No More Free Pretzels on Continental Airlines

Continental Airlines‎ stopped serving beverage snacks (pretzels and Biscoff) in coach class from 1st March. Continental airlines expect that cutting pretzel and cookie will save around $2.5 million a year. Continental airlines removed beverage snacks to align themselves with many of its network competitors who don’t serve free snacks. Flights between Hawaii, Alaska and the Mainland U.S come under this new rule.

Image source: by Deanster1983 from flickr

Continental Airlines‎ stopped serving in-flight treats after some domestic airlines, including American and US Airways stopped it. Free beverage snacks are still offered by Delta, JetBlue, Airtran and Southwest. This move of Continental airlines is one more indication of heritage carriers who decrease services to shave off somewhat costs in an industry with aggressive competition and razor-thin margins.

Continental is staying reliable with its merger-partner and making room for profit with snack packs on coach flights starting at $ 3.95 instead of spending millions on introducing again a free in-flight food on United flights. As per Henry Harteveldt, an airline and travel analyst for Forrester Research, this move can be blamed on increasing fuel costs. Due to this move of Continental Airlines, Delta is currently the only one amongst the big traditional "legacy carriers" who still provide free snacks to coach passengers.