Originally Posted by bigred93

I finally got my call back from CA last night, they said that they spoke with the folks who manage catering and they "seriously doubt that there will ever again be hot food in first class on the PHL - PHX route". I think it's probably fair to assume that if they're not going to cater PHL - PHX they won't cater flights to LAX, SFO, or SEA either.

So... in a nutshell, they've continued to devolve the first class product, they've dramatically reduced opportunities to cash in miles for regular rewards, and now (as others have found on summer Europe routes) they're creating blackout zones for supposedly non-restricted premium awards.

It's hard to escape two conclusions. First, however much we (at least I) disagree, they're saying essentially that the only option for survival here is to admit that a seat on a plane is a commodity product and nothing else matters. The market for a truly premium product isn't meaningful, nor is the support of frequent, repeat customers. Second, that they're one for three - they haven't yet hit low cost or low fare, but they've hit the bullseye on low quality.

It's such a shame - there are some really good people working for this airline, at least on the front lines.