BOB W

AS flt 788 SEA-MSY Aug. 25, 11:10 AM departure

Meal was more like a dinner service. Water bottles at seat prior to departure.

Menus passed out once airborne. Nuts served with the first round of drinks.

Starter salad was bib lettuce, sliced pears, candied nuts & balsamic vinaigrette with a warm roll. Lunch options were pork tenderloin or chicken. The pork tenderloin was entrée size, with mashed potatoes and grilled corn with red bell peppers. A very tasty sauce covered the pork & potatoes. Dessert was a chocolate cake/brownie with Bourbon whipped cream. I was completely blown away by the quality and quantity of food.

Snack basket prior to landing but I was napping so did not wake up in time, but I did hear it being offered.

Battlefield upgrade to 1A so I did not feel right taking pictures.

Will report on the return Saturday night, MSY-SEA-ANC.

AS Flyer

MSY is catered as a transcon so it wouldn't get the same service as SEA-PDX/ANC. The service on MSY has always been the same.

PDXPremier

And trans con lunches are the same as dinners, correct?

PDXPremier

[QUOTE=BOB W;25345353]AS flt 788 SEA-MSY Aug. 25, 11:10 AM departure

Meal was more like a dinner service. Water bottles at seat prior to departure.

Menus passed out once airborne. Nuts served with the first round of drinks.

Starter salad was bib lettuce, sliced pears, candied nuts & balsamic vinaigrette with a warm roll. Lunch options were pork tenderloin or chicken. The pork tenderloin was entrée size, with mashed potatoes and grilled corn with red bell peppers. A very tasty sauce covered the pork & potatoes. Dessert was a chocolate cake/brownie with Bourbon whipped cream. I was completely blown away by the quality and quantity of food.

Snack basket prior to landing but I was napping so did not wake up in time, but I did hear it being offered.

Battlefield upgrade to 1A so I did not feel right taking pictures.

Will report on the return Saturday night, MSY-SEA-ANC.[/

Curious as to why you didn't feel right taking pictures since it was a battlefield upgrade...I don't think I ever know (or care) who got an upgrade in-advance vs. at the gate...you had just as much right to the first class cabin as anyone else in first.

On a side note, I think SEA-MSY is one of the next AS trips I'm going to book and the flights I looked at were empty in F and plenty of U space available, but as a 75K, you didn't get the upgrade until the last minute? I thought it seemed like an easy upgrade for a transcon.

BOB W

[QUOTE=PDXPremier;25345582]The FA passes this seat often taking care of the rest of the cabin and I don't like being that obvious,

There was a trade show going on in MSY and I know several elites that did not get UG. Only one seat available for sale one week out on my flight and it did not sell, thus the upgrade.

PDXPremier

[QUOTE=BOB W;25346463]I get it...it was more about being in row 1 than getting a "battlefield upgrade"...I must admit that I always feel a bit awkward taking pictures of my meal no matter what row I'm in

BOB W

[QUOTE=PDXPremier;25347179]Yeah, I never feel bad about getting the battlefield upgrade.

PDXPremier

[QUOTE=BOB W;25347240]Not to get too off topic, but what was your impression of the "safety factor" when traveling around New Orleans, particularly the French Quarter? My wife and I are pretty travel savvy and have wandered around NYC, downtown Chicago, Istanbul, Detroit, etc. with no problems, but there are quite a few reports of increasing safety issues in the tourist sections of New Orleans that peaked my attention.

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/...ents_hope.html

http://www.npr.org/2015/01/20/378567...demand-changes

the42ndstate

8/28 AS149 LAX-ANC 7:50pm. Same dinner as SEA-MSY:

PDB H2O at the seats. Warm nuts with first drink service. Dinner portion was huge. I had the chicken and it was breaded with an herb seasoning. Very tender and moist. Scoop of mashed sweet potato and side of Brussels sprouts, cooked well with a buttery glaze. The snack basket was offered right after dessert and not too many takers. Three F seats went out empty. Awesome FC FA and a quick flight landing about 45 minutes early.

BOB W

[QUOTE=PDXPremier;25347498]We walked from Canal all the way down Bourbon Street to Frenchman around 11 PM Tuesday night with no signs of trouble or feelings of insecurity. Two guys, one gal. Frenchman is growing and has several good restaurants and music clubs. We stayed until closing and walked back. The last third of the way is fairly dark and not heavily traveled when we were there.

That being said, I have been told on this trip that you should no go more than 2-3 blocks to the left of Bourbon when you enter from Canal due to high risk. Going to the right to Royale, etc. into Jackson Square seemed fine.

beckoa

No issues on Bourbon Street either last night

Well aside from racking up some miles from my CC

AS Flyer

yup

AKCuisine

Date of flight: 8/29/15
Flight and Route: AS #77 JNU-ANC
Time of Departure: 4:40 PM
Length of flight: 1 hour 40 minutes
Class of service: First

Pre-Departure Beverage: Water bottles at each seat.

Meal served: Snack

A very enthusiastic young FA introduced herself by announcing, "Whatever you want, I can make it. And I've been in the kitchen all day cooking up a great meal for you, my special pesto chicken sandwiches." Chuckles of approval from the crowd.

But bless her heart, what the catering crew actually loaded on the plane apparently didn't match the galley list.

The warm sandwich had 2 thin slices of some type of pressed-formed poultry-parts on a ciabatta roll -- but I'd be hard pressed to determine if it was actually chicken or the (seemingly ubiquitous) turkey-parts. And there was not a trace of "pesto," just a dab of mayo-like sauce and a bit of pepper-Jack cheese.

The side of slaw (julienned carrots and broccoli stems?) was as tasteless and bland as ever.




The young FA in F: :-: :-: :-: :-: :-: Approval rating for her energy and service.

Catering staff: :-: A single star for providing a few bites of warm sandwich.

And a for the pressed-formed parts poultry loaf and for the wretched slaw.

PDXPremier

Kudos to the FA for the enthusiasm! Honestly, people (sometimes me) complain about the food, the seat, the delays, etc....but I've heard over and over that the AS flight crews are some of the best out there....I'm reminded of this every time the pilot comes out, stands in the aisle, and welcomes passengers prior to take off or when the FAs seem like they actually enjoy their job....keep it up folks....it makes it easier to over-look the fact that they keep forgetting my chocolate bar

With that said, I'm sad to see the cookie go away....looks like we're back to the chocolate (pre-June meal service standards)...my guess is that the still relatively new snack basket is not long for this world, but my fingers are crossed. By-the-way, what happened to the hot towel service? They use to have it on even relatively short flights like SEA-OAK and now I never see it even on longer flights.

AKCuisine

Very true about the service making a difference. But I still haven't seen one of the new chocolate bars - those darn upgrades I've been getting have interfered with getting to experience that back-of-the-plane perk.


I miss the cookies ... and I *still* haven't seen one of the new snack baskets in F on any of my flights.

Warm towels did make an appearance on AS #62 ANC-JNU 8/23. I mentioned it in my breakfast post from that flight because the service seems to be an increasingly rare event during the past few months.