Downgraded Service in BE?
 

Recently I have been on several Asia and EU BE flights from JFK. I have started to notice, what appears to be a downgrade, in food service over the past month. I am not sure if it the crew or catering. What are everyone's thoughts? Is it just me? Am I being too picky?

[My initial thought is, if DL wants to advertise a premium product and change the FF program to attract premium flyers they should be doing a better job with their service...]

A few specific examples:

- It used to be standard service to offer a drink before dinner service, and a small dish of nuts were offered to PAX's. Now we seem to get a plastic bag of nuts prior to take off and on a few occasions no drinks after take-off.

- During long 12+ hour flights, crews used to be more accommodating in offering snacks if you were hungry between meal services. On my last NRT-JFK flight, when I asked for a snack, the FA snapped at me and said "they will serve a meal in a few hours" and told me to check out the snack box (which only had a few bananas)

- The Snack boxes in BE have been lacking. On my last two flights they had a few packages of that horrible nut mix, and three bananas. I have seen better snacks on domestic FC flights.

- Food quality has been terrible the past month. All of my dishes were close to being inedible. For the first time, I have actually passed on eating most of the meal.

I can't comment on BE, but I was on the round ATL/HNL and HNL/ATL nonstop on the A330 about 3 weeks ago. The service was quite good. We had a couple of rounds of PDBs, there was a pre-dinner drink service with warm nuts, and the food was quite good, both main meals and prearrival meals. The snack service was also good and the basket had a lot of variety.

Sounds like you got the right treatment!

Maybe I am just a sucker for the warm nuts, and a well stocked snack box :)

The warm nuts are a nice amenity, but I actually like the taste of the bagged ones they hand out now. They are a nice combo of sweet and salty. The bag does cheapen it a little bit though.

The idea with no more hot nuts is to use the ovens to get food out faster. Again, the idea anyway.

Most of my BE trips are for fun and not work, so I am not in a rush to eat and sleep. For this reason, I'm not really liking the new BE service that recently went into effect. It feels rushed with plopping down the appetizer with the first in-flight drink service. Miss the nuts/drink service but that's just me.

I've been on two long-haul BE flights in the last month and did not notice any of these "downgrades" in service, aside from the missing dish of warm nuts. In fact, my last NRT-LAX flight was wonderful -- friendly and attentive FA, good snacks, and an excellent kaiseki. ^

I think it started with a decline in snack basket in domestic F and that has slowly ended up in J. The Y class snack basket on JL has a better variety than DL's J.

I've had good luck with the PDB and generally the staff keep the glass full and the snacks (however lacking) coming. But that might just be luck of the draw for me. Most of my complaints for beverages revolves around lack-luster beer selection.

WEDGE SALAD - shame shame
 

They saved a lot of money moving from real salad greens to the nutritionally void and difficult to eat Wedge salad. I'm sure a consultant had suggested it has cache with the steak house crowd, but not anything you'd promote as part of a gourmet meal.

I agree. I tend to nibble a few leaves and then leave it.

DL used to have such good interesting BE salads in the big bowls.

This:

. . . . . alwayz makes me giggle, but, this:

. . . . . ohhhhhh, maaaaaan! LMAO!!!

:D

While not long hual LAX-HNL and HNL-LAX was bleh. Food choices were mediocre cheese omelet for breakfast and teriyaki chicken for dinner.

It's disturbing to read that my cold BE experience in April was not an isolated one. I recommend that we boycott BE until DL comes to their senses and offers us a warm pre-dinner snack again.

Me and some EU pax had a w.t.f. moment when on the AMS-PDX leg they served Burger King food aka the halfwarm rubber hamburger in BE as the 'almost there' choice. Needless to say after the 3rd row in BE they did run out of the 'salad' choice and the rest of BE had the Burger King or skip option.

Could this be the result of DL now allowing GUC upgrades into BE from cheap coach fares?