I have an issue regarding meal orders in J international that I had been meaning to ask. What is the proceedure on meal service and orders. See below.
Flight/Origin-Destination: AC80 YYZ-LIM
Date: July 19
Cabin: J (full fare paid)
Status: E
Onboard - J cabin:
If there was a delay, were you provided with timely updates? Was a delay of about 1 hour. Aircraft showed up at the gate late (from MX?) and was about 35 degrees C onboard as APU wasn't working (same with the Air Conditioning). Engines took a few tries to be started with alternate APU truck (needed two of them). We boarded and sat on the hot plane for about 45 mins waiting for them to start the engines with no AC. Crew appologized but that was basically it (obviously they were hot and there was nothing they could do)... wasn't a good start to a 8 hour flight sweating buckets and being "icky" for the rest of the flight. No joke of the 35 C temp either... the plane was probably in MX in the hot sun all day.
Was the IFE activated on the ground? Yes (although on AC81 on July 29th it wasn't until after takeoff - had the "welcome aboard" screen on until after annoucements.
Was a pre-departure beverage offered on the ground? Yup
Did crew offer to hang your jacket? n/a
Were newspapers & menus distributed and meal orders taken (Please specify when meal orders were taken - on the ground or in the air)? My other issue with this flight. Meal order was taken on the ground starting at the front of K to the back of K side... then front of A side to back of A side. My qualm with this was they were not taken by status or by fare class. The cabin had a number of upgraded folks on it (at gate and otherwise) and the time they came to me in 8A there was only 1 choice left. I was both on full fare paid J and E. I would have thought that the upgrades would have got last choice. Was irked about that.
Did crew offer a hot towel prior to the meal service? Yup
Approximately how long after take off did it take for the first meal service to be completed? (From takeoff to all items collected) - I would guess 2 hours... but really wasn't paying attention it wasn't anything annoying or too long.
How was the quality of all the meals? Couldn't complain except for lack of choice (see above) for main meal. The snack on 80 and 81 was some weird grilled cheese/ham sandwhich which was quite gross. It was still frozen on the inside (wasn't heated enough - both flights) and was greasy/heavy and not a very good airplane snack. I regretted eating it but was starved (on the after take off snack on AC81 LIM-YYZ). Suggest more heating or a change...
Did the cabin crew continiously top up the beverage of your choice throughout the flight? Had to wave them down and ask for refills.