Andaman

From 10 March 2011 business class passengers can order their main meal in advance for intercontinental flights.

Passengers can choose from three different menu options: Wellness and Energy (offering wellbeing and peace of mind), Food Lover’s Treat (wholesome home-cooked food) or Chef’s Gourmet (high-level gourmet cuisine).

Orders can be placed at the earliest 14 days and at the latest 24 hours before departure. Meals can be ordered online at the address www.finnair.com via the Manage my booking link.

http://www.finnairgroup.com/en/index.html

NoWindowSeat

I still think that AY should be able to offer better J catering available within their onboard menu.

Without a question, the competition to/from Asia are kicking AY's as* on this front and it seems that they try to give a small response via a cost cutting route - not by upgrading their whole offering.

teme

I have not flown the major asian carriers long haul in business class (only intra asian routes), but what I've heard Finnair surely has some room for improvement in their business class food offerings when compared with asian carriers.
If you compare Finnair with other european carriers (BA, SAS, Iberia etc), however, I think Finnair food and drink offerings are good, definitely above average. I had 5 long hauls with British Airways last year and every time was some what dissapointed with their onboard catering. Even wrote a complain once about the flight where not only the food was poor but the cabin was so dirty that started my flight cleaning the seating area by myself.

Interesting to see how this pre order meal kicks off - maybe I'll try it by myself next month when going to Shanghai.

JoWa

Well, I´ve now tried "Manage your booking" at both finnair.com and finnair.se to book meal for my BKK-HEL flight March 18.

Neither of them lead me to anything food related though.,,

mosburger

Simpler categories would be: Finnish/Scandinavian (aka wholesome), Classic European (gourmet) and Asian (wellness) For Asian routes the wellness pre-order meal should follow dominant national tastes.

NoWindowSeat

It's not an excuse that someone else is even worse...anyway I agree that IB is bad, it's really bad. BA can be ok at times and we have to remember they have much better lounge food at their home base + they have F as well. I actually like the food both on AA and CX J over BA/AY. Haven't flown SQ J recently so cannot comment on that but I would guess it's way above AY and might even be better than CX.

NoWindowSeat

I tried to find it as well but can't find anything for my upcoming long haul J bookings..also strange that AY didn't bother to inform their plus members about this..

joorinainen

Actually i think that this is also part of the cost cutting. They try to map what people eat and on the same time they avoid taking something onboard what people don't want.

nordic

I agree with Joorinainen that the reason is cost-cutting. Why not offer all the business class choices including the SFML option available on any of the long-haul routes leaving the same day. That would give real choices. On flights from outstations this would be more problematic. On the other hand they do offer special meals so it would be possible to offer one or two extra options also from outstations.

TTL

A clever move. Long hauling dead weight is total waste.

People do preorder SPML:s. Why not make that easy and extend the habit also to regular meals? I like the idea.

Ed Size

This not really looks like a choice to me. Also you can t find the options in your booking. Maybe the AY PR department should talk to the IT guys.

Also it makes no sense to make a choice out of three options if you know that they will have all the three options on board anyway.

WilcoRoger

Actually the concept could be made into an extra value-added one (but I don't expect a Finnish co to do that)

Simply offer a VERY wide coice of meals (and even "put together your own meal") for at least ex-HEL l/h flights - the customer would get a very personalised service (that's a concept that Finnish co's don't normally grab) while at the same time save money by loading only what was preordered. If the pax don't pre-order anything, than it's the run of the mill J service for them. Next time they'll pre-order

teme

I just checked my booking for up coming trip to China and found out that pre order of meals is now possible.
You are able to see to standard J class menu that will be offered on you flight and choose one of the main courses to make sure you will have you preffered one. In addition, for ex-HEL flight you are able to choose from three extra main course (Wellness and EnergyFood Lover's Treat and Chef’s Gourmet as mentioned before).

I was pleasantly suprised with this new concept (if it works in reality as well). Not only you will have some extra choise for ex-HEL flight, but you will be able to see the whole menu for your flight in advance. In case only one of the main courses sounds tempting, you can reserve it and avoid possible dissapointment on the plane if you choice has run out. Of course, if you don't like to know what will be served onboard in advance, you can do it the old way. You should still have the option of three main courses onboard.

NoWindowSeat

That's the way it should be. I still cannot find anything for my bookings, maybe I'm just studid or something but luckily I'll eat almost anything and I've very rarely had my first choice declined on AY l/h J.

NoWindowSeat

OK, now I found it..maybe I'll give it a go on one upcoming JFK run where eating is part of the day flight anyway..just to see how it works and to see what's the quality.