American Airlines Introducing Upscale Amenity Kits

American Airlines has just announced that it is teaming up with four “unique brands” to put together their first premium amenity kit for a long time. Cole Haan, 3LAB Skincare, C.O. Bigelow Apothecaries and Clark’s Botanicals have been brought together to produce this year’s American Airline amenity kits for premium class passengers.

This is vaguely amusing timing from my point of view as I’ve only very recently posted a flight review in which I said that I really don’t need a premium amenity kit and that I’d rather American Airlines concentrate its efforts and money on improving the food and service 🙂

American’s amenity kits haven’t been too bad historically although there hasn’t really been anything “premium”  about them. The most recent amenity kits have showcased all the old airlines that now make up the behemoth that is American Airlines.

Before these we had amenity kits that could double as Laptop/iPad cases….

…and kits that doubled as small wash bags (I can’t find my pictures of those). But one thing they all had in common was that the contents were nothing to get excited about.

It didn’t matter if you were in First Class or in Business Class…while there were differences between what you were given they really weren’t that big.

Well, now American Airlines is doing something about that and they’re introducing 3 new Amenity kits from March 2016.

Per American Airlines:

All kits will feature a custom bag designed by Cole Haan, inspired by their pinnacle design and innovation collection, ZerøGrand. Included in all kits are discount codes providing 20 percent off of the skincare brand in the kit and $75 towards a future Cole Haan purchase. Each kit includes a toothbrush, toothpaste, eyeshade, socks, and ear plugs.

There will be differences between the amenity kits depending on the class you’re flying:

International First Class – Cole Haan/3LAB:

• Bag will feature perforated detail and available in six different colors, this kit’s bag is inspired by Cole Haan’s design and innovation collection, ZerØGrand.

• 3LAB Skincare products (M Cream, Perfect Hand Cream, and Perfect Lips (Balm), tissues, hand sanitizer, mouthwash, pen and foam headphone covers.

International Business Class – Cole Haan/C.O. Bigelow:

• This Dopp Kit design is versatile and is available in eight different color combinations.

• C.O. Bigelow Apothecaries products (lip balm, Lime & Coriander body lotion and mouthwash), tissues, pen and foam headphone covers.

Domestic Transcon First Class – Cole Haan/Clark’s Botanicals:

• This kit’s bag resembles an envelope with its folds and stamped exterior and is available in six different colors.

• Clark’s Botanicals skincare products (Smoothing Marine Cream, Ultra Rich Lip Balm, as well as Moisturizing Hand Cream and Refreshing Hand Wipe, both created exclusively for the American Airlines kit), toothbrush, toothpaste, eyeshade, socks and ear plugs.

The amenity kits will be distributed in four rotations of various colors, ending in March 2017. The first rotation of colors will last four and a half months beginning with the gray, blue and red kits.

Bottom Line

Like I said, I really wish American Airlines would concentrate its spending on things that really matter…like food and service. The amenity kits can be as upscale and fancy as they like but while we have cabin crew that are unhappy and doing the minimum required and food that looks like it’s been thrown haphazardly on a plate from a great height the experience still isn’t going to feel special or premium.

Having said that, everyone has to start from somewhere and if this is the start of American Airlines actually attempting to bring its premium cabin offerings up to the standards of the better world carriers then I wholeheartedly applaud the idea.

The PR release for the amenity kits trumpets the fact that American Airlines is spending in excess of $2bn in planned improvements – which is great. But it’s interesting to note that while they mention improvements to seats, WiFi, entertainment options, food and Admirals Clubs, there’s no mention of what they’re doing to improve service.

I’ve never got off an aircraft and had the amenity kit be one of the big things I’ve taken away from the experience. Service is what I remember first foremost and it’s in the service department that this airline is most lacking.