Originally Posted by
Often1
I do think that you will see the pre-order a premium class meal for service in Y thing become popular and be offered on a broader array of flights. So long as it's paid for in advance and unbundled from the fare, it's a profit center. But, trust me you'll see pages of rants about carriers wanting $50 for 2 meals on a flight and so on.
I'd love to see that, but I see U.S. carriers messing up long-haul J/F meal service so much that I'm not sure if they can logistically pull it off. It'd be nice if they'd start with a well-publicized offering that anyone with a confirmed J/F seat 24 hours in advance of the flight can preselect their meal. Not an end-around by selecting one of today's special meals, but a standard offering.
If they get that working right, then offer good food in Y for a price. $50 for 2? I'm skeptical that they can get their quality level high enough to command $25/meal, but if they can I'm buying. Maybe it's a bundle...appetizer, wine, dessert, entree...I guess if they can figure out how to produce "Applebee's quality" (a lofty culinary standard indeed...for the airlines
), then $50 for 2 with drinks is approximately right.
Originally Posted by
ksandness
The U.S. carriers excuse their poor service by telling us that we care ONLY about low fares. However, many people pay extra for more leg room and others make a point of taking foreign carriers on overseas flights or seeking out supposedly low-cost carriers that offer better service than the legacy carriers.
As long as it's an add-on, some of us will buy it. It's not whether we care or don't care about low fares: it's that for an airline to sell me a seat, frequently it must appear as the cheapest option (or in a tie for that honor) in corporate travel systems. Airline A sells a TCON for $300 R/T, buy-on-board. Airline B has sells a TCON for $310 R/T with a meal included. If Airlines A and B are direct competitors...lots of flights on a route, all nonstop...then a lot of people never even see Airline B listed as an option to buy. You just see an entire page of permutations of Airline A's flights.
I know, because a lot of times I want Airline B and I have to go digging for it and finagling my desired departure times to make them a "legal" selection in my corp travel system. Any of us who use a corp travel engine to book flights have probably been there. It's easier when AA and UA have identical prices: then I can be a Star guy and the guy in the office next to mine can be a Oneworld guy and neither of us have to catch any flak for flying "our" airline.
If I then go buy Economy Plus, F upgrades, BOB, etc...it's no big deal.
Originally Posted by
maradori
The tapas box? That's the only one I find somewhat worth the price.
That's it. The Tapas box. I'm never on a flight long enough to get that Asian noodle option... Just the packaged boxes.