WesternCDN

AC553 LAX - YYC (June 2017)



Green Salad, Chicken and Rice with sauce (Chipotle?), and Tiramisu. Sorry, forgot to get the menu down verbatim this time.

Snack basket made the rounds too (with plenty of Kit Kats!)

canadiancow

This is my first time on a PLH route on an E90.

I'm afraid to ask about the ice cream

Jasper2009

No ice cream unless you manage to invent a time machine that takes you back 2-3 years.

canadiancow

Yeah.

And 2 FAs is rough. No one to guard the J lav from 2 (or 50) year olds in Y.

Nazdoom

1030pm YVR-YYZ 777 was one option breakfast only, which was served 2 hours before arrival. No snack basket for the first 1.5 hours. Are they downsizing domestic PLH meals alongside introducing the one page menus?

FAs seemed pretty well-rehearsed in "breakfast will be an omelette, will you be having breakfast with us?"

Adam Smith

Seriously? No fruit plate, pancakes, etc?

24left

I could be wrong, but I was sure The Nomad or Mr. Peever had mentioned something a while back when AC 156 or similarly-timed flights switched from dinner to breakfast pre-arrival, and that only the omelette was offered.

With AC switching from a late-night dinner to a middle-of-the-night breakfast, I made the following assumptions/conclusions:

AC has data of exactly how many of those who fly on AC 156 etc were eating the dinner and the numbers were low relative to those who wanted to sleep.

OR

AC knows the omelette breakfast is "cheaper" food and decided to switch the meal.

Or all of the above.

On the multiple 156s I did a few months back, some pax wanted a meal, some wanted to sleep and some wanted snacks. The pax mix on this flight includes people on domestic tickets who perhaps were in the YVR MLL after 7:30 pm when all there was to eat were things like salsa, tortillas, cookies etc., as well as those connecting from some Asian flights who are on a different clock and wanted one versus the other.

If AC offered proper food that would qualify as dinner in the MLL, then those with access could eat there and not on the flight, preferring instead to try and get 3 hours and 47 minutes of sleep.

If AC had the ability to pre-order (and notwithstanding IRROPS and people who change flights), they would know which pax wanted a meal and what type.

BTW, I just did the 01:20 flight SIN-HKG on CX. It is a dinner service. Flight length is similar to YVR-YYZ, and there was also food available prior to arrival. As with AC, the crew do ask if you'd prefer dinner after departure, sleep, or your meal later in the flight closer to arrival.

expert7700

It's shocking that AC is pricing these PLH widebody flights at a $300 or higher premium, yet providing less service.

Flew YVR-YYZ on this 1030pm flight last Sunday, 77 J pods. Attached is the menu.

Instead of any meal choice, they give TWO ways to order the same meal (Parsley Omelette vs Omelette au persil.)

Menu says "assorted snacks are available at all times throughout your flight." When we asked about snacks the FA said they will be put out shortly before breakfast.

We had the knife-and-fork (prepaid meals) on our J boarding passes since we bought it before switching to J. The service director noticed this while taking omelette orders. Told us we could not order from the back, as AC has omelettes for everyone up front, and if they served us from the back it would deprive economy passengers and deprive AC of that revenue.

I replied that we don't eat eggs, and put out my credit card to "pay a second time then". About 90 min later she brought an onboard Cafe menu and circled the items that were leftover. We each ended up with a cup of Campbells ramen soup. Super Elite 100k (all 3 of us) has its perks. Fortunately the fancy cutlery (plastic spoons) didn't melt.

capedreamer

Wow. Very poor form on AC's part.

Offering something from BoB should be standard practice if a J passenger doesn't want the regular J options (or lack thereof in this case) for any reason. UA does it (and others may as well). Most AC FAs I've interacted with have been happy to comply, but they should just make it part of the official policy.

Pro tip for AC management: If your J options are so unappetizing, unhealthy, or otherwise unappealing that pax would rather something from the back, perhaps take that as a hint that you need to revamp your J meal offerings!

Clipper801

Fruit plate meal is available as one of the special meals available to pre-order.

But I agree with you. When flying business class on such a long flight (YVR-YYZ), one would reasonably expect a 2nd choice, not having to pre-order one.

I just pre-ordered an Oriental Vegetarian Meal (VOML) on my forthcoming trip to see what AC would be providing. Last time, it was plain steam brown rice with a few pine nuts and dried cranberry. The one before that was an egg sandwich.

yyznomad

I'm confused... is there something new with the YVR YYZ redeye breakfast service? I believe it was first mentioned to be as such by Sean Peever and a few others a year or more ago for this to be the case. Everything still looks the same and in fact the other evening I got exactly what I had been getting on these redeyes since Sean Peever posted about it. The choice of omelette, omelette, or omelette has been the same... right down to the red pepper relish!

longtimeflyin

Agreed - disappointing. However, Air Canada has no incentive to do so if their passengers keep on paying for the product that they offer.

Nazdoom

I've done this eastward flight three times this year. One was dinner (3 choices), one was breakfast (3 choices), and the one most recently mentioned was the sad one choice breakfast.

Nazdoom

Nada. Omelette or nothing.

It's unfortunate because I usually get the pancakes when offered and the pancakes on the morning YYZ-YVR 777 tasted surprisingly great (neither mushy nor overcooked as they usually are). SD mentioned that the plane's oven was recently upgraded to the new steam oven featured in the 787s. In other words they're upgrading the ovens but downgrading the food choice and quality for the flight back.

yyznomad

Nothing has changed even before my question regarding the redeye meal (breakfast)... still omelette, omelette, or omelette aka O3 aka Ozone