TheCanuckian

It's a solid idea. I'll be interested in seeing if the orders actually make it to the flight attendants. I won't be shocked if we just end up having to order aboard again. I'm flying SCL and GRU coming up and will look forward to giving it a go.

jazzsax

I could care less if an SE gets their choice because they booked 2 days out. If I booked 6 months out Paid J ---- no reason the airline can't guarantee my selection ahead of someone who wants beef that booked last minute.

First world problems.

canopus27

If they are smart about it (ha ha ha ha ... I know ... but just dream with me here) then they could change the number of the different types of meals, based on the pre-orders ... and still make the remaining meals available with the same percentage distribution.

In other words, if 20/30 pre-order beef ... and AC's default model is to allocate 30% of all meals as beef ... then they should load 20+3 beef meals. So sure, the 4th SE carnivore might be unhappy ... hmmm, which might be an issue the next time 6 of us fly down to EZE together ... but it should be ok in most cases.

Adam Smith

It depends on how many they typically carry of each. I remember a UA flight with 16J where they catered 1 beef, 1 or 2 pasta, and 12 or 13 chicken. I think AC is usually less stupid about their ratios, but the fewer meals that aren't pre-ordering, the higher the chances of those getting asked early not being able to get get what they want.

zkzkz

Hmm effectively what's happening is there are fewer seats in the cabin. So to pick a simple example, say two meals and expected 50/50 split. Instead of 20 seats and having, say, 12 of each catered (20% overcatered). There may only be 5 seats without preselected meals so if they 20% overcater they might only have 3 of each. It's a lot easier for the distribution of those 5 to end up skewed and the fourth status customer to end up without their preference (1 in 16 chance) than for the 20 to end up skewed and the 13th status customer to end up without their preference (1 in 8192 chance). And it only gets worse with more selections and less even distributions.

On the other hand.... say they decide to cater the same number of extra meals regardless then in theory this should be *good* for everyone. The actual meals catered should match the demand more closely. In the above scenario they would stock 9 meals split between the two for 5 passengers so you're almost guaranteed your first choice even if you're the lowest status person to choose.

Fwiw it's not just the last minute booker this affects. It's anyone who doesn't know what they want to eat 72 hours ahead of time ...

But that's a bit like saying allowing customers to choose their own seats is a negative for last minute bookers because they might not get their favourite seat. Or for that matter allowing customers to buy tickets before the last minute is a negative for last minute bookers because there might not be any seats left when they want to fly...

I'm a bit puzzled by the comment that UA has fewer meals to preselect than on board. It seems to me that one of the natural advantages of preselecting meals is that you could offer people dozens or even hundreds of meals to choose from that you only have to board if someone preselects. Not unlike special meals and kosher meals etc. I would really love to be able to order a cold meal. One of the best airline meals I've had was a cold cured salmon meal. I've never seen that option since and it's sad. They can't cook things properly on board so why bother trying.

expert7700

FTers (myself included) are easy to please. Threads have gone on for years about lack of meal ordering. Now we get to complain about having meal ordering.

AC CAN'T be dumb enough that this doesn't affect the catering order at all. Otherwise they'd have implemented meal orders requests ages ago. However, dumb things are still bound to happen.

(this reminds me of the Coca-Cola President Don Keough July 10, 1985 speaking on innovation "We are not that dumb, and we are not that smart.")

​​​​​​-If half (10 pax) of a 787-8 J cabin preorders, they will likely load very few of each of the 4 meal choices for the remaining 10 pax.

-If the same flight is only booked to 75% capacity, after 10 preorders , how many of more of each will AC realistically load. I think as eluded to by other posters above, if an SEMM traveling with several others do a last minute booking, SDC, or gate upgrade, they will be far less likeky to all get first choice than pre-2023.​​​​

-Fortunately, AC has a near 100% on time rate. Weather & misconnects never happen..... right?

//looking forward to tales of the carnivore 100% beef J flight misconnecting or doing a SDC to the 100% pasta flight whose J pax all misconnected.

tracon

Does AC over cater beyond 100% seat capacity?

The airline can only offer what the kitchen is willing to provide.
Would be nice to choose from the menu of other airlines that depart at a similar time to an AC flight.

canadiancow

Immediately pre-COVID, I think it was 120% of expected loads on all mainline flights.

But assuming they're still doing that, would it be 120% of expected loads, or preorders plus 120% or remaining expected loads?

I, for one, have never had great experiences with preordering on any airline other than SQ out of their only hub. UA, AS, NH, and maybe one or two others. Either the preorder options were, at best, the same as the onboard menu, and I therefore had to know what I was in the mood for days before departure, or I ran the risk of not getting what I want (in the moment) by not preordering.

I've been a critic of this every time someone has brought it up about AC.

Maybe they'll manage it better than other airlines. Or maybe my status will solve my main concern. But we'll have to see.

On my latest flight, not only was I a gate upgrade, but I also did not know, at all, which meal I wanted, until about 6 hours before departure, when I knew how I was feeling that day.

IluvSQ

You don't HAVE to pre-order, even if it is offered.

I had recent success with pre-orders on TG and SQ.

canadiancow

Right, but then the question is how they cater the flight. If 17 people pre-order on a 20 seat 788, are they going to cater 4 meals (3 * 120%) or 7 meals (3 + (20 * 120%))?

And even in the "generous" latter case, that means if two of the remaining three pax want the same thing, they might not be able to get it.

If executed properly, this will probably be a win for FOTSGs booking far out, but not for high-status individuals booking extremely expensive last minute J.

But I have low faith in the bolded word.

The scenario I really expect to happen is that the pre-order becomes a "guarantee", so on an under-catered flight, a FOTSG who pre-ordered will be ahead of an SE who didn't, regardless of when/how their tickets were booked.

Or a mis-catered flight, where they have enough meals for everyone, but 4 people pre-order beef, and they only cater 4 beef, so even someone expecting to have "a choice" on board will not, in fact, have a choice.

High-status (i.e. high-spend) individuals booking last minute (i.e. expensive) tickets can only be hurt by this. On the outbound of the current trip I'm on, I had to change the flights within 72 hours of departure. That would eliminate my ability to pre-order. From what I know of most of my high-status high-fare friends, this is pretty common.

That's not even figuring in scenarios like:
"Hi Mr. Kennedy, this is the Toronto concierge. We noticed your inbound is delayed, so we've rebooked your connection to the next flight."
"No thanks, I can make it. Please put me back."
"Oh okay."

And there goes my meal selection.

ACYYZ/SD

I've never quite understood the concept of knowing what I might like to eat 3 weeks before the fact.

Bohemian1

In some cases it may be the inverse - knowing what I don't want to eat any any time prior to a flight. There are some entrees that I simply don't like.

Not generally a problem for me if the 'proper' service order is followed, but that doesn't always occur.

canadiancow

Yep. Assuming this is executed perfectly, I don't know what I want 3 days out.

It's one thing to book a fancy tasting menu a month out. But this is AC chicken or fish.

I'm not eagerly looking forward to any of the options for weeks. When I do look at the menu days in advance, it's to see if I should make other meal plans pre-flight, not so I can salivate over the inflight meal.

lcohen999

I dunno...that SQ burger is looking pretty good on my upcoming SIN-MEL flight at the end of the month...

RangerNS

AC should do a better job promoting (and telling their FAs) about the backs ability to get the hot meal leftovers for cash to reduce their waste; presumably most of the stuff in the back has a shelf life longer than a RT.