HerpaYvr

This morning on AC353 YOW-YYC we left with no catering due to the Ottawa storm last week? Has anyone else experienced no catering on flights out of YOW since last weekend?

Ten minutes before boarding, the announcement was made that the storm last week damaged catering so there would be no food on board to purchase. I asked if this also includes breakfast in J and it does. They did give everyone traveling in J a $15 food voucher which was nice, but very little time to buy anything. We did receive snacks, kit kat, Vickey's chip etc, but nothing for the Y folks.

The YOW MLL does not have hot food, just chips, cookies, and those cold cup things, and of course, healthy bananas and one other fruit, which I have seen in grocery stores?

The storm happened but no contingency plan? I guess it's not a priority for domestic flights. You know it takes great leadership and care to step things up to overcome these issues and I only wish we can have the return of these actions post-pandemic. We seem to all accept a lower standard of the status quo post-pandemic in almost everything in our daily lives.

YZF_Elite

I mean it was a 2 hour drive from my neighbourhood to downtown yesterday with still thousands of people out of power and hydro work ongoing (major route in the city). I doubt nobody expected to have Ottawa Hydro telling them it would be June 3rd to get the last 30-40,000 people power back from a storm that happened May 21st. 5T finally got the power back at their cargo terminal about three days ago as I recall. One can only assume it will improve soon.

I share your views about the YOW MLL. There's no reason they can't at least have toast and stuff like that available.

The Lev

You'd think AC could have messaged people before the flight.

canadiancow

That's a fairly consistent problem I've had. CR9 to Q400 swaps, not enough meals for everyone, etc. They know for HOURS that they will not be feeding you, but they often don't tell you until you're on board, when it's simply too late to do anything about it.

Sopwith

Isn’t that the point?

YOWgary

Yes, my YOW-YYZ on May 22 and my wife's YOW-YYC on May 28 were both affected. Mine was understandable as the whole airport was still running on generators.

A week into the issue, you'd think they could at least write a sign on a piece of paper at the gate or something, in both cases no mention was made until after boarding.

I get what the issue is and it's mostly understandable, just communicate it even 30 minutes in advance.

canadiancow

I don't see how that's in any way better (for anyone) than "ladies and gentlemen, there will be no food on board this flight, so please buy something in the airport before boarding".

I remember one scenario where I was given meal vouchers due to a delay, but not told I would not be getting a meal. The only thing they gained by delaying that communication was really pissing me off.

I don't see why it would be so difficult to plaster signs all over the check-in desks, gates, lounge, etc., so that people know when they enter the airport, rather than when the door closes.

RangerNS

If only Air Canada had access to some ability to move products and materials long distances in a timely fashion...

YOW2008

I was on the 9am to YYZ that morning and no catering. No annoucement was made. Good thing it's only a 1h flight.

VoodooYYC

I would assume the issue is that anything at the catering facility that requires refrigeration or freezing had to be disposed of due to the extended outage, and there's a whole protocol to sanitize the facility before a restart, which you can't do until stable power is restored. So, it kind of makes sense that there could still be no catering out of YOW a week later...

On the other hand, AC could have easily been proactive, and double catered flights heading for YOW out of other stations. AC353 comes in form YYC the prior evening, so double cater. One would have to assume the technology exists to keep the second meals at temperature until they hit the ovens.

canadiancow

They don't double cater if it sits overnight for exactly the reasons outlined in your first sentence.

YOWgary

This technology absolutely exists; it's a set of refrigerators at the Ottawa airport that plug into the wall.

...the wall that is currently without power.

wjw

It is a bit shocking to me that AC wouldn’t notify passengers in advance. I had a similar situation with LH last month for a different reason (high absentee rates in their catering due to Covid). Got an email a few days in advance of each flight that they would only offer water on the flight. These were short haul flights so it didn’t really bother me, but it was nice to know in advance.

ACYYZ/SD

The last thing Gate Gourmet YOW needed. There are a lot challenges in the airline catering world right now worldwide.