Changeup2000

I never asked the free service seated in CR2 or DH4 because I thought it was only provided for flights with bistro service?

If the flight provides a Bistro service I usually remind the FA my ticket includes free drink and snack, thus avoiding stating my status.

MillennialMiles

Its offered on all flights. Sometimes you just have to proactively ask for it. I did ask the FA on a short DTW-YYZ hop and they got me a drink from the front.

iwillflytheworld

First time flying Y since becoming SE. FA had no idea about this benefit, but she checked and I was able to get two free snacks . (I don't drink alcohol so I asked to replace the drink by a second snack.)

HerpaYvr

This weekend on AC346 & AC341 shortly after take-off and before the meal service started, the F/A came to me and asked me what my preference was for my SE benefit. So on the first flight it was pizza and pringles and the second flight cheese & crackers and pringles.

I like this pro-active service, so very nice

yyzgigi

Yesterday from YLW-YYZ didn’t have to fight for the snack but did have to ask. However, the service director did come by later with a Lindt Chocolate Bunny for me and my SE companion which was a lovely touch. I don’t think anyone in J got. Seemed to just be targeted at SEs

CdnFlier

It's not so much the having to ask for it, it's the being looked at like you have 5 heads when you do that's annoying. Or that you are somehow the cheapest cheapskate, or trying to steal from AC.

Hit and miss, however it is a small, but nice, gesture when it is proactively offered. After having to regularly discuss how many snacks a Latitude tickets gets though I don't normally bother asking for this too.

The Lev

I would not have thought that pizza would have qualified as a free snack.

taupo

The having to ask bothered me initially, but given the response from FA's has always been positive I am fine asking.
The other part is that AC has so many new FA's, so many different rules/policies that also change, I don't expect all the FAs to know about the SE benefit.

CdnFlier

I'd agree 90% of the time, FAs are super positive about it. Others make a big huff about checking the list, but there are a few others that are just crap about it for whatever reason.

It might be easier if they just print it on the menus like they do for Latitude/Comfort fare meal/drink entitlements.

yyzgigi

When I was a united 1K I never had to ask and I was always proactively offered my free drink and snack and it was delivered with a thankyou for my status. It would be very possible for AC to do this correctly, if they wanted to. They could easily create a single manifest report that has all the LT/Com/SE in economy that they worked through.

Adam Smith

Having the list is one thing. They also need to be trained to consult it proactively.

RangerNS

I don't expect, and I don't think the manual expects, the SD to ever go behind the curtain on a narrow body flight. I don't think any aircraft where J has a FA "single handedly" doing that cabin also has that person in any meaningful supervisory role. I'd think you'd need to get up to dual aisle before "reviewing duties" is more complex than "do the obvious thing the schedule says to do". Its 4 hours in a tube with no breaks; no one is getting to crap out upstairs because they had fun at the bar last night and need first break.

The ground crew should click the "print flight paperwork" button and it does what it does, or the cabin crew should review the obvious of reports of their ipads, and it shows what it shows. No one, of any rank, at FL100 and standing in row 12 should be confused or limited by what any human in the hours before or since pushback may or may not have done as part of their duties, or going above or beyond their duties, not have the information in front of them that someone is deserving of a drink. Or snack. Or O2. Or some combination. Or anything else.

HerpaYvr

The lack of consistency is usually guaranteed. I have had F/A in the past say whatever I want. I am flying all the time and starting to run into some of the same F/A and I am always nice to them and I guess they remember me. Like I am a short fat balding guy with a face only a mother can love so it's easy to remember me, lol.

TheViperOne

In this part of the world, flight levels don’t start until the pilot changes the altimeter to the standard pressure setting, FL180. FL100 here would just be consider 10,000 feet. It’s different across the pond, though

CdnFlier

Yup, but that goes back to the SD or whoever taking the time. I've had a few times an SD come back and say hi when flying in Y (and in J sometimes they've come by specifically to say hi). I remember on a random YVR-YYZ in Y an SD coming back mid-flight and saying "thanks for your business, want a drink from up front?" (this was before the benefit. Anyway, it's just super inconsistent but very much seems to come down to the style of individual SD/FAs. I suppose the drink/snack thing is suppose to basically systematize this type of greeting/recognition. The idea is there, the execution just not so much. The impression I get is that corporately it's also just one more thing on the list rather than someone saying, "hey this thing on the list, it's a priority thing and we want you to be very conscious about doing it" vs "hey here's item 101 on your list of 101 things to do during your shift, good luck". It sounds like things are getting better.

It's funny, I still remember rmaybe... 8 or 9 years ago, sitting in row 1 on one of the old Dash-8s and the SD handing me a bottle of water and a wetwipe and he said it was because I was an SE and he always save a crew water bottle for any SEs he had on board and a wetwipe because he noticed they were often reading the paper. It's was a super minor thing but it's stuck out all this time. But I digress from the free drink and snack.

It sounds like more people are having better luck with it as of late at least.