DineFresh (Int'l Premium Meals)

 
Old Aug 30, 2012, 3:28 pm
  #16  
 
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I see this DineFresh for the first time today. In general I would say it looks like a good idea (AirFrance is testing something similar on intra European flights but with a much better variety). The choices US offers look a bit limited. Maybe three choices like something with meat, a veggie and a organic choice with one hot item would be a better offering instead of two cold choices.
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Old Aug 30, 2012, 6:00 pm
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by CLT
I just hope US isn't using this as a trial to see if pax will be willing to pay for meals on long haul.
Icelandair charges for meals in Y on their TATL flights, some of which are 9+ hours. People don't seem to have any problem paying for it...
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Old Aug 31, 2012, 5:14 am
  #18  
 
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Seeing as the Domestic Y catering usually comes cold anyway, I'll stick to that! Joking aside, it has improved in the last few years though, but somehow I've never managed to have their 'caprese salad' without both the tomatoes and the mozzerella frozen solid.
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Old Aug 31, 2012, 4:47 pm
  #19  
 
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Well, I guess I'll be a guinea pig for this, then

I'm flying CLT-FRA tonight and decided to try out the DineFresh meal. (Since I'm on work, and there's not One Flew South like in ATL, I figure I'm not necessarily missing out on much by trying it out.) I'll let the folks know when I find out, and I'm going to try to be fair in my comments.

--Comments--

Well, I'll admit that it was a step up from the standard meal (based on the appearance of my seatmate's meal), but it wasn't worth the $20. Presentation was pretty decent overall, but that was probably the best part. It's worth mentioning that I tend to prefer very full flavors, so Indian dishes, Thai Dishes, and well-seasoned Italian dishes are among my favorites.

I had the vegetarian option, which consists of a caprese salad, baba/hummus, tortellini, and cheesecake. The caprese salad, which had some wilted basil, simply had no flavor - not much salt. I liked the baba/hummus - well-seasoned, although it didn't taste especially "fresh." The tortellini portion was quite small compared to what I might have expected for an entree (the salad and dessert were comparatively large) and again lacked seasoning (I couldn't taste the sun-dried tomatoes that were supposedly there), and the cheesecake felt grainy (lacked good texture) and one-dimensional.

If this was a complementary coach meal, I would have been happy (although I would have preferred a smaller slice of cheesecake and a little more fruit, as well as more seasoning). That said, in terms of taste, I preferred meals from Emirates and Air India that I've had in coach (for free). If it shows my expectations are skewed, so be it - but I'd expect at least (and probably better than) the quality of an international coach meal if I'm paying $15-20 (while I had the wine, I certainly could have gone with water and been just as happy.)

If you have any questions, please let me know and I'll follow up the best that I can.

PS - To respond to the above poster, neither the tomatoes nor cheese were frozen, which is a big plus.

Last edited by gmax58; Sep 1, 2012 at 6:23 am
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Old Oct 4, 2012, 2:17 am
  #20  
 
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First Class Meals in Coach for $?

I'm traveling to Rome on the A333 this week - alas, Envoy is sold out, so can't use my CP upgrades. I received the an email about ordering a special "DineFresh meal". Has anyone tried this meal? Is it worth the extra cost?

We now offer a selection of premium meals accompanied by your choice of wine. Why not treat yourself to citrus-marinated chicken skewers or vegetarian Portobello mushroom tortellini on your way to Rome? Order a DineFresh meal for $19.99, and your flight attendant will bring it right to your seat.

It would have to be really good to justify the $20 charge.
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Old Oct 4, 2012, 8:06 am
  #21  
 
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Maybe read the post just above yours.
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Old Oct 4, 2012, 4:22 pm
  #22  
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UA did this on their PS flights, Y passenager could order a speical meal ($25/pp) which was really an excellent meal, but they have since dropped this.

Now how would this work out if say, you missed your connection who would be responsible for this??

Originally Posted by airb330
Apparently US is launching premium meals for international flights. I know UA has tried this on certain routes, and ANA offers one as well for around $100. US's is much more affordable at $19.99 with a glass of wine included. I consider US's BOB meals the best in the USA so this might not be too bad of a value.

