bubbashow

DL will provide complimentary catering again in Y from MSP, ATL and JFK to HNL starting September 15. Good move. Too long for no meal service.


Edited to add: Obviously will be when JFK and MSP seasonal flights restart.

Free booze starting as well throughout the cabin.

Main Meal/Midflight Beverage with Biscoff&Peanuts/Pre-arrival snack.

Added: Not on Delta.com yet, but announced internally.

jdrtravel

Good move. It was insane they they were ever flying 8 and 10 hour routes without meals.

flyerCO

Probably a pushback to stop Congress from mandating meals. Recently the subject of meals on Hawaii flights was brought up in Congress.

kop84

Totally Agree that this is a good move and it is a really long flight with only a small packet of pretzels or biscoffs, but is it that much of a hassle to bring a sandwich and an apple from home if you know you're going to be on that long a flight w/o meals?

jdrtravel

Well no, it's not for most people. However, keep in mind that these are pretty long flights: JFK-HNL is 11:45, ATL-HNL 9:41 and MSP 9:00 so you really need two meals plus some snacks, and nothing will stay fresh that long so you're limited to nonperishables.

Also, there are probably lots of infrequent flyers on these routes who (reasonably) assume that a flight of this length would include meals when flights that are much shorter JFK-Europe include meals. I am sure the FA's were beyond tired of responding to customers who were rather upset to learn than they were going to spend the next 12ish hours with only a snack, especially if the BON ran out before they had a chance to order.

And finally, I would just say that while yes, one can bring one's own food, it's really inhospitable of the airline to expect that when you are paying good money for the seat and it is very easy for them to just cater the flight like they do with countless other flights from those very same airports and increase the fare a few bucks if they need to to cover the cost of the very inexpensive and simple meal they will undoubtably serve.

anon2k2

That's where regulation comes in: without mandating all airlines serve meals on a certain route or length, there's always the competitive edge of dropping fares a few dollars (and thus the meals) to poach passengers from other airlines, irrespective of the hard feelings aimed at the cabin staff. If there's anything learned over the last 35 years of deregulation, it's that cost cutting yields copycats, enhanced service does not.

jdrtravel

True. At least over the last 35 years--but I'm not sure this is still true. Now that airlines have much better capacity control, and far less competition, they seem to be competing on enhanced services again. We are not seeing the fare wars that we used to see, and onboard services have improved.

Renes Points

I can not believe Delta is flushing share holder value like this. If you want food buy food WFBF


If internal information like this were leaked in my company the employee would be fired on the spot!

will2288

Either way, these long flights to HNL are going to have unusual meal standards. Either they will be the only domestic flights in the country (other than HA) to have free meals, or they will be very long flights with no free meals. I suspect that either way, a fairly large number of passengers will be surprised with the service, either getting an unexpected meal or not being served one they did expect.

Personally, I think it is fine to only have buy on board. BUT, the fact that they apparently frequently run out of buy-on-board options should have been addressed. No reason they can't find a way to have a larger supply of meals.

bubbashow

AA announced this months ago from DFW and (seasonal) ORD, but nobody else jumped on. I thought that was one move forward that was going to go down in flames. Good job DL. Flight too long to bring your own and not worry about food poisoning. When I flew HNLATL last November in Y, they were out of most BOB items by row 29.

TrojanTraveler

Assuming this is true, it's about time. This running out of food to buy on board was complete bs, and since it went on for years (not just of few months of catering issues, but years) it really showed that DL didn't care. And for those pax who knew better, many of them would also bring stuff on board for snacks, such as a nut mix, and then be told there was a nut allergy on board. On each flight that I saw this happen, people ate their nuts (no pun intended) anyways, they were so hungry.

KDCAflyer

It's nice that the airlines are showing some signs of trying to improve the onboard product. It's quite welcome after years of cost cutting. It's good PR on their part. If the minority party gets congress back in the fall, I could see them going after the airlines hard. Senior members have already expressed a desire to do so, including the likely-to-be senate majority leader. I'd expect to see further improvements in the next few months.

Often1

Free meals in Y went away when marketing research showed that US consumers booked based on price and were quite happy to pay for meals, checked luggage, liquor and other incidentals. Search engines sealed the fate of the free meal. When a fare comes up $1 cheaper, it comes up first and market research shows that people book that without asking questions about what that $1 means.,

When roughly the same aircraft and crew serve two meals (even if breakfast is not quite a full meal) on the quick TATL hop, of course, two meals can be served going the other direction for the long-haul to HNL.

I'm guessing that this move by DL will see a next step which includes upgraded service in C+ and perhaps the option to purchase that upgraded meal in steerage if it's pre-ordered. On long-hauls where there isn't much SDC and most passengers have well-planned schedules, this is all doable.

jdrtravel

Because DL uses international wide-body a/c on this route, the next move might be to offer a true premium economy on these HNL routes when they roll out that product.

KenfromDE

Interesting to note that schedules for Dec. 2016 & May 2017 ATL/HNL still show food for purchase in coach. Have fingers crossed.