American Introduce New Stylish Amenity Kits, But Do They Hit The Mark?

American Airlines has just introduced a new wave of amenity kits for passengers in its International First & Business, Transcon First & Business and International Premium Economy cabins. As with most airlines, American has teamed up with leading up-and-coming lifestyle and skincare brands.

Coming on line mid February, the kits are designed in collaboration with This is Ground, Athletic Propulsion Labs and STATE Bags and feature products from Allies of Skin, Zenology and Baxter of California. Color rotations and products vary depending on cabin, however each kit includes the essentials: an eye mask, earplugs, a toothbrush and toothpaste.

“American is always exploring ways to innovate and make our customers’ travel experience more relaxing and enjoyable, especially on long-haul flights.” said Janelle Anderson, Vice President of Global Marketing for American. “The changes we’ve made to this year’s amenity kits were driven by our customers’ feedback about what they desire and value while traveling. Our goal is to curate an elevated and restful travel journey, and our new amenity kits are an exciting piece of the onboard and our overall brand experience. We’re thrilled to partner with these brands and offer customers a fresh, modern collection of premium inflight products.”

These certainly go a long way to improve the passenger experience, and in isolation each of these kits are stylish additions, but the large variety of design approaches seems to be at a disconnect from an airline that needs to continue to build a singular cohesive brand vision.

That said, each kit in itself is great, and each design well executed. The International Flagship First and Business Class kit is our favourite stylish addition. The cable tidies are also a nifty addition, and useful for travellers. The colours give the sense of modernist Americana, something which the airline has skirted around as part of its brand positioning for a few years now, and if we can see more of this design palette across the passenger experience, it will add warmth and a sense of comfort, differentiating it from the other two major US carriers and helping it create a real brand positioning.