The standard two free meals will still be provided.

http://www.usairways.com/en-US/trave...maincabin.html
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Old Oct 4, 2012, 5:07 pm
  #23  
 
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Originally Posted by FlightNurse
...Now how would this work out if say, you missed your connection who would be responsible for this??
DineFresh FAQs:

Q. What if I change (miss) my flight?
A. If you voluntarily change your flight, just cancel your order at least 24 hours prior to your original scheduled departure time. Thereafter, no cancellations can be processed. If you miss your flight due to irregular operations, you're entitled to a full refund. Just submit an online refund request. If you voluntarily change flights within 24 hours of your scheduled departure time, your meal will not be transferred with you and you will forego your order. However, if you are involuntarily bumped from a flight and rerouted, you'll get a refund.
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Old Oct 5, 2012, 2:05 am
  #24  
 
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Originally Posted by geo1005
Maybe read the post just above yours.
Thread was merged, hence the sequence
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Old Oct 5, 2012, 9:06 am
  #25  
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I had a good laugh, it is nice that it is in writting however, we are talking about US now aren't we, and we all know what thier motto is, right....

We Are US Airways, we are consistently inconsistent.

Originally Posted by kudzu
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Old Oct 5, 2012, 12:25 pm
  #26  
 
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Originally Posted by FlightNurse
...we are talking about US now aren't we, ...
Well, US appears confident enough about the DineFresh product to refund your money later if you don't like the meal. From the FAQs,

Q. What if I don't like the meal I requested?
A. You'll need to request a refund through DineFresh. No refunds are available on board.
As yet, there's no similar offer to refund your ticket price if you don't like your US flights
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Old Oct 5, 2012, 2:28 pm
  #27  
 
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Haha, this is great. Mrs. Skaps21 and I each have a $25 allowance when booking tickets with credit card points, so we applied it to our PHL-MAD flight tomorrow night. Good to know we can request a refund if the meals are crap!
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Old Nov 8, 2012, 7:58 am
  #28  
 
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Thank you for this review, gmax58! I wanted to resurrect this thread to see if anyone else has tried the DineFresh option. I have a flight coming up and was also wondering if it was worthwhile, as there could have been some tweaks/improvements made since the feature was debuted over a month ago.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by gmax58
Well, I guess I'll be a guinea pig for this, then

I'm flying CLT-FRA tonight and decided to try out the DineFresh meal. (Since I'm on work, and there's not One Flew South like in ATL, I figure I'm not necessarily missing out on much by trying it out.) I'll let the folks know when I find out, and I'm going to try to be fair in my comments.

--Comments--

Well, I'll admit that it was a step up from the standard meal (based on the appearance of my seatmate's meal), but it wasn't worth the $20. Presentation was pretty decent overall, but that was probably the best part. It's worth mentioning that I tend to prefer very full flavors, so Indian dishes, Thai Dishes, and well-seasoned Italian dishes are among my favorites.

I had the vegetarian option, which consists of a caprese salad, baba/hummus, tortellini, and cheesecake. The caprese salad, which had some wilted basil, simply had no flavor - not much salt. I liked the baba/hummus - well-seasoned, although it didn't taste especially "fresh." The tortellini portion was quite small compared to what I might have expected for an entree (the salad and dessert were comparatively large) and again lacked seasoning (I couldn't taste the sun-dried tomatoes that were supposedly there), and the cheesecake felt grainy (lacked good texture) and one-dimensional.

If this was a complementary coach meal, I would have been happy (although I would have preferred a smaller slice of cheesecake and a little more fruit, as well as more seasoning). That said, in terms of taste, I preferred meals from Emirates and Air India that I've had in coach (for free). If it shows my expectations are skewed, so be it - but I'd expect at least (and probably better than) the quality of an international coach meal if I'm paying $15-20 (while I had the wine, I certainly could have gone with water and been just as happy.)

If you have any questions, please let me know and I'll follow up the best that I can.

PS - To respond to the above poster, neither the tomatoes nor cheese were frozen, which is a big plus.
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Old Dec 3, 2012, 7:08 pm
  #29  
 
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And it's tough to think that only ten years ago wine was complimentary in coach:

http://web.archive.org/web/200008150...al/service.htm
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Old Dec 3, 2012, 9:35 pm
  #30  
 
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Originally Posted by thomwithanh
And it's tough to think that only ten years ago wine was complimentary in coach:

http://web.archive.org/web/200008150...al/service.htm
Looking at the economy class ptvs. same exact ones i had when was on a 333 clt-fco-clt. in 2010...thankfully that is all changed now.
Feels weird seeing that at the time Usairways 333's were the only aircraft with PTV's throughout the entire cabin.
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