I dislike this change and love Asian carriers' service levels. But let's be serious: where is AC actually getting hurt? Low-cost, low-service North American carriers. Acting like UA is not going to hurt them with a huge majority of their customers.
(yes, this leads to the "but I spend as much as 100 of those people" angle. And that's true. But AC has for years been choosing to keep them, because they know you'll still choose AC over WS.)
* you being a hypothetical customer, not you
** WS being the competition within NA, not necessarily WS specifically
Keep in mind though, while you are not specifying "you" as in Nomad, yyznomad himself flies primarily internationally, so personally I find it a bit off to compare WS, AC and Asian carriers in the same sentence
Respectfully of course!
Acting like UA will in fact change my own purchasing behavior. The lack of a self serve bar sort of affects me, but sort of doesn't as while I fly only domestically for work, I head to the PPL when there is one.
If however, AC service ends up like UA, I'll be at WS so fast it won't be funny
Thank gosh for the odd SD who still gives a damn about their job. Anyways, I digress. But I see AC heading that way instead of getting better - and this bartender thing is an example of that.
"Bartenders" (I use this term lightly, they aren't real bartenders and they can't make "real" drinks - ask them for a Vesper, and they'll look at you funny)) cheapen the product. Heck, didn't we just have a really long thread about 1 particular bartender?