Personalisation Is Asymmetric Psychological Warfare
"Uncanny valley of sincerity" is the key thing here.<p>I regularly go to the same cafe for lunch. So some of the staff know me by name, but others who've just started working there don't. And I know their faces and one or two names. This is how it works on a normal human scale.<p>The corporate version of this delivers, as they say, <i>asymmetrical</i> friendliness. You see someone you've never met before and they know your name, birthday, etc. while you know nothing about them.<p>And especially in the airline context, all this is devoted to more perfect price discrimination. They know your favourite drinks order so they can <i>sell you more drinks</i>.