You are all under arrest!!! Off to the Motel Six with you all!!!

newself will be busy guarding you all while i"m off on vacation!!

And arturo's going into solitary!

PS: Newself! Let me know if anyone bribes you with beer and they will also be under arrest!

Have a nice day! CMDR CATCOP!

Getting back to the serious nature of this evaluation, I concur. My only experience flying CO was a recent FF ticket to Santiago, Chile in BusinessFirst. Out of Newark, the nuts were warm and the service almost as good as I was led to believe it would be. (I say almost, since it was not the epitome of J-class when compared to other airlines, but it was not too bad.)

The return from Santiago was another matter. Cold nuts and the rest of the service was mediocre, including the food. I had to ring several times to get wine with my courses, and even then I was looked at as being strange wanting to change from a white to a red for the main course. (Not only that, I had the audacity to ask to sample all wines aboard to compare them.)

Which leads to a new line of discusson for participants which I'll post separately as well: Airlines are finally going out of their way to improve the wine selections in the front cabin(s), but for the most part flight attendents are ignorant about how to serve wine. It is not good enough to serve each course, but not to also offer a refill or change of wine immediately. Having to wait until the whole rest of the cabin has been served before considering coming through with "top ups" is an insult to those of us who eat and drink in a civilized fashion.

Am I the only person who experiences such lack of understanding by flight crews on the wine front?

My personal favorite: Pouring the red wine right into your previously used (and probably not even quite empty) white wine glass.

Make your own rosé on the fly!

Shareholder, did I read you right? You asked to sample each wine available to see which one you liked best?

Do you ask to do that at restaurants? And do they let you do it?

Even if you do, you're on an airplane, not at a restaurant. Lighten up a bit.

The real problem with the mustard pretzels, which is the mandatory snack in the cat-tombs, is that, like barbecue sauce, you can smell them on your fingers for days, no matter how many times you wash.

Shareholder, most of us here on the CO board think you should run on to the plane, smile if the attendants bother to look at you, be thankful if your seat belt works, and if you get to your destination relatively on time, stop whining. After all, it's an airplaine, not some place where you should expect quality and service for your money.

SO forget how you like to have wine. On the plane, you'll have it like the rest of us do and be grateful we let you.

oooooooooooooh! arturo detect hosstiletie hear.

lemmin, yu hav yur whin the weigh yu wan et, an holdrshare hav hes whin the weigh he wan et.

Lemming, don't be such a lemming.

Warm up.

Ooooh, a little skyrage brewing here. And over such a little thing. We must chant for peace now: Ommmmmmm....

Look, on the wine question, the altitude, the low humidity, your own changed taste perceptors inflight, and the fact that the bottles are opened seconds before you drink the stuff -- all these affect the taste of the wine and make this inflight sommelier act something of an affectation.

On the ground, serious oenophiles may sniff, swish and spit to their heart's content. In the air, just drink it, my friend.

CO FF

Just to clarify. I did not ask to sample each wine prior to choosing one to drink with the appropriate course. Rather, on this 9-hour flight there were 3 reds and 3 whites. There were four food courses. Just like visiting a wine bar which also serves food (or tapas if you happen to be in Spain), the purpose of the exercise is to sample several different wines over the course of the evening.

As for the matter of changes which occur in the air, I agree this is not the ideal place to do a formal wine tasting, but I have worked my way through enough wineries and tastings to recognize the variances one expects at high altitudes. And wines for inflight service are chosen with this in mind, often being younger or having higher acidity to compensate for the vagaries of inflight service.

In any case, my desire to sample all these wines -- on these flights mostly Chilean and unavailable in North America -- should not be considered scandalous or aborant behavior as you suggest. In fact, several airlines actually encourage "tastings in the air", which is why their wine lists are getting more interesting and extensive.

To this end, Canadian Airlines not only provides a list of the wines served in J-class on international flights, but a small booklet that provides a considerable amount of infor- mation about each one. And in BA's F-class, I have actually been encouraged by the flight attendants to sample both "chardonnay" based whites to see if I prefer the French Montrachet or the Australian Chardonnay (or whatever the choices are).

The whole J- and F-class inflight experience on long intercontinental flights should be relaxed and club like, as if you have visited a good club or restaurant. That is a standard I hold a world class airline to, particularly when I've paid $5,000 or more for a flight. Some achieve this level effortlessly, others just don't seem to get it.

Than again, maybe too many passengers don't either. Or wouldn't recognize what such standards should be.

rite ooooonnnnnnn!!! holdrshare, arturo knot lik hes whin wiff lemin, ether.

The theory stands to reason. I believe it is CO's policy to only serve warm nuts on transcon and intnl flights, which are more likely to have better service than shorter hops.

jspeer, arturo hav warm nutz sirved to hem on two hour flites or moar plintie of tims.

I understand that some of our customers are aficionados of wines, but keep in mind that we are not a club or fine resturant. When you state that the other carriers encouraged your wine connoisseur tendencies; I can't help but wonder, how often do you fly on them? Can you state with absolute certainty that this happens on every flight?

I'd love to be able to guarantee that my peers -and me for that matter- will always provide this level of service, but as you know that would be a lie. I'm not making excuses, but the fact remains that our staff is human and we make mistakes. I believe that american society is to selfish to step past their personal comfort zones to take a risk and try to expand our horizons, knowing we might make mistakes - especially in a public forum and to a "Higher" class of society (not everyone in the US is like this, but many are, especially in a service career).

Keep this in mind: We are an airline looking to provide you with safe, quick passage from Point A -to- Point B.

Keeping you occupied for that time frame can be a challenge, but that's why we have video and audio entertainment. We also figure you will get hungry and need something to eat; we have always attempted to provide that meal in relaxed, but elegant atmosphere.

I would have to agree about the warm nuts. Keep in mind that the nuts on the transcontinental flights are boarded in a tin pan with a heat-resistant cover. On the CLE-SAN flight they may be boarded pre-dished up in the ramikens; therefore, preventing some F/A's from heating them up (the standard with our airline is only to warm those boarded in tin pans). I have often (time, staffing and load permitting) put them in the oven to be heated.

Further note: We do not have microwave ovens, we have convection ovens. We have chillers on B777 aircraft, but all other a/c rely on ice (dry/wet) to keep everything chilled.

I hope this is helpful in giving insight to what challenges we face when trying to provide you with our inflight service.

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CO757

Welcome and thank you for your input, CO757!
It is interesting and useful to get some information from an insider, I hope that we will be hearing more from you in the future.