NoWindowSeat

You need try everything once...I always thought...I went for this pre-order thing earlier this week on AY5 and I must say I was extremely dissapointed..maybe it was just a one time incident and/or bad luck but the reindeer I had (Chef's Gourmet choice) was simply not there, overcooked, dry, tastless, you name it..horrible stuff...any 2-3eur supermarket microwave meal would have beaten it hands down.

Also, Martell Gordon Blue gone from AY long haul J, only Remy Martin VSOP on offer..some time ago they had both but it seems to have been just to phase Martell out..

AY:

Looking forward to AA First dinner service later today, atleast it can't be any worse than AY's lunch affair..

joorinainen

It seems that AY is busy with plans of fattening the wallets of their executives and kicking personnel from their service rather than making their product more lucrative and competitive. I just wait when some other carrier get's it act together and crushes AY's "asian strategy". No love from me!

tentativetraveller

User eXperience is unbeliveably crap. In fact the web site is pretty much useless for selecting the exact food I want...

NoWindowSeat

Could not agree more...I played with selection for the first time since April (and my terrible reindeer affair on AY5 as described above) with no real intention to book anything, just wanted check what they currently offer..happy to go with the standard menu for my next Asian leg..

intuition

Yeah, I think it was a good idea with a bad implementation.
I theory it is a win-win: the customer get exactly what he wants and the airline can save money by not loading more food than needed.

But this is a service where the airline really needs to deliver on the promise, or it will backfire. I mean, if you advertise pictures like this,
you cannot get away with even one bad serving.

Maybe they have too few people ordering special meal, and therefore fail to keep quality up. I mean, if there is only an odd plate now and then. (explanation, not an excuse)


As for the lack of Martell Cordon Bleu I share your disappointment. I heard somewhere that Martell is actually having trouble keeping up with world demand, so it could be an involuntary phase-out. Still, it is a from me too...

intuition

Today I tried to use this service, and none of the "Meals designed for you" appeared under "manage my booking". I could see and order any of the SPML, but not the special business class meals.

I called the AY+ service centre, and they couldn't make the meal-booking either. They had to send the task further up the organization (something she called the internet-department). In any case, this really confirms my previous thoughts that this was an good idea that never got implemented properly.

Well, I have no expectations of this being something good, I am just testing it out in the "you need to test everything once"-spirit

NoWindowSeat

The whole function seems to be gone..I cannot see the option on any of my current long haul reservations.

intuition

There still are many references all over the site to this service, which seems strange if they cancelled it. But anything is possible.
As the service centre promised a conformation mail when they registered my pre ordered meal, and no mail have arrived, I am wondering if it is just tech malfunction. If Ay themselves can't access the preorder system and back office cant fix it in a day, then it is more to it than just a temporary tech problem

ginger50

I just went online for a long haul flight ex HEL on 28 December and was able to select one of 3 business options:
Option 1
Sea bass fried in lemon butter on a bed of stewed fennel
Option 2
Mediterranean tortellini in pesto cream sauce
Option 3
Grilled spring chicken with port wine sauce, chčvre risotto

Or one of the three "standard" offerings:
Wellness and Energy
Food Lover’s Treat
Chef’s Gourmet

Ms G50 has gone for Option 3, and I have gone for Chef's Gourmet... I will report back!

mosburger

I could still think of a clearer preorder divide on longhauls:

Option 1: Asian (depending on route Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean etc. dish, on New York flights rotating Asian)

Option 2: Scandinavian/Finnish "husmanskost"

Option 3: French/Mediterranean "haute" cuisine

Option 4: French/ Mediterranean "light/healthy" cuisine

Keep it simple...

intuition

Is it under "manage my booking" and then below the section for seat selection? Still nothing visible for me, only then SPML "vegetarian", "low cal",...

^ yes, absolutely. Too many marketing people in the group who decided on the concept... If I love food, is "chef's gourmet" a better choiche than "food lovers"?!? And isn't a gourmet a food lover aswell??

intuition

I never got any message back about if the meal order went through, so I didn't expect it to work. But to my surprise I got the chef's gourmet meal / reindeer steak.
I found it better than the other meals on offer so I am happy with it. It was overcooked and a little dry (but reindeer is dry meat in itself). It was quite a large serving aswell.

Still no idea why the website didn't work for pre-order businesclass meals. Could it be so silly that it must be a ex-hel-intinnerary for it to work??? As my first flight was not ex-hel, maybe the options did not kick in in the drop down list?

OT
the Martell cognac is still missing, but they served a decent Renault XO

finflyer

Pre-order biz meal is great option. I only wish the quality of the food would be better. When I flew in Finnair biz last time HKG-HEL my chicken was not suitable for human consumption or my teeth need sharpening. My seat mate did not touch his meal either, that was somekind of beef. I wrote them a nice letter and got reply after 45 days. Reply said in short "too bad and we are sorry that you did not like your meal" thats it Allthough as a Finn myself, did not expect much in customer service.

ginger50

Ms G50 and I had pre-ordered our meals for a HEL-BKK flight last night and lo the meals were delivered.

Turbulence delayed meal delivery so they were not as hot as we would have wished, but I was more than satisfied with the result. I had the reindeer and it was tender and tasty.

The only thing that let the meal down was the wine. It was dire! The white was supposed to be a Montrachet but sadly it tasted as though it had been left out in the sun for a year and had gone VERY stale. The same taste pervaded the wines in the lounge(s) at HEL and the champagne when we boarded. This is a real shame because getting good wine is not tricky.

pswissoz

I just tried pre-booking my meals for my upcoming flight from SIN to HEL on the 11th. Besides the usual SPML I had the choice to pick between Options 1, 2 and 3. Only problem, no hint what the options might be. Guess I'll proceed as usual on this late flight and have dinner in SIN and just sleep through the dinner service.

Cheers from Brisbane,

pswissoz