safari ari

The meat is separate before plating, so you can ask the FA to leave it off and it isn't a problem.

acarney

While that might be true, I wouldn't consider that a "vegetarian option". Alaska sells it as "We're now serving freshly prepared meals and snacks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner - always including a vegetarian option", this is more "hey, we can not give you something if you ask us ahead of time". Now if they replaced it with a couple slices of fresh fruit or something, that would be a vegetarian option. From my understand you could always ask and see if they could leave off the meat unless it was pre-packaged...

Just wondering if they're already starting to slide back on their "improved" F meals...

DaWhirledTraveller

Date: 03 Mar 2019
Route: PDX-SJC
Flight Number: 316
Departure time: 1950 or 7:50pm
Menu: No
Meal description: Snack Basket

PDB Water Bottle, Hot Towel, then Snack Basket (items I recall seeing Pop Corners - Sea Salt, Oberto Beef Jerky, Sahale Nut Mix)

ASA_1

bdhaliwa

Are DAL-Bay Area flights shorter than DFW-PDX to not deserve this pretty good meal?

osubeavers01

DrAlex

Indeed - wanted to try one of the mediocre mimosas everyone is raving about NOT having. And, I thought it might be a little early for whiskey
Also a sparkling water for transcon hydration.

acarney

I don't know if those are loaded for breakfast flights, if so, that might be what they're counting, and I guess that would be fine.

be_rettSEA

F&C plate should be loaded on all fights > 2 hrs (per AS website). Whether or not they make it available as an option for F meals or if they actually are sticking to their published in-flight catering availability is another question.

osubeavers01

AS Flyer

Fruit and cheese are available for pre-order in First Class at no charge and, if you didn't pre-order one you can still purchase one from the menu in the coach cabin. Until the policy changes (IF the policy ever changes) that's the current state of affairs. I realize many here have had varying degrees of success in not having to pay for a cheese and fruit platter when seated in F but if you didn't pre-order and go in with the idea that you can buy one from the menu in back, then you'll always get a cheese and fruit platter if that's important to you.

PDXPremier

I honestly prefer the Y version of the fruit and cheese plate vs. the pre-order version you get in F....I feel like the coach version has more fruit and better yet, includes crackers that I like to eat with the cheese.

pcoll

For those of us who fly F sometimes Pre-order is not available. our last flight was 4.5 hours and no pre-order. It was the return of a double catered flight. They ran out of meal options and flyer behind me (vegetarian) asked for F & C. He was charged for meal. (personally, I do not think that is right).

acarney

Especially when AS boldly advertises on their web page that they always have a vegetarian option. They should at least ask each pax during boarding if they're a vegetarian or not so they can hold those back if only a few have been catered. It really doesn't seem like it would be that hard. Even when making thousands of meals I would think making a meal vegetarian (like the omelet meal above) would be damn easy. Just have some fresh fruit that they swap in rather then the meat, or even just do an extra egg in the omelet or extra potatoes or something. Honestly it probably would be cheaper for AS too because I assume meat is one of the more expensive parts of their meals. Same with soups or salads, just switching the stock of a soup could make it suitable for more people and I highly doubt people would notice, or if they did, it would just be chocked up to airline food not tasting as good as food on the ground, etc. Things could get hard when factoring in egg, nut, and/or other allergies AND trying to make something vegetarian, but if the goal is just to remove meat or gelatin that should be a really easy and cheap fix for like 90% of the cases with the catering.

AS Flyer

Im just stating the policy. I don't make them and I have absolutely no affect on them. I don't know why a 4.5 hour flight wouldn't have allowed for pre-ordering. Double catering shouldn't matter. The Fruit and Cheese are simply catered by the kitchen that catered that flight. I do see here, however, that some people have had difficulties with pre-ordering but I see pre-ordered meals on nearly every flight I'm on so it's working for many folks. Not sure what the glitch would be on a 4.5 hour flight. As for the fruit and cheese being different - admittedly, I don't work in First Class much but did last week and the F&C that was catered was EXACTLY the same, just put on a plate. It had crackers and chocolate and the same amount of fruit and cheese. No difference. Vegetarian options... they've made the meals such that any meat can typically be left off - yes, there isn't something to replace it, but you can still have a meal sans meat, thus making it vegetarian. Absent any glitches, you should be able to pre-order such that you would not have a dish that had meat included - and if you were upgraded within the window of time that pre-ordering must take place, you could always purchase something from Coach. You're still ahead in that you're not sitting in a Coach seat...