MilesBuzz! - Short Hot Food Flights

I know this is an odd topic, but having read the UA forum's food topics, I'm somewhat shocked.

Then when I thought about it, these days, it's not easy finding hot food on shortish flights (<2hr).

Which carriers offer hot food on these type of flights? You'll have to excuse me, I was brought up on a lot of domestic flying on Ansett, where we would get a full hot lunch on a 45 min flight http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Cheers,

Justin

I think it's more about high/low yield routes than it is about what carrier you fly.

Not when AN was flying - same whether you were on a low yield tourist route (eg. SYD-OOL) or a higher yield route like SYD-MEL.

Cheers,

Justin

... or TG or SQ or CX or a whole host of Asian airlines. It is in the US and a number of Western European countries where the pax have low expections and the airlines are all too happy to oblige.

Within the Star Alliance, I would consider the most willing with hot food to be NZ and AN.

How are RG & MX or NH in this regard?

I simply find United's catering amazing. I find it insulting that in First Class, on a flight less than 700 odd mls you get no food.

I can fly Ansett Mark II and sit in a more spacious seat up front, pay 33USD and get practically the same.

When did all of this start to decline? Not all the way back in 1978, did it? SEP11 understandably would have compounded the problem.

Cheers,

Justin

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Skystar:
...Then when I thought about it, these days, it's not easy finding hot food on shortish flights (&lt;2hr)....
Justin</font>

Hot food? How about any food? Flights pushing 4 hours don't get food anymore. Anything around an hour or so is lucky to get basic beverage service, or call that sub basic meaning not full service.

Airlines are playing games with us and blamining in on 9/11.

On SQ's flight from AMS to MAN last year, they served one of the most delicious chicken crepes I have ever eaten! The flight was about 35minutes. (I sat in J class).

Bangkok Airways last year (Bangkok -&gt; Siem Reap, Cambodia); all-coach Boeing 717; full meal (salad, hot entree, dessert) & 2 passes of the beverage cart; spectacularly friendly FAs. BTW, this was a 35 minute flight.

So basically, it's the Asia-Pacific only?

I've given up hope on any mainline US carriers, and the mainline Euro carriers are barely better.

Cheers,

Justin

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Skystar:
So basically, it's the Asia-Pacific only?
</font>

Not really. Over the past month, I've received hot meals on the following short routes: sfo-sea, ord-bos, dfw-jax, and den-lax.

On most every Euro international flight I have hot food. Even 45 minute flights on BD have hot food in biz class. However, short AF flights have gone to cold food, at least on morning flights.

Heh.....wait until you fly TAM in Brasil.

On the CGH-SDU (Sao Paulo-Rio) "ponte-aerea" flights that I have been on, you always get a hot meal in the 45 minute trip about 90% of the time. Other times you get a loaded and tasty sandwich box.

Last week I had this really quite good, and hot, canneloni dish with dessert and 2 free alcoholic drinks all for R$110.....about $45 USD....including the flight by the way.

This isn't an RJ, or biz/first, but in economy on a usually 3/4 full A319/320 series aircraft.

This airline could give several others a lesson in service. I did about 12 flights with them this year and have no complaints at all.



[This message has been edited by Carioca Canuck (edited 01-22-2002).]

Please note the serious financial difficulties that TAM is having. In fact, I think you'll find that those carriers that are not suffering serious financial problems are probably charging much more for a ticket on a per mile basis then the U.S. carriers. I doubt that you could take a 5 hour flight for 198.00 round trip, the exception being trans atlantic flights where they are competing with U.S. carriers. Anyone ever priced a ticket between, say, Tokyo and Taipei? not really very cheap.

I agree with everyone here that the cuts in service are deplorable. It's a shame to see what flying has come to when compared to just 15-20 years ago. However, people asked for lower air fares and those come at a price. While the business traveler may be paying lot's of $$$ for their ticket, they are merely subsidizing those very cheap seats the once a year traveler uses and the free frequent flyer seats.

Not just TAM, but Varig also offers hot food on very short hauls.

Had full hot breakfast Newcastle - Brisbane (1250km/780m/1 hour) on a Qantaslink whisperjet (Bae 146-200); also all major routes in Australia, BNE-SYD, SYD-MEL, full hot meals (70 - 90 min flights). Had full lunch (turkey croissant et al) on flight down the coast to Sydney, 50 mins in a DASH-8. Australians get a bit pooey without at least a reasonable snack.

Even a snack (afternoon tea) on way back from Brisbane a couple of months ago had a brilliant meat pie with tomato sauce, some camembert cheese, onion marmalade, and great service -- 737-400 series!

It's never been clear to me why Americans put up with no meal services. How dumb. The bistro bag thing just really wouldn't "fly" here either.

