TTC192Rocket

I have no problem with the food (mostly), but please change the salad dressing, or at least provide French, Italian, Caesar, etc.

The rolls I find, are often too hard, and the butter still frozen. Mmm, ice butter... but I prefer it in HK inside my pineapple buns

karachi

There is always the option of 'book the cook' type service that can be pre-ordered a few days ahead. AC would be able to offer a more diverse and longer menu, and use the stats to gauge popularity of various dishes.

songsc

Hard product wise, totally agree.

But to put things into perspectives, when project XM and 777s were rolled in 2007, AC was one of the first carriers to provide lie-flat seats with direct aisle access in J. That's when people were happy to fly TATL in big recliner seats. Back then people were not complaining about cabin cleanliness or food quality. Sometime when I scroll back a couple hundred pages on this forum, I am a bit surprised at how things have changed in 10 years. Back then people got so excited to fly on the 777 or XMed 767s. When dreamliners were rolled out in 2014, that excitement was gone. A couple months after the initial roll out, people started to notice the poor cleanliness and maintenance, the food quality...

IMO project XM definitely made AC standing out among its competitors, while the current Dream Cabin is simply AC following the trend.

24left

And we have repeatedly asked for this. The answers posted on this forum as well las ones I've heard from AC staff have been "we tested it".

So, either AC logistics are not up to the task or AC would rather lower the quality and quantity than provide the ability to pre-order. There also still seems to be failure to deliver a percent of special meals that are ordered. IMHO, this is not an accident. You pay the caterer. You, Air Canada, either know exactly what you are paying for and thus special meals are ordered and boarded, or you have no idea what is going on with the catering.

It doesn't matter if AA only offers 2 choices domestically, or 4 internationally, they along with BA, BR and SQ, for example, all offer pre-order of some type.

If AC doesn't want to do it, either they haven't figured out how to do it efficiently and accurately, or they think it will cost more to implement.

yyznomad

Right. I dot disagree with you on this... I said I thought the DreamCabin is better than XM in J because I thought you were alluding to the hard products getting worse.

songsc

Aha I see. In the post you first quoted I was mostly focusing on the soft product side.

karachi

well, they fancy their J class to be quite the premium experience, so I wouldnt discount the chances of it happening soon. The efforts you describe arent trivial, but they're also not rocket science. AC are spending their current IT cycles putting in e-up bidding. The logistics are similar to ordering special meals, so its not a mystery. if you have the will and the IT guys, it can happen.

longtimeflyin

It's one thing to ask for an experience when one can ask to choose a meal, but another to ask for meals that are at least at par with international competition for meals selected on board. In both cases, Air Canada fails to deliver. The meal quality has certainly diminished since Canadian Airlines ceased operations and I strongly believe Air Canada's main meal priorities are to simply provide sustenance that is above its primary competition in the United States.

How long has it been since Andrew Yiu said on FlyerTalk that a system would be in place that would allow flyers to choose a meal ahead of their flight?

24left

Further to my point about AC failing to deliver many special meals, see comments in this short thread from 2 years ago.

Also note the posts re pre-ordering meals.

"Pre-order meals, valet service? ..."

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...s-valet-2.html

gcashin

Is AC still ahead of its US competitors when it comes to meals? 2 years ago I would have said yes overall. AA and DL seem to have some nice options, and even UA, which has been a laggard when it comes to meals, seems to be ahead of AC. UA's refreshed meals for their Polaris overseas service is a definite step above AC's overseas. Most of UA's domestic meals are even better IMO, and have a lot more variety with some more interesting dishes like lobster mac and cheese.

AC seems to be slightly more generous in offering meals on some short-haul flights (e.g. 500-700 mile flights where some US carriers don't offer a meal), but the other NA carriers seem to have upped their game while AC has been stable to declining in meal quality.

Transpacificflyer

Always, so on the money. I will post some depressing pics from a recent TPAC YYZ-ICN. So sad. AC does not wish to offer a pre-order option.It is cheaper not to do so. The airline apparently does not have the intellectual capital to manage such an option and seems to operate under the view that customers won't switch because of the food.

You are of course correct in your original premise, and again so very right in this regard. The airline has put a priority on squeezing profits, not on gaining profits through delivering a quality product that customers seek out. I call the AC strategy, the Bingo Hall approach. It's run by people who miss the days when they accompanied grandma to a smoke filled basement hall to play the game.

Bullseye. AC doesn't want to hear from people like you. You dispersed the haze and BS fumes the airline has been spewing.


Despite the claims that the airline has lowered its prices, I disagree. My TPACs are now 10% -15% higher than last year. And as a reward, they offer me cold clumped mac & cheese in the MLL.

Aspan

Yeah, just did AC7. Good flight, 2 excellent SDs and food that was not very good. Tried the beef stir fry for something different, terrible. Dried out pieces of camel dung with a few limp veggies and a dollop of rice. The ravioli light meal was so so. I guess the liquid flowing around the plate was olive oil, I hope.
Considering the enthusiastic service put forward by the onboard team, serving this quality of food must be disheartening.
Management should really take note.
Due to J pricing, I usually fly JAL or Eva to the far east but was using an IKK j redemption and to give credit IKK worked well, booking 1week out. Food may not be up to SQ standards but a least it is palatable.

sokolov

Even in Economy, I'd be happy to pay for a decent meal. Not those wraps.

lespoir

If Ben Smith truly believes AC is a "best-kept secret global airline", as his customers told him, he had better work on J-class cabin food products and make real improvements. I used to eat the J-cabin food many years ago, but these days I have appetite for anything. They used to have warm tarts and ice creams.

Not sure why I do not see AC j-cabin prices come down....YYC-NRT and YYC-LHR or any European cities, all like $8000 for round trips.

Nitehawk

Since I'm not cool enough to do extensive INTL flying I have to complain about the domestic meals. I don't fly all that much, but after 8,000 AQD so far this year I'm underwhelmed and the meals keep repeating themselves.

Completely unimpressed with the chicken thigh and maple aleppo aioli sauce on brown rice that I just suffered through on AC191 tonight. I've seen it on what feels like at least 10 recent flights. The bbq chicken and grits catered out of ATL, and IAH on the other hand is actually decent IMO. I had the lamb on AC102 yesterday, also no good. Cannelloni with olives is quite a bit better than the chicken but i'm still very underwhelmed.

I wish YYZ-YYJ would become a PLH route, now that it's been rouged that's definitely not happening.


What's with the slow menu rotation? I've had the same chicken and the same cannelloni what feels like countless times. I'm going to have to start ordering SPMLs just for variety!