Favourite airline on-board freebie?

[Cloud9]

I’m not sure if this meets your criteria as it’s only for long-haul J passengers, but I love the little houses (filled with gin, no less) they give out on KLM.

View attachment 399020

Those are epic.

The Bols Museum in Amsterdam has a beautiful display with all of them.

Edited to add: on five separate occasions, I have had to DRAG people in there (including my wife on honeymoon!) and then couldn't drag them out when they discovered the coughtail bar at the end. Amazing place.

 

[Cloud9]

Hmmm... Mebbe not a lounge crawl, but I wonder if in a year or so I suggest a "museum" crawl around AMS...

 

[SYD]

Did they taste good?

Yes. Now trying to work out how to stuff them with dulce de leche and/or chocolate sauce!

 

[Justinf]

My wife was a FA on the flight I met her on.
I got to keep her and she is stuck with me.

 

[p--and--t]

My wife was a FA on the flight I met her on.
I got to keep her and she is stuck with me.

Bet she didn't come "free", tho

 

[OATEK]

For some reason I used to pocket the clear plastic salt & peppers off AY flights. Still have a couple in circulation. I also have the table cloth with adhesive label that was wrapped around a bottle red from a QF flight where they ran out of food options for me. I have since drunk the red, but slipped another bottle in to "cellar".

 

[howard61]

Eye muffs on Icelandair. The Icelanders really know how to make the best...

 

[blackcat20]

Lots of SQ teddy bears, and a few sets of the VA opera house salt and pepper shakers (gifted, not pinched).

 

[bobbyjo]

Not wanting to be down but let’s face it at today’s flight prices what ever you get as a “gift” you have probably paid for. I used to like the Delft pottery gifts that KLM used to give to passengers.

 

[jamesatfish]

As an 11yr old travelling in Economy on KLM quite some time ago (my first overseas trip) the kids pack included a foam puzzle that you could build into various 3D shapes. It came in a couple of different shades of blue to denote the different difficulties, and each flight we took had a different puzzle. Not a huge thing in itself but really seeded my love for the perks of flying.

More recently, on one of my recent flights with SQ I was given a hand-written thank you card from the crew (they made one for all 3 pax in F) and on another I was offered to keep the mother-of-pearl caviar spoon.

My wife loves the lip balm from the current SQ amenity kit, so I have to specifically request those on each flight as well.

 

[ozstamps]

I’m not sure if this meets your criteria as it’s only for long-haul J passengers, but I love the little houses (filled with gin, no less) they give out on KLM.

Those BOLS Gin Delft Houses are very cool.

Have a few dozen from lots of KLM flights on a fireplace hearth at home.

The one on a flight to Libya had NO booze in it. And no wax seal on chimney either. Strict no booze Muslim country. The moment the plane entered Libyan airspace, all alcohol service ceased.

https://www.stampboards.com/download/file.php?id=429437

 

[PumaPilot]

I was lucky enough to fly on Concorde twice in 1996, LHR-JFK-LHR and the crew gave away leather wallets, pens and a leather document holder with a super-sonic certificate signed by the flight crew.......do I win ??

 

[ozstamps]

I was lucky enough to fly on Concorde twice in 1996, LHR-JFK-LHR and the crew gave away leather wallets, pens and a leather document holder with a super-sonic certificate signed by the flight crew.......do I win ??

Not unless you got the special business cards from Captain and crew each way?

Those Sterling Silver sleek pens with the Concorde logo and the matching notepaper wallet were the classiest in board freebie I've ever received.

I also asked the purser at end of one flight, if I could take the passenger manifest as a souvenir, which oddly she had no issue with.

A few Knights and Lords etc, and all kinds of 'VIP' notations etc, and the passenger behind us was Bruce Springsteen.

In mid 2002 a friend and I each used 125,000 Qantas frequent flyer miles and took a Concorde flight from London – New York – London. In fact it was better than that, as for those 125,000 points we also got a free BA Business class return side trip from ANYWHERE in Europe we wished – a valuable trip worth $1,000+ on its own. Whether that was Moscow, Casablanca, Cyprus or Istanbul etc, it was part of the redemption deal.

A one hour Sydney-Melbourne free return business class ticket cost 30,000 Qantas points then. I cannot believe folks use miles for short round trips like that and not for “impossible-to-afford-otherwise” awards like a Concorde flight. Given a choice of 4 x MEL-SYD returns or a return Concorde flight with a free side trip to Moscow, it really was a no-brainer decision from me.

I phoned British Airways and asked what such a trip would cost, and the answer was Euros €13,205 plus taxes, or around $A22,000 at the time. I do not think 4 x SYD-MEL in a cramped 737 Qantas ‘business class’ is quite worth $22,000 to me.

Even if you did not have 125,000 Qantas points you could have effectively purchased them for much of 2002 for $US1,256 for each Corcorde round trip, via subscribing to a USA 'Flyertalk' (Inside Flyer) magazine who offered you very many 1,000s of Starwood miles on each sub as a strange promo freebie they ran, can one could buy endless times, that could all be transferred to enough QF points to book the Concorde trips on BA metal, just by redeeming a First Class trans Atlantic award, and just specifying BA1 and BA2!. MANY did just that.







The burnished metal cabin bag tags were also very cool +.

 

[Cossie]

Can't find the bottle/can opener, it will be somewhere.....

Here is the compass, 1984 or 1985.

 

[AIRwin]

Here is the compass, 1984 or 1985.

Was it a CTU flight?

 

[Cossie]

Was it a CTU flight?

Hmmm, can’t remember, we did a few flights, Chengdu, Simao, Kunming, Lhasa, and I think Chongqing. I’ve posted this before, best flight was from Kunming to Guilin. Brand new 737 with about 10 people on board. I will post those later as they are on the main pc, not my ipad.

 

[jkbaus]

Can't find the bottle/can opener, it will be somewhere.....

Here is the compass, 1984 or 1985.View attachment 400231View attachment 400232

Wow. You were lucky.

My CAAC flight from SYD 1984 we got a handkerchief with logo.
And a tan vinyl belt with large metal CAAC buckle.
The belt was long. Could have gone around my waist 3 times.
And every passenger was given an orange when we landed in Beijing.

 

[p--and--t]

My favourite keepsake, which I still use today that was free (because the FA said why don't you take them home) Is one of those sets of glass salt and pepper shakers from Ansett.J.

 

[Duffa]

I was lucky enough to fly on Concorde twice in 1996, LHR-JFK-LHR and the crew gave away leather wallets, pens and a leather document holder with a super-sonic certificate signed by the flight crew.......do I win ??

I have 6 of these Concorde silver napkin rings.
Numerous pens. Candle snuffers. Wallets. Notepads etc.

 

[Duffa]

Mind you, nicknacks and trinkets are all very well.
This is still, by far, the best freebie of all.
DXB - CDG. Emirates F.