Should airlines allow in-flight “tipping” enhance the brand experience?

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Asking for tips in Business Class
Recently, I met up with a senior airline executive in Bangalore, India. He shared with me a very interesting incident. While flying Business Class from London to Delhi on Air-India recently, he encountered excellent customer service by one of the stewardesses. But in Air-India, service levels are not always of a very high level, so this was an exception. She spoke to him for long, served him extra wine and then emphasized multiple times how flight attendants need to work long hours with little pay these days.

She returned before landing to again sweet-talk him into giving her a tip. He was appalled and didn’t oblige. I was initially surprised too, but thought that this might just turn out to be an interesting way to enhance the brand experience on board the aircraft.
Tipping – a norm in the hospitality industry
A tip is a small amount of money given voluntarily as a token of appreciation for a service rendered. We tip our servers as a way of thanking them for good service. We might also leave a very …