Ruh Roh - United raises booze by $1 and plans to sell onboard snacks to make you even thristier

When I saw the headline ("United hopes to raise $1 billion in snack sales") in the Chicago Tribune I immediately thought of Dr. Evil ("1 billion dollars"), but the story is this:

• Starting July 8 the price of booze will jump from $5 to $6 on United Airlines flights. Note this is still less than US Airways (who remains dead to me) and as the cokes are still free, this means it will cost you 20% more to get a proper drink. While I don't like it, I'll live with it...the booze increase will spread to all airlines (except maybe Southwest) and it could have been worse.
  
• Starting August 1 United will start selling a new line of snacks for $3 each. Snacks will include chips, cookies, candy and trail mix in 4-5 oz portion sizes. (FYI - that little pack of peanuts - which you'll still get for free - is 1/2 oz)
  

I think the snack idea is a pretty good one. $3 is a very reasonable price and you pay that for snacks at airport concessions. I predict I'll be a buying one or two of these. I can't remember if UA accepts credit card for inflight purchases yet, I don't think that they do. If my assumption is correct, I also predict an increase in "does any passenger have change for a $20" calls over the inflight intercom...

I just thought the funny part of the story was the title claiming $1 Billion dollars from snack sales. Actually, after digging into the article it really says that UA's target is to grow revenues from fees and add-on products and services to $1 Billion. That's about 5% of their revenue and seems like a healthy goal.

My only advice is that they focus on seeking this amount on new products (like new snackies!). People are happy to pay for that stuff. A $9 mixed drink like on US Airways (who, yes, is still dead to me) is not the way to go.

That just pisses everybody off...especially me!

United hopes to raise $1 billion in snack sales [Chicago Tribune]