Meal on CO701
 

I am flying on CO701 this Sunday. It is a 752. I have a confirmed F seat. The meal description says "None." Is this true? It's booked as a 3 hour, 20 minute flight and no food in first class? Not even a muffin? Is this an error? The flight leaves at 9.15 AM

Per the PDA site, the flight for today & tomorrow is listed as:

Complimentary Food
First Class: Beverage and snacks (Pretzels/Nuts)
Main Cabin: Beverage and snacks (Pretzels/Nuts)

This is awful...a three and a half hour flight, especially in first, deserves something. Oh well, better eat before!

Florida flights are probably the cheapest tickets in our route system. You pay less, you get less.

I do find the inconsistency with Florida though quite annoying as far as meals go. I don't know how the company decides which flights get what, but as you can see, they certainly don't follow what's on continental.com ... I've worked Florida flights with a delicious manicotti offered in F, and I've worked flights with what you describe.

Yeah, that's odd, now that I look at it further. The only 2 examples that I could find where the flights left around the same time as the 701 (just after bkfst ends at 9am), with a similar flight time were:
1058: IAH-DCA at 910am. They get:
Complimentary Food
First Class: Light breakfast with a choice of cereal or a hot main course
Main Cabin: Breakfast snack featuring cereal

739: IAH-SAN at 925AM. They get the same as 1058.

Granted, more than what is listed at CO.com since they're technically "Outside of meal time." Other than what Luke said, I have no clue why CO would not offer similar amenities on flights leaving at the same time with similar durations.

Florida markets don't play by the same rules. This applies not only to meals but to entertainment and AC staffing as well.

I was on CO 1618 EWR - TPA on Monday. I was in F on a 752. It was scheduled for 2:35P to 5:34P. Considering the scheduled departure and arrival did not match with the concept of "meals at mealtimes" I didnt expect nor get a meal. There was plenty of beer & pretzels however :p .

My return flight is at approx 6PM and dinner is predicted in F. My experience with meals in F for Florida is consistant with the "meals at mealtimes" concept.

The meal time cut-offs are pretty strict, especially with Florida flights.

I take 1748 quite often and the departure time is frequently adjusted in the schedule - sometimes you get dinner, sometimes you get pretzels. It depends on which side of 7pm we are scheduled to depart.

Also, 710 is not a 3h20m flight - it's padded due to EWR delays. Once airborne, your flight time is just a tad over 2hrs.

The FL flights are bi-polar. The breakfast is only just a pastry and fruit (no option) yet lunches and dinners seem to be catered consistently with the rest of the system.

Regarding pretzels only on a 3 hour flight, this is a great proof point for why CO should consider a snack basket. I mean, come one, if US can do it surely CO can.

Yes, the prices for the FL market are consistently lower than others, but I've paid in excess of $500 for a seat to FL, compared with $220 on a transcon. So, the whole pricing logic (which I understand it) is grossly flawed.

However, CO.com states "Flight durations listed are based on average trip times (from gate departure at the origin city to gate arrival at the destination city)." So it doesn't matter, for the sake of meals, if it's a 30 minute flight that's scheduled for 3 hours or actually a 3 hr flight.

True - but 701 is not scheduled during mealtime. Meals are only served during mealtime, with the exception of F snack plates which are served on certain flights after the lunch or dinner timeframe.

I don't believe CO serves anything between the breakfast timeframe and the lunch timeframe on flights whose length does not bleed into the next meal period. Eg. a 930am departure that arrives before noon-1pm would not receive lunch, while a 1030am departure that arrives 3hrs later might receive an early lunch.

I never received a snack plate between EWR and Florida, but I've often received it between IAH and Florida. CO149 is an example of a flight that gets the F snack plate all the time.

Agreed... I wasn't arguing, I was just showing that (for meals), CO doesn't care how long the actual flight it, but only how long it's booked for (assuming the booked time falls within a meal window).

Soup
 

Here is a marginally related question: is the mushroom soup offered in BusinessFirst vegetarian? I don't eat consume any meat stock soups and it sounds delicious!

The true BusinessFirst product never serves soup. It's not part of its catering.

You may sit in BF seats on a domestic F flight, if that's what you mean - if so, I don't know if the soup is truly vegetarian but you can contact Chelsea Catering to ask.

Weird.. I fly out of TPA and have always gotten a meal despite the time of day.. I guess I could be flying during "meal time" but that would be sheer luck on m part I guess.

I will note that often a flight will list just pretzels or something and I've gotten the meal. I thought it was a bug in the system that just listed catering incorrectly. I'm based out of TPA.