screen with rolling ads on it, all customized to you the way Google Adsense works — and they’ll know it’s you because you paid for your seat with a credit card or because the TSA did a ten year background check on you (and then sold that information to the airlines so the TSA can pay for some of it’s budget). It’s coming . . .