Originally Posted by
Xandrios
The problem is likely not the cost of the meal itself, as a comparison the numbers previously published when LH went BoB show incredibly low costs for meals. More likely it's the unions and, due to hot meals not having been offered for a while, there now being aircraft that would not support prepping hot meals (ie. no ovens). And this is something that is especially a problem for AF, they seem to suffer much more at the hands of very strong unions that at times seemingly try to run the company into the ground. Offering a choice of hot meal, preselection up to 48h, for minimal cost is absolutely possible (Look at Aegean doing it very successfully while their fares are half of AF's!) - but it does require an environment that allows this.
A few corrections:
• ovens do exist even on the A220s. Cabin crews still warm their meals in those ovens. And there was once an A220 flight departing from Geneva that didn’t have the usual catering loaded. Apparently, AF managed to get some meal trays from a local caterer and the business class cabin got hot omelettes. So that proves ovens exist. I think that pretending that A220s do not have enough ovens is better message than « we appeased the unions when we reduce the number of FAs accross the the A220 fleet so you only get cold shrimps with quinoa »
• even if the number of ovens is not enough, it is AF’s choice as some FA said. Ovens can be easily added.
• AY, LH, LX and IB now offer preorder meals. IB has a massive list of choices.
• as I said in another thread, with crewing levels was reduced in 2021 on some 777,787 and A220 and it has become difficult for AF to make improvements: the J bedding took a long time to get approved as some unions were against it. An improved second meal in Premium (only) is getting a massive backlash from unions and after a few tests, it seems to be going nowhere. BOB is most likely dead (for now).