Back in January American Airlines announced a partnership with Cole Haan to develop their new amenity kit, in conjunction with some other brands like C.O. Bigelow Apothecaries and 3LAB Skincare.
Image courtesy of American Airlines at www.aa.com
Before this kit American had their Heritage amenity kit, with the inside border and socks matching the livery colors of one of their 23423982387429376428937 legacy airlines. I really liked those kits because they were very distinctly American and helped tell a story about the history of the airline (pictured below).
I recently had the chance to fly on American’s 787 from Beijing back to Dallas on the 787 Dreamliner and it was a great flight (report coming soon!). As part of the flight I received one of American’s new Cole Haan amenity kits. I had my macro lens with me so I could take a close up look at the new kit. Let’s take a look.
Cole Haan branding
Another look
I had seen the kits in pictures and they looked pretty nice. If nothing else they were colorful, which I liked since most amenity kits are different shades of gray. The dopp kit felt nice enough and had a semi hardshell sort of feel to it. But I couldn’t find any American Airlines branding anywhere!
This could’ve said American Airlines
Now, full confession: I rarely use anything in amenity kits. Even before I had the blog and gave most of them away, I never really used the products (outside of the toothbrush obvi). To me they’re just another sword to rattle at the competition and a marketing vehicle for the airline. You’d think they’d at least put the name of the airline on the outside of the kit!
Anyway, calmer heads prevailed and I scoured through the rest of the kit and finally found the American branding.
Ah, inside cover
There was also a small logo on the eye mask.
Eye mask
Aside from that it was a typical amenity kit with some nicer skincare brands (I guess?). Everything came in its own wrapper that was labeled in a very bold typeface so I sort of felt like I was at a W Hotel, where everything is labeled for some reason.
Example of everything being wrapped and labeled
Socks
The socks looked comfortable and matched the rest of the color scheme well. Aside from that, it was just a regular amenity kit. I wish American would have kept their Heritage amenity kit because they get to tell a story of their past without costing much more than this. Then again, if you’re a Cole Haan enthusiast then this might be right up your alley. I dunno.
That’s not the only style Cole Haan kit they have. They have a black and red one with a very nice zipper pouch that I recently got on a TATL flight in F. It has basically the same stuff but with a red theme. Not sure if there are more than 2 styles.
Many amenity kits don’t have the airline logo on the outside so that people can carry them around or repurpose them without getting annoying questions.
Got the type you write about on my recent GRU flights. Unlike you, I do use the hand lotion (though mine was hardly filled, maybe took squeezing more than half-way up the tube before anything came out!) and there were headphone ear covers that slipped onto the Bose for sanitary purposes. Mouthwash came in handy as I was coming down with a cold, from the heat of Sao Paulo and the air conditioning of the buildings.
The heritage kits were a nice nod to the coming together of US and AA, and their precursor airlines that formed the new AA. But they served their purpose and it was time to move on to a more standard styling. (While I use one of these for my iPad mini, the felt does not age well.) The Cole Haan is a nice sturdy, albeit semi-soft case that can be used to store a variety of items.
There are actually four types of new kits, and as noted by DaninMCI, the overseas F ones are more like a large pouch. The F transcon kits on the Flagship routes are a fold-over “envelope” style made of a rubberized plastic material (?) that can have an afterlife holding small documents, but not much else. The J transcon ones are not really kits, but just bags containing socks, ear plugs and headphone ear covers. All kits have a card with a PIN for discounts on items from their respective toiletry brand, and $75 off a $250 Cole Haan purchase (only in the US). The two overseas kit types come in various colours.