It certainly won’t be the next Pokemon card craze, but apparently airline trading cards not only exist, but have been in existence for quite some time. Delta has been manufacturing and distributing trading cards since the early 2000s, depicting various models of its planes. You can’t make them do battle against each other, but you can collect them and show them off to your travel nerd friends. All you have to do is politely ask the captain for a trading card.
Photo: Markus Mainka/Shutterstock
You Can Collect Delta Trading Cards on Your Next Flight
This offering became public knowledge when Tiktok user Sarowar Ahmed posted a short clip showing him asking the pilot on his Delta flight for a trading card. The pilot says that he’s run out, but that he thinks his first officer has some. He goes and checks with the first officer, then returns with a few trading cards.
@sarowarrr Got my first trading card!!! Ask your pilot for one before or after your flight! #delta #tradingcards #collectibles ♬ original sound – SAROWAR
The card depicted a Boeing 737 against a holographic background, though other trading cards might have different planes or backgrounds. Ahmed captioned the video, “Got my first trading card!!! Ask your pilot for one before or after your flight!” And indeed, it does seem as easy as that.
With these trading cards going viral, however, there’s likely to be a dramatic increase in how many people ask for them, and a potential shortage as a result. We might need to give Delta a few months for supply to catch up to demand before we start truly diving into this trend.