Northwest Cancels The In-Flight Pretzels

I didn’t travel this weekend, but I’m sure some of you did, so I hope you enjoyed those free in-flight snacks, because they might be disappearing.
According to this article, Northwest Airlines will stop offering free pretzels on its flights in coach class. America’s 6 major airlines have a tendency to quickly copy each other’s ideas, so this one might catch on.
The airline says no more pretzels will save the airline $2 million a year. Isn’t that a drop in the bucket in terms of operating costs? I think this is yet another sign of airlines’ sticking it to customers that have to put up with more and more crap every time they fly.
Flying is simply not a pleasant experience these days. Now, that’s not entirely the fault of the airlines, but for the sake of their individual brands, they need to make the best out of the part of the experience they do control. Yanking away the pretzels doesn’t help.
I’ve written about the airlines’ marketing problems before. And if I were at Northwest’s ad agency (I don’t even know what shop that is), I’d tell them that the money they’ll save won’t be worth the PR that makes the airline look cheap.