Originally Posted by BWISkyGuy

I've been flying through SLC a lot for work lately, and I've noticed this pattern. SLC flights are double-catered, and I knew the east coast return flights got the baked desserts and not the standard 1,300 mile catering, but I guess I assumed the westbound flights still got the standard catering because they wouldn't have holding issues. IME though, at least in my limited experience, the outbound segments have the same dessert as the returns. The only thing I can think is that the double-catering impacts the cart packout, either because of the space needed overall or the logistics with the frozen items. Just a guess though, based on seeing the pattern (and the cart logistics on these flights).

Originally Posted by FlightNurse

The return catering is stored in the back gallery on the trip out west, and while on the ground in SLC, the carts are moved. I would also assume that the desserts are more "shelve" stable on the return.

Originally Posted by BWISkyGuy

That's similar to how I thought it worked... But I'm not sure why we've been getting the pastry desserts roundtrip (on at least that route, if not more of the double-catered ones.)