And everyone else is using metal cutlery in the air, except for flights to the U.S. where some folks think it will prevent in-air nastiness.

Cheers!


------------------
Glen,
QFAA

[This message has been edited by QFAA (edited 01-23-2002).]

The NBA charter jet served 2 hot meals and a snack in the minute flight from LAX-PHX. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

My 4 recent ORD-DCAs in the 4-8pm range have featured a choice of meatloaf or salmon in first. Having tried both, I give the meatloaf a slight edge, although neither are great. This is about a 1:50 flight (with the last half hour reserved for stay-seated paranoia)...

What would one pay for a round trip ticket Newcastle to Brisbane? What would one pay for a Baltimore to Orlando flight? Or Portland, OR to Los Angeles? I guarantee you that you are paying a premium to enjoy that meal you love so much. Passengers in the U.S. demanded lower fares, they got them, and they also got a reduction in amenities. Incidentally, you say that people in Australia would never tolerate no meals, look at your newest most succesful start up airline - Virgin Blue. They are expanding and wildly succesful down under and you get...... you guessed it, NO MEALS.


<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by QFAA:
Had full hot breakfast Newcastle - Brisbane (1250km/780m/1 hour) on a Qantaslink whisperjet (Bae 146-200); also all major routes in Australia, BNE-SYD, SYD-MEL, full hot meals (70 - 90 min flights). Had full lunch (turkey croissant et al) on flight down the coast to Sydney, 50 mins in a DASH-8. Australians get a bit pooey without at least a reasonable snack.

Even a snack (afternoon tea) on way back from Brisbane a couple of months ago had a brilliant meat pie with tomato sauce, some camembert cheese, onion marmalade, and great service -- 737-400 series!

It's never been clear to me why Americans put up with no meal services. How dumb. The bistro bag thing just really wouldn't "fly" here either.

And everyone else is using metal cutlery in the air, except for flights to the U.S. where some folks think it will prevent in-air nastiness.

Cheers!

</font>

Hi,

We get a hot breakfasts and hot dinners on A/BD short haul flights within the UK ( ie EDI/GLA- LHR/LGW flight times around 1hour).

Outside peaktimes we get the all day deli on BA ( sandwiches and cake) and a snack on BD.


On the low cost airlines- BYO (bring your own or buy your own)

AS Flyer.

Have you ever seen Aussie airfares? You get hot food flying for $66 MEL-SYD, SYD-BNE, etc, etc.

That's $33USD.

Cheers,

Justin

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Skystar:
AS Flyer.

Have you ever seen Aussie airfares? You get hot food flying for $66 MEL-SYD, SYD-BNE, etc, etc.

That's $33USD.

Cheers,

Justin</font>


You can thank Virgin Blue for those low fares. Did QANTAS offer really low fares prior to the entry of a low fare carrier? No is the only honest answer. If Virgin Blue continues to eat away at QANTAS profits with their low fares you will see an erosion in the service levels on your domestic flights as well. Air New Zealand is running into horrendous financial difficulties, Ansett is suffering as we all know. Can you not attribute their high costs to any of this? If you really believe that they are able to offer all this service and still make money then you are lying to yourself. Low cost airlines have only recently been able to thrive in Australia - as the effects of those low fares settle in you will see reductions in the service. Just look at the U.S. air service for an example of what happens when the fares fall to such low levels.

I don't believe the hypothesis that good service = financial difficulty is true. US airlines offer cruddy service AND are in horrible financial difficulties that rival those of Australian airlines. And it's not even all due to 9/11 either. I think the main problem is that airlines in the US no longer even think of themselves as service businesses. The US airline culture is that they are there to transport you from one place to another, and service is an anachronism left over from a bygone era.

Believe what you want. It's true that it doesn't cost anything to smile and treat people well, something the U.S. airlines don't always do well, as opposed to their foriegn counterparts. Service, in terms of being able to offer hot meals on 30 minute flights and open bars and newspapers and extra flight crew members, is dependant on the revenue being produced. Take a look at the European airlines. They are currently a little further behind their U.S. counterparts and ahead of their Australian and Latin American counterparts, in terms of "airline evolution" goes. That is to say that no frills/low fare airlines are rapidly taking over many shorter, inter-continental routes in Europe. They are driving the prices down as well as the service levels. You see some European airlines starting to offer bagged snacks instead of hot meals, no seat assignments on some flights. The frills are slowly starting to disappear. They are going in the same direction as the U.S. airlines. The Australian airlines (or airline - singular - I should say) are just beginning to face low fare/no frills competition. They are bleeding $$$ left and right anyway. As the fare levels drop, so too will the service levels. Take a look around you. It's not just a U.S. thing - we are just a little further ahead in the evolution of airlines. A sign of things to come you might say. IMHO of course.