Fear of flying. Embarassing pic

Sorry if I’m being a bit of an anorak here, but is that metal cutlery I see on the photos of United meals (dated Apr 2003) on the Airline meals website?

Mike

The meal/no meal decision is not purely about the cost. Granted, you will save money be scrapping the meal. But it sends a message out to passengers:

– we’re struggling;
– we’re rich;
– we believe in service whatever the cost;
– we waste money;
– we’re careful about costs

So it is at least a psychological decision. If your key market segment is “we want cheap” then probably a meal is undesirable. If you aim for bargain hunters, then the decision could go either way. If you like to be seen as affordable yet high quality, you would serve a meal. If you want to be seen as excellent, you will serve a great slap up.

(cheap) Ryanair – never a meal
(middle) BA – nearly always a meal, even if in a doggy bag
(quality) SIA – always a high quality meal

I suppose there might also be turnaround time considerations when time is tight on the ground.

I am used to getting that much on a 45-minute flight and paying for it.
I remember being able to get a hot breakfast once, believe it or not I got a better breakfast on the short hop than on the long haul flight I had just come off. So definite standards of service have changed but so have the ticket prices (theoretically, £65.00 one way is no way low cost).

United pretty much used to serve food or some sort of snack on all of their mainline flights. Of course with cutbacks and financial difficulties/ch. 11, services on shorter mainline flights got reduced. Now, will this come back when they get back on their feet again, who knows?

GD, the lack of food seems to be strictly a US thing. I’ve always received a snack or a light meal on very short flights elsewhere in the world (apart from low cost airlines). The cut-off seems to be 25 minutes; any more and they’ll serve something up.

6/7 months ago I took an early morning flight from IOM-LGW (economy): only 45 minutes, but we got a hot breakfast (eggs, sausage, bacon, hash brown, tomato), yoghurt and tea/coffee. Now of course, the cost of this might be £2 but it adds £20 to the price of ticket! So I’m not expressing a food/no food preference for short flights either way, just that it is normal to be served food in most parts of the world. Maybe the airlines think it makes passengers suppose that they got better value than they actually did – a mere marketing ploy.

and do they class Kaliber as a non-alcoholic drink and give it free – cos thats what it is!

p.s it tastes like rats piss!

Not getting fed on a 1 hour flight, I can handle that because I expect it. Not getting fed on a 3 hour flight, that’s a different story. Did you have to pay for those refreshments on Spanair, Keltic?

Traditionally in that segment they used to give baguettes, muffins, filled croissants and so on. But….cuts, cuts, cuts.

On a 45 minute hop, what more do you expect? Did you have to pay for that beer?

That´s what I got on the SCQ-MAD 45 minutes hop, at an expensive fare on a Spanair B717. Almost low cost. Shame on Spanair.

Are you going to put that on http://www.airlinemeals.net/ ? I am sure they would be pleased to have a Volare meal, it would be their first picture actually for the airline 🙂

Here you are the expensive menu. At least the prosiutto focaccia was good.

Having a new digital, makes one to use it all the time and even to play the fool of oneself…..about meals….why are meals and snacks in low cost so expensive…….10 euros for a coke and a tiny focaccia (italian sandwitch)¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡. In any case at 55 euros return, paying for the food is a big deal. SO bring your food to the plane.

Was that because of the turbulance or the meal? 😉

That is what you get for not checking the price of beverages on a low cost carrier. Amusing picture 🙂

LOL…!!

Pic of the Day I think! :p

Count Dracula.

no comment – errr webmaster can we have him removed – i think hes a health hazard! 🙁