acarney

I'm curious how they're plated, I was hoping on a recent Delta flight that I could just ask for the chicken to not be put on the entrée sized salad, but noticed catering already had plated everything together in plastic containers and the FA's just put them on plates... That might be the case with this as well, so while someone that doesn't like to eat meat might be ok, but someone that actively does NOT eat meat (vegetarian/vegan) probably wouldn't be ok knowing the food has hung out with each other for however long before and it was just removed. Also, you're removing a large portion of your "meal". I was happy to see that AS finally decided to make a vegetarian option available on their flights. It wouldn't have been hard for them to go for a large portion of egg or something like that instead of the meat... I assume pre-order would have only offered those two options for breakfast too, when again it could be so easy for them to just remove the meat and double the egg portion, and probably still save food cost.

Buster

10/4 - PDX-BUR 2:30 pm flight, so "snack"

Options were protein plate or roast beef sandwich, but there was some sort of catering error, leading to there only being 4 roast beef sandwiches and 2 protein plates loaded for a 4 row F plane. FA offered fruit & cheese plate instead, which I happily took.

AS737

In the breakfast above (as well as the other option), all individual items are in separate tins and the meat can easily just not be added to the plate.

In most hot meals, the meat is in a separate tin and can easily just not be added to the plate. In cold meals (salads for example), the meat is in a paper cup and is added to the salad by the FA. Again, easily not added if someone wants a vegetarian salad.

AS737

FAs are supposed to double check that everything is there, but sometimes there are some things that you won't notice until you need it. Maybe a single dessert is missing, or a meal was mislabeled so the count is off, or an oven rack is missing, or the ziploc of forks for desserts wasn't added, or the crew that took the plane into that airport used supplies that they weren't supposed to. Also, depending on the airport, catering kitchens may be offsite (aka not possible to have them come back without taking a major delay) or may not have the supplies necessary. Some east coast airports only cater one AS flight/day, so by the time the plane is being catered, the AS part of the kitchen has been closed down for a while and you're more or less SOL.

FlightNurse

The FA's are suppose to board at least 45 minutes before departure and this is the time they are suppose to check the carts, however, planes could be delayed, catering can be late, and flight crews could be delayed. Then add the min staffing the airlines are doing today I can't see catering check being done if any of those delays happen.

So basically you are saying there are so many factors in why things could be missing??

fliesdelta

Flight 302 (SFO-RDU) this Saturday is listed as departing SFO at 9:45am and landing at RDU around 5:40pm. For first class, the meal is listed as "none". I flew RDU-SFO last week, on first, and we got dinner served. It seems that the SFO-RDU flight should maybe have lunch?

be_rettSEA

Were you upgraded on this flight? If so, it will sometimes show as "none" incorrectly. Haven't flown this route, but length, time (and your report of dinner served previously) seem to indicate you'd get a lunch (or maybe breakfast?).

PABE

You will be served lunch after departure. For some reason, the meal info in the reservation system never seems to be accurate on AS.

Eastbay1K

HNL/OAK 5 Nov - Lunch

1) No PDB other than water
2) Meal choice - FA knew of pre-order.
3) Mixed Nuts and beverage - FA served all 16 beverages before bringing out nuts.
4) Green Salad. I doubt it weighed 2 ounces. No joke. Served on the same size plate as the roll.
5) Roll. Hawaiian type sweet roll
6) Main course - I had the Roast Chicken Breast - served with "Creamy polenta" (it was a polenta cake-like slice), broccolini (a tiny sprig) and baby carrots (make it singular, and you'd have the single carrot I got). Taste was pretty good, sauce was pretty gelatinous. Other choice was penne pasta.
7) Tropilicious Ice Cream - not bad, took about 15 minutes before it thawed enough to be able to barely get the spoon in.
8) Snack basket

fliesdelta

Yes, I originally bought a coach ticket, and got upgraded as MVP Gold 75K.

be_rettSEA

Just another (of many) bugs in Alaska's IT systems.. But yeah, expect to get a meal. If you try a dummy booking for the flight on AS website in F, it should show you the meal there.

RAD_PDX

Is there an official rule on the length of flight needed for a hot meal? I recently flew PDX-SAN with a 5:05 pm departure and was offered the protein plate or a cold sandwich (no salad, dessert of any kind). This seems in line with what others have reported for this route, however, when they list "dinner" as the meal on a flight with a 5 pm departure, I would think a hot meal is within reason.

pcoll

Seat 2A

Date of Flight: November 3, 2018
Flight Number and Route flown: AS 124 FAI-SEA
Time of Departure: 6:20pm
Length of flight: 3:20
Class of service: First
Meal served: Dinner
Meal Description: No menus were provided, but we were offered a choice of Butternut Squash Risotto Cakes or Persian Spiced Chicken Breast. I’ve been served both of these meals over the past month and I found them both quite tasty. However, I must admit to a bit of disappointment over seeing them again this month. While it’s true that the Fairbanks – Seattle run was catered differently last month, many of us continue on beyond Seattle and these two options were commonly offered all over the system last month. It’d be nice if Alaska rolled out completely different meals on back to back months so we’d be able to enjoy a bit more variety. When I worked at Frontier Airlines back in the 1970s we had four different meal cycles, changed each week. That was then, though. These days most airlines rotate their menus monthly. I just think it’d be nice if instead of taking the same four sets of entrees from month to month, we might get a completely different set of four the next month. Then we could go back to the first set, etc.

But enough whining! These are First Class problems and I doubt I’ll broker much sympathy from any of you over these sorts of trivialities. I requested a plate of the Persian Spiced Chicken and found it to be absolutely delicious – even if it was the third time I’ve had it over the past three weeks. It's worth noting that not all Persian Chicken Breasts are the same. Sometimes the caterers muck it up, other times the FA's would appear to. In tonight's version, the portion size was superb as was the presentation. Dessert was the uber-rich brownie.Bravo to the caterers and to Martin for being a First Class Flight Attendant in every sense of the word. ^

Seat 2A

Date of Flight: November 4, 2018
Flight Number and Route flown: AS XXX SEA-LAX
Time of Departure: 8:50am
Length of flight: 2:00
Class of service: First
Meal served: Breakfast
Meal Description: Today's choices were a Swiss Cheese, Leek and Potato Frittata Served with Bacon or the Breakfast Protein Plate. I’ve only ever been served the mid-afternoon Protein Plate so I don’t know what exactly is included in the breakfast version. I do know that I didn’t much care for the afternoon version though and honestly, the name alone just doesn’t sound very appealing to me. I want real food with names that make sense to me – not some abstract collection of foodstuffs defined by a name that only a bodybuilder could appreciate.

As you might imagine, I ordered the Frittata. It was okay but it didn’t really present well on the plate. It could’ve used some bread and potatoes - or if we want to score points with those health minded Southern Californian gym rats – perhaps some sautéed mushrooms or a broiled tomato with a half-slice of non-buttered multi-grain toast. Anyway, it's a good thing I'm not too squeamish to take food photos. You can judge for yourself from the above visage...