[totiredtodance]

During a flight from Charlotte to Philadelphia, the flight was subjected to a 15 minute sales pitch for applying for the USAirways VISA card. The flight attendant rambled repetitively using caned script detailing of the benefits applying for the card.
The point I have issue with was the repeated assertion that getting the card meant you receive a free flight. It was implicitly stated as such. My issue is that applying and receiving approval for the card gives you 25K air miles which you may be able to redeem for the lowest award travel with an additional fifty dollar fee. This is not the "free" ticket passengers are being sold on.
When in flight, you effectively have a captive audience. I’ve noticed the sales pitch of the grabbers in the airport has been altered to not include the mention of “free” tickets anymore. (Grabbers are the salespersons in small kiosks at the USAirways terminal pitching the card to travelers as they pass by) I feel the same rule of truth in advertizing needs to apply in flight as well and on the ground.
I saw several older persons grab the application feeling it meant a free ticket (I sat behind one of them). It would be a shame if one of the couples I saw applied for and got this product for false reasons.

[Corbel]

its like when im watching tv and i see a commercial about a product and they say..order now and we'll even throw in an additional set absolutley free...then when they show the number to order in the small print it says that you have to pay the taxes plus shipping and handling for the second set. but thats what the fine print on the back of the application is for...hopefully they read that. i hate seeing people getting taken advantage of. but i hate that speach us airways does, it goes on FOREVER

[totiredtodance]

More like a car rental company saying you get a free trip to Florida with every rental. Then in small print you read you need to drive the car to Florida yourself and within the time you have rented.

[azstar]

So, you can fly from Philadelphia to the West Coast, for example, for $50.00 just by applying for a credit card you may never use. You think $25.00 each way is a ripoff because it's not totally free?? Come on!

[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

No one here has bothered to point-out the fraud that airline FF programs are. Perhaps, as azstar (who probably works for US Airways) has pointed-out, it MAY be possible to land a trans-con FF ticket for $25 - $50. What azstar is, most likely, LESS willing to trumpet is the real possibility that, unless you're a triple platnum FF member, the only FF ticket an average person can land is for a flight that leave at 5:00 AM on a Wednesday in February!

Years ago, supermarkets realized they generate more good will by not handing-out S&H Green Stamps (a 1960s version of FF for supermarkets), and lowering prices instead. Indeed, if one notices, the airlines with, truly decent service, like Southwest, and Virgin America, have rather modest FF programs.

[totiredtodance]

Azstar, the issue is not that if a “free” ticket is still a good deal at fifty dollars. The issue is the leap they make from 25K air miles to the “free ticket”. 25K does not equal a free ticket.
If I gave you a five dollar bill, have I just provided you dinner? Perhaps if you found a low end fast food chain and got the value meal. Can I claim after handing you five dollars I've fed you? No.
It appears they have stopped the sales pitch using that phrase on the ground. Legal reasons perhaps? Why would a company stop it a deceptive practice on the ground but continue it in the air.

[airhead]

No matter what someone is selling me, I will not bite. I want to research it first. Read the fine print. There is not such thing as a free lunch!

I hate it when I go the grocery store and the cashier is trying to sell me candy and a toothbrush at the same time. Can you see where the Colgate Co. would benefit from M&Ms? Somewhere somehow I would not doubt if the 2 company's CEOs play golf together.