Air Canada Mystery - The Case of the Missing Kit Kats
 

Over the past year, I've noticed an increase in a shortage of snacks (the basket items) on some flights (in my case TPACs and transcons). One friend told me his SYD-YVR didn't even have the snack bags.

(I suppose I could have titled this post "I paid $5,000 for this ticket and I want my Kit Kat")

When I asked the crew, the answers were:

"Oh, sorry, it was a catering error."

"There was only one bag on the inbound."

And my personal favorite:

"This is all we got"


I hate to be FWP about this, but seriously, how do you have so many frequent "catering errors" without it really becoming SOP?

I am not convinced they were catering errors so much as accounting is trying to cut back on the little things and the crew is left to apologize and/or, the outbound flight was double-catered for the return, but for some reason, crew opened a snack bag meant for the second flight.

I've seen many times where the good snacks (kit kats) are not put in the basket / etc and are left in the original bag or on the very very top cubby of the galley, or left tucked away in the galley somewhere etc.

Cost-cutting for sure.

No doubt.

I would be interested to hear if anyone else is willing to be an onboard "mystery shopper" of sorts and report back if your flights are missing Kit Kats - or even entire snack bags, and if you dare to ask, what they crew replies are.

I've definitely seen some pretty threadbare snack baskets.

Double-catering doesn't help on some flights either.

Or some pax taking 2 or 3 at a time. One HKG flight last year, the pax before me took the last four kit kat bars. I gave him a look and he gave me 1. Funny, how some complained when Kit Kats were introduced, now they are the hot item.

Because the Miss Vickie's reduced-salt/fat/taste/whatever chips taste like stale cardboard and the dark Lindts don't appeal to a lot of people who don't like very dark chocolate.

I miss the milk Lindts.

I don't know airline economics very well but are the margins so tight that cutting candy bars helping the bottom line that much ? There's literally nothing else that can be done ? Mind blown

Who said nothing else could be done?

The problem with big businesses is that because the volumes are so huge, even small dollar figures can amount to hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars across the corporation.

So yes, the bean counters undoubtedly keep an eye on the snack baskets and think about how to tweak them to improve profitability, along with the hot meals, which nuts to serve, which brand of soap to put in the lavs, etc.

I would turn this on its head and say that items that are very cheap in comparison with the cost of an international J ticket - a $0.15 (in bulk) KitKat that affects the customer's perception of her $5,000-10,000 ticket purchase - are the first and easiest thing to improve. Isn't that the whole idea behind, say, amenity kits which cost the airline perhaps $4 or $5 but are part of marketing a very expensive, luxury experience?

A very valid point and I would agree. The problem is when the cost-cutters get set loose without regard to the revenues they may be costing because their focus is very narrowly set on one particular goal, i.e. cutting costs.

It seems to me that this is what often happens at AC.

Me too.

Piss me off, and I'll stop flying your airline for 6 months.

I've done it twice.

Wait, I spent $20k, and that was with a half-year hiatus? :eek:

I wonder how many of me there are. Wouldn't take too many to hire someone intelligent to deal with us.

There's only one canadiancow! Unless they're going to clone you like Dolly the sheep...

But as to the rest of your post, you would think so, but clearly AC doesn't. Remember the thread about lack of incentive to fly past 100K and how little some of AC's (formerly) biggest flyers like Dorian and yyznomad felt they were recognized.

Lowly bottom-feeder SEs like you and me don't stand a chance.

Its a Kitspriacy, run at the highest level of AC.

No, it's just penny-pinching, not seeing the forest for the trees. It happens in many organizations.