Originally Posted by
GW McLintock
I am in a conference today and a couple of presenters from Alaska made some eye-opening comments about inflight service.
- Full meals take longer to eat. They want you to wear your mask for as much of the flight as possible.
- This is why small cold meals like wraps and F&C plates are being boarded instead of the classic full F meals.
- You will never see sunflower seeds as an onboard snack as these take forever to eat.
No word on when they will swap out the curry chicken wrap, we had to end before I had a chance to ask. -J.
Only once have I ever heard Alaska FA's specifically define what "actively eating or drinking" means - i.e. take a bite or a sip and put your mask back on.
I've been doing this anyway with the hot meals I bring onboard airline flights. It's simple to do and if more people were to employ this practice I see no reason why Alaska couldn't safely serve a hot casserole style dish like the Tom Douglas bowls.
Pandemic notwithstanding, I've logged enough miles to qualify for 75K this year and one thing I've seen a fair bit of is people ordering food or drink, having it on the tray in front of them and then leaving their masks off the entire time the food or drink is in front of them. I've watched a couple of passengers working on their laptops or reading while not wearing a mask and the FA's totally ignoring it because they had a beverage on their tray. What the FA didn't see or suspect was that in both cases these guys hardly touched their drinks. I mentioned this once to some flight attendants in the back and it was quite clear that they had no desire to address it. If it were Alaska policy to clearly explain what "actively eating and/or drinking" means vis a vis mask wear, perhaps it might result in a safe enough environment where they could safely serve those hot meals.
Call me a cynic, but unfortunately I see Alaska leadership continuing to fall back on what I consider a flimsy excuse for cheap and inexpensive meal service.