What do You Value More In-flight? Sleeping or Dining?
 

Sleeping or Dining? Meal orders have been taken on the ground and no indication for flexible (hold-the-meal) dining has been indicated. International night flight - and a gentle nudge invokes no reaction. Is there a general preference to be woken up or to just stay down for the count until the next meal service?

Good question.

Here's how it was done on CX, SQ, LH and BR and one of my AC 7s, plus 3 recent AC 8s:

"Would you like to join us for dinner service or would you prefer to sleep?
If you prefer to sleep, would you like us to serve you your main meal later on or would you prefer just something light?"

Also asked in most of these cases: "Would you like to be woken for breakfast or would you prefer to sleep longer?"

Brilliantly executed by all but especially the teams on 7/8 as I did not expect them to ask.

That's a tough one. It really depends on what I have to do on day of arrival. If work, sleep is a priority... if day off, it will be dining...

Either way, I will try to let the FA or SD know.

R&F

I like the way BA does it on the YYZ-LHR flights. There is a full dinner service in the lounge, but an abbreviated dinner service in the air. As part of the pre departure beverage service they ask if you'll be sleeping or having dinner. If you want to sleep they leave you alone until breakfast.

That's a tough one.

If the pax has (fully) reclined their seat, I think it's fair to assume they don't want to be woken up.

If they look like they've just nodded off (with the seat in the uprigth position), I think a nudge and possibly talking at the client is a reasonable effort. To the degree possible, I think it would be nice to keep a cold tray handy for them (not sure whether those are locked away / disposed of after dinner time) in case they do wake up.

It's not uncommon for me to nod off during departure on late evening flights, but I generally "signal" that I want to have dinner by deploying the tray (which most FAs seem to understand).

Why cant we have the ability to eat the meal on the ground before taking off?
Esp on the YVR-YYZ red eye, or the ability to atleast get a quick bite(wrap, chips snacks etc

Additionally, I have flew AC's J about 10-12 times now, and with the exception of AC156, I can never request to be waken up for meal X hours into the flight. Very disappointing

Are you asking about the catered onboard meal to eat on the ground?
Never going to happen and I don't think it's a good idea even if logistis and catering can manage it.


As for eating in the MLL, the food is not what I consider to be acceptable pre-flight dining that comes anywhere near what is offered in the business lounges such as: ANA NRT and HND, CX HKG (Pier J, Bridge etc), BA SIN, QF SIN, SQ SIN, SQ LHR, BR TPE, etc

I'd even consider some of the food offered the *A @ HKG (SQ, TG) to be quite good on some days.

I feel like this is something you can never win.

Sometimes I'd want to be woken, other times not.

Asking in advance is the best way to handle it, but then you better damn well follow the response, because at that point, I'm putting my faith in you.

I'm still annoyed that SQ asked me if I wanted to be woken up for my second meal, I said yes, and they did not wake me up.

Sleeping. Arriving well-rested and peckish is better than arriving with a full tummy but sleep-deprived. Much easier to solve the former problem.

But we're presupposing a need for FAs to guess. Being able to articulate one's mealtime preference to an FA should be a no-brainer mandatory pre-flight item. Why can't this question be answered prior to pushback?

As an aside, are there many travellers who place a higher value on the inflight food than the comforts associated with premium cabin travel?

Why not?

Which is why I am making this request :)

Really? How long should they delay the departure - until they've cleared away your cheese plate?

I think it would be great if AC offered proper pre-flight dining in the lounge, especially for flights that take off after 8pm.

Why do they have to clear it away?
A nice sandwich is all I am asking for. Doubt they have to clean away that by law?

You've pretty much nailed how I would handle it. Fully reclined (with the duvet over the head) sends a pretty clear message, whereas partially reclined and nodded off, would warrant a light tap & perhaps even leave the appetizer tray there for a reasonable/brief period of time. Cheese, dessert and light snacks are almost always available, and the actual tray w/appetizer will be held until there are signs of life -- more often than not, it is declined.

You may have noticed that boarding is a pretty chaotic time. Grabbing a chocolate bar, chips or nuts would certainly not be an issue.