Example of CO not following its meal rules
 

I know there have been other threads on this general topic, and the experience was not exactly a tragedy, but...

My wife was upgraded during OLCI on CO 597 from IAH to LAS last night. Since the flight departed at 9:10 pm and had a scheduled flight time of 3:11 I assured her she would get a cold deli plate. Not so. The F cabin only got small bags of peanuts.

I checked her itinerary, which said "Meal: None" and the "Inflight Amenities" on pda.continental.com showed beverage service only for both cabins, so it wasn't a catering mistake.

CO.com clearly says flights over 3 hours from 8:00 pm to 4:59 am serve a "light snack" in F. And a ~ 3:20 redeye I recently took from RNO to IAH had the cold plate (I was the only one in F to eat). Any idea why the inconsistency in scheduled catering?

I have had this problem as well with regards to a morning departure to ABQ with a flight time over 2 hours. I sent it into CO expecting an apology of somesort and instead was yelled at for even thinking that the flight would get something other than peanuts as that "is a snack." Mabye you will have better luck sending it in to 1-800-WE DONT CARE.

The general guide to meals on co.com is about as worthless as the reward charts. There are so many exceptions and so much nuance in the rules that the general information is pretty much a waste of bytes and bandwidth. That you knew to check the itinerary and the PDA site - both of which reported no meal - and you still thought there would be one is a pretty interesting vote of confidence on your part for the older data over the newer stuff that folks from Continental (specifically CO Insider) have told us to use.

I checked both after the flight, when she reported no food. My expectation was based on prior experience and the posted rules. My point wasn't that the info wasn't discoverable, it was that the scheduled catering didn't follow CO's posted info.

Interestingly, on her return flight tomorrow (CO 196) the pda site says inflight amenity info is not available.

iah-las is dinner worthy, but it is like Florida, just completely random; enough so you can have a full meal with dessert but at other times a deluxe snack consisting of two bags of peanuts!

LOL! That's a NW meal in F.

I toured the catering facitilies at last year's DO and specifically asked whether "meals at mealtime applies" to COEX flights and received an affirmative answer. Last Sun, I flew IAH-STL, departing 5:45pm and arriving at 7:52pm, without the usual small sandwich, carrots and dessert. This certainly departed from my past experiences, and I did feel a bit hungry.

At least once, I've been on a seemingly eligible flight that didn't have a snack that the FA claimed was due to a "catering error." We got apologies and extra attention to peanuts and drinks. I'd have rather my fun-sized Twix, but at least it was acknowledged. I'm not sure what happened or how common that is.

Now that we've got the PDA site, I always check the amenities. Usually, they're spot-on - but sometimes the flight comes with a surprise! I've gotten a movies on flights with "no IFE" and snacks when only beverage service was listed. I'm not sure where the information comes from and who makes the final call on mealtimes - I believe the PDA site over the old charts, but sometimes neither is quite right. At least my recent experiences (with the PDA site running) have pretty much been positive surprises.

Cities that are almost on the west coast, but not quite, (Phoenix, Las Vegas, etc.) really get the short end of the stick on meal services. Take for example:

CO 1428 IAH-PHX Departs around 9 PM, Flight time just over 2.5 hrs, no snack in F
CO 1717 IAH-SAN Departs around 9 PM, Flight time right at 3 hrs, cold plate in F

CO 1835 EWR-PHX Evening flight, Flight time just under 6 hrs, dinner is choice of 2 entrees
CO 1881 EWR-SEA Evening flight, Flight time just over 6 hrs, dinner is modified BF service w/ appetizer, choice of 4 entrees, etc

While the above info is in line with the catering rules, I do wish CO would show the desert southwest destinations some lovin'...

How come the PDA site does not give more detailed info on the meals to/from Europe? For example if you look up Flight 17 the GLA-EWR segment only shows lunch but the EWR-LAX segment describes the whole meal.

BHM-IAH in the morning also somehow does not get breakfast. Leaves "too early" yet arrives well within the window. Just silly.:rolleyes:

I have yet to figure out any pattern to the meal service..

I most time have gotten meal service from las/iah but my tpa/iah is a major roll of the dice.

my last trip had breakfast on the flight out from tpa to iah but the return trip got me a bag of nuts.

I flew FLL to EWR in F on CO in August 2006 (~3 hours 15 minutes) and got just peanuts... coach got nothing

I forget when the flight took off, but it had to be somewhere in the 11 AM to 1 PM range

I wonder if that is because the BF menu is on continental.com in full. I honestly don't know why though. Just throwing that out there.

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