Originally Posted by
Adam Smith
It depends on how many they typically carry of each. I remember a UA flight with 16J where they catered 1 beef, 1 or 2 pasta, and 12 or 13 chicken. I think AC is usually less stupid about their ratios, but the fewer meals that aren't pre-ordering, the higher the chances of those getting asked early not being able to get get what they want.
Hmm effectively what's happening is there are fewer seats in the cabin. So to pick a simple example, say two meals and expected 50/50 split. Instead of 20 seats and having, say, 12 of each catered (20% overcatered). There may only be 5 seats without preselected meals so if they 20% overcater they might only have 3 of each. It's a lot easier for the distribution of those 5 to end up skewed and the fourth status customer to end up without their preference (1 in 16 chance) than for the 20 to end up skewed and the 13th status customer to end up without their preference (1 in 8192 chance). And it only gets worse with more selections and less even distributions.
On the other hand.... say they decide to cater the same number of extra meals regardless then in theory this should be *good* for everyone. The actual meals catered should match the demand more closely. In the above scenario they would stock 9 meals split between the two for 5 passengers so you're almost guaranteed your first choice even if you're the lowest status person to choose.
Fwiw it's not just the last minute booker this affects. It's anyone who doesn't know what they want to eat 72 hours ahead of time ...
But that's a bit like saying allowing customers to choose their own seats is a negative for last minute bookers because they might not get their favourite seat. Or for that matter allowing customers to buy tickets before the last minute is a negative for last minute bookers because there might not be any seats left when they want to fly...
I'm a bit puzzled by the comment that UA has fewer meals to preselect than on board. It seems to me that one of the natural advantages of preselecting meals is that you could offer people dozens or even hundreds of meals to choose from that you only have to board if someone preselects. Not unlike special meals and kosher meals etc. I would really love to be able to order a cold meal. One of the best airline meals I've had was a cold cured salmon meal. I've never seen that option since and it's sad. They can't cook things properly on board so why bother trying.