Is it impolite to ask for an in-flight catalogue with no intention of buying?

9/22/2019 11:43:50 AM

No because the main transaction is your payment for the flight

Everything else is incidental or supports it.

The comparison you may be thinking of is ‘person walks into a bar, looks at drinks menu, buys none, hangs out for an hour and then leaves. Bartender sees them leaving and thinks ‘how rude’.

However that is NOT the situation with an airline seat. It’s more akin to ‘person walks into a bar, pays bartender $300 tip to sit down for a bit. Person leaves after an hour. Bartender tells story of most polite customer ever 🙂

9/21/2019 2:39:00 PM

Put it this way. You ask for a catalog, you just don’t disclose that you already have no intention to buy, because you don’t have to, then start reading it.

After you finish, you return it to the attendants.

You simply didn’t find anything interesting/worth to buy

No one is obligated to buy anything. How often… have you entered a shop, looked and walked away? … browsed Amazon/eBay looking for something and ordered nothing? … asked for the drink list at a c**ktail bar and walked away because they are too expensive?

Of course, you are preventing someone else who is interested in buying staff from reading the catalogue if they run out of stock.

But again, put it like this: it’s airline choice how many copies to print. And the airline is the one making money. You have paid your ticket and owe them nothing else.

9/19/2019 10:23:53 PM

Put it this way. Suppose they kept copies of Nature Magazine for passengers to read on request. Would it be impolite to ask for a copy? You have no intention of buying anything, since in our fantasy world, Nature is entirely editorial and has no advertisements.

Of course not. The magazine is there for you to browse to pass the time.

The same applies to in-flight catalogues.

Similarly, it is not rude to walk into a retail store to browse, with no particular intent of buying. Obviously, the shopkeeper is perfectly delighted for this visit, because of the chance the fine merchandise will sway you into a purchase. Every visit is a roll of the dice which costs him almost nothing, so he’s sure to win on average. The catalogue publisher thinks the same.

9/19/2019 10:20:54 PM

No it isn’t impolite to kindly ask for an in-flight catalogue, irrespective if your intention to buy or not. The flight attendants would be more than happy to give you a catalogue.

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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