Airlines to sell events in on board

This article Airlines to sell events in real time on board drew my attention.

Payment technology specialist GuestLogix is on the verge of signing up an airline to begin leveraging inflight connectivity to enable passengers to purchase tickets in real time for attractions and events specific to their destinations.

GuestLogix executive vice-president global sales Ilia Kostov reveals to Runway Girl Network that the company is in discussions with “a large airline in the US” as well as several others in the Middle East and Europe.

That’s a really good idea. I know you are supposed to do this before travelling, this is what proper planning is all about, but there never seems to be time for it especially as you would want to do this as close as possible to the departure day – in case of a change of plans you don’t want to be left with a bunch of non-refundable tickets to various attractions and events. But once you are on the plane you know you are getting there so why not use the time efficiently by buying in advance.

Collectively, airlines lose hundreds of millions of dollars every year on fraudulent credit card transactions because most transactions are not processed until their aircraft reach the gate.

I didn’t know this and I find it hard to believe. If you are on a plane they must have all your identification details, would anyone risk making a fraudulent credit card transaction just to buy some perfumes and whatever else they sell on a plane?

According to Kostov, research shows that “for every $1 spent on airfare and hotel another $2 is spent on what [passengers] do when they get there. That’s why we see such a big market here”.  

What research or maybe it is a typo? I must be a very atypical traveller as I have never spent this amount of money. Let’s do a quick calculation. $1,000 airfare from North America to Western Europe, $1,000 hotel for 7 days let’s say, so one would spend on average $4,000 in a week !