Protest airline dehydration?

[steuard]

Kim and I took US Airways to and from Nebraska for the holidays. US Air, as you may know, has decided to charge passengers for non-alcoholic drinks during the flight, including water. I have no problem with them charging for soft drinks and juice, but given the risk of dehydration during air travel I think it's irresponsible not to at least provide plain water for free. (Kim fortunately knew about this in advance, so we brought a water bottle of our own.)

On our flight home, I thought of an interesting way to protest this policy. The airline always explains that the in-flight magazine is yours to keep, but almost no one does. What if passengers who don't like the "pay to drink" policy decided to take them home as souvenirs? (Or for immediate recycling. Or as burnt offerings. Or...) It's easy to do, and I'm sure it would cost the airline more than drinking water.

Like most boycotts or protests it would be pointless to do alone, but I think it could make a point if enough people publicly participated. Is this a reasonable idea? And if so, what's the right way to publicize it?

Comments

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I've never had to pay for water. It must just be US Air. Perhaps generating bad PR for them directly would have an impact. (eg get various prominent bloggers to write about it, put it on Digg and get all your friends to vote for it) If you can make it clear that lots of people are unhappy and then contact US Air, you're likely to have an impact.

[feuervogel]

It's a really new policy, as in within the last month or so.