Doing a lot of short-haul, intra-California flights, I've had this "limited" service now-and-then, when there were no obvious service constraints (choppy air, faster flight time than expected, etc). I suspect that some of these limited flights might be motivated by the crew's desire to ensure that every customer gets a beverage, as opposed to running out of time to do the full cart service 5 rows from the last row to be served. I've never been refused my choice of something else and have also noticed some other pax requesting and getting their individual choices.
OTOH, WN, which I've started to use for greater schedule reliability in intra-Calif. flights, has shorter flight times and does more of an order-anything you want and we'll fill it from the nearer galley a few rows at a time, did run out of time on yesterday's 56-min. flying time nearly-full ONT-OAK, "700" type. Crew apologized several times for any rows which did not get a beverage.
I think that the challenge with both carriers is that bev. service often does not begin until flight is at "final/cruise" altitude; and the time between arrival at cruise and being well into the descent is not that great on these flights - maybe 15-20 mins. or so. That may not be a problem for an E175 or a lightly-booked 319, but wlll be for a 738/739 or a full 737-700.
Last edited by Ocn Vw 1K; Oct 20, 2018 at 10:58 am