Jac747

This is a fairly long flight and I was surprised to see that it's only a snack service for a 5pm departure. I guess there is no competition on this route and since we've never flown Alaska before, I'm wondering how substantial their snacks in FC are, especially since we will have two teenage boys with us. I'm sure we'll bring a few snacks ourselves along just in case.

Eastbay1K

That is shocking, because F to SEA has a dinner service. If indeed, it isn't a mistake in the schedule, it is probably the "substantial snack" consisting of a sandwich or salad, and a microscopic piece of chocolate. If that is the case, it is wholly insufficient for a 5 hour flight, especially because at the arrival hour, you aren't going to want to be hunting for food.

Shocking as it may be, if you actually get home within a few hours of your scheduled arrival, and your luggage shows up, you should count your blessings these days.

dave1013

Just flew this nonstop coming and going. It must be a typo - we got two treats in F on the redeye down, and a nice meal on the day flight back. Maybe you should pack a snack from the Brewhouse!

AS Flyer

I believe that you get a full hot dinner in First Class and in coach you get a hot sandwich and a cookie. The way they assign meals makes no sense to me except that it's purely motivated by competition. For instance, on our SEA-ORD flights they have a hot sandwich basket in coach for the 4.5 hour flight. We compete against three other airlines in that market, nonstop that is. On our LAS-ANC flights we serve a hot sandwich and a cookie, as in the ANC-LAX market. Both of those flights are scheduled for dinner time departures and are longer than the ORD flights. These days meal service (what there is left of it) is purely motivated by whether or not we have competition and what it is they're serving. These days, not too many other airlines serve anything so it's easy to justify skimping on the meals. The only airline serving free food to Alaska these days, other then Alaska, is Continental - and they only offer one flight a day in the off season and maybe one or two more in the peak season, so not much competition really.

Jac747

I think snacks from the Brewhouse is a very good idea-hope it is close to the Capt Cook hotel.

dave1013

It's very close - about two blocks.

Tracer_SEA

I flew the 7pm LAXSEA in F last week and we did not get a dinner service or even a snack/sandwich basket -- just a warmed cookie. Obviously LAX-ANC is a lot longer and this is a separate issue. But still I found the cutback very disappointing IMHO, especially because of how bad and limited the food choices are in AS' LAX terminal area. (That flight used to have three course dinner service and then was knocked down to a one course snack...) And on the outbound, because of the departure time, we didn't even get so much as a cookie -- just a few packlets of various salty snacks.

AS Flyer

We do serve substantial snacks in F at "meal times" on flights from the Pacific NW to our "southern region" destinations (LAX, LGB, SNA, ONT, BUR, SAN, PHX, TUS, DEN). Meal times vary for most people so Alaska bases their times on that of their competitors as well as when most people eat a particular meal. Breakfast hours are from 6am to 830am, lunch times are from 1030am to 1pm and dinner times are from 430pm to 7pm. I believe they use those same flight times to guage when they are going to offer a snack plate in F on the flights to SFO, SJC, OAK, SMF and LAS. On flights after 7pm to the "southern region" they offer a warm cookie in F class and the same in Y class. Initially they offered warm nuts in F and the cookie in Y but the customers in F always wanted the cookie so we just went with the cookie up there also. Snack plates are offered in the southern region (as well as the bay area and LAS) between 830am until 1030am. Basically, it's a fruit and pastry plate. It's been reduced from the fruit plate and pastry that we used to serve on a tray. It's pretty much the same snack, just served differently.

I believe the flight you are talking about left at 710pm, thus being past the designated "meal hour". True, only 10 minutes past, but they draw the line at the meal hours. The only exceptions I can think of are flights to Alaska and the midwest/east coast.

Tracer_SEA

Thanks for the detailed info, ASFlyer. Just strikes me as backward that they'd serve "dinner" on a 4:30pm flight (scheduled to get in at 7pm, in plenty of time to get dinner on own) but not on a 7:10pm flight scheduled to arrive just before 10pm, when it's tougher to get dinner and by which point I'm famished if I haven't eaten.

For those of us on business travel it's hard to enough to get to LAX in rush hour in time for the 7:10 flight... And if you don't like what you find in the AS terminal (or in the case of my vegetarian colleague, who couldn't find any to-go entrees sans meat before that flight last week), too bad.

Doesn't seem to take the reality of passengers' schedules into account...

AS Flyer

I've brought this up with management before but the companies position (and I can see their point) is that they can make no assumptions about the various circumstances each person must go through before they get on the flight. Everyones situation is different. Some people are making connections and have been sitting around the airport for 2 hours or more. Some people have plenty of time to stop and get something on the way, some people are coming from work and are in a rush and don't have any time to get anything. Everyone is different. In addition, If they serve a hot sandwich or salad or a flight scheduled to leave between 430p and 7pm, the reality is that you'll probably get it sometime around 5pm-730pm (if you're lucky these days) which is a little more in line with most peoples normal eating times. We all have different needs and live our lives differently, eating at different times, etc. It's got to be a huge challenge to try to accomodate the needs of all our customers, especially in these days of cut backs and so forth.

BearX220

I have to second Tracer_SEA's cpmment about LAX-SEA... if you're booked on a 7:10pm departure, you have at least been en route to the airport, if not actually AT the airport, since 5:00pm, which is not most people's dinnertimes. And there is no food for sale at AS/Terminal 3 that a normal adult would dare put in their mouths. Many's the evening I have finished meetings in West Hollywood or Bev Hills at 430pm or 500pm to run for the airport -- no time to stop to buy food -- flown AS home to SEA and landed, starving, at 1000pm or later (with delays), when of course the SEA concessions have closed. It's debilitating to people.

Nobbi

Dinner time 5.00-7.30 pm? Perhaps in Kansas. At least in the Bay Area people eat later. Many a times people enter restaurants after 9.30 pm. Not quite as bad as perhaps Spain.

rjque

Actually, I think AS considers 5:00-7:00 the "dinner hour". This is odd considering that most restaurants regard this "early bird special" territory. Dinner reservations are much more difficult to get between 7 and 8 than at 6. Many places in SF don't even open until after 6, anyway. I'm an early eater so AS' super early dinner hour times work out fine for me. However, the vast majority of people I know (in both the Pacific NW and California) consider even 7:00 to be a bit on the early side for dinner.

Jac747

Well, since our flt leaves at 5pm and is a 5hr flt, an appropriate dinner hour should be in there somewhere!

AS Flyer

As I mentioned, we cater to all kinds of people - not just hip, city dwellers that favor eating dinner at all times of the night. We also have families on board our airplanes, people that eat dinner between 5pm-7pm and even older folks that enjoy eating earlier. While some of us eat later than others, 5p-7p is typically considered the dinner hour at all but the some of the hipper restaurants. If you are going to be on a 710pm flight and there won't be a meal served, take 5 minutes to stop and grab something. By the way, food options at terminal 3 are pretty dismal but there is a Wolfgang Pucks stand that sells fresh salads and sandwiches that are pretty decent. Not your normal fast food fare.