TheLifeOfA_NKCM

I'm more disappointed that you didn't bring this up with Ed when you had the chance. This might be one enhancement that he might of considered

..Had he knew how much we wanted this.

AntonS

I know most FTers disagree, but most FTers need reality check. Most flyers will not use pre-select for various reasons: they do not care / do not understand why they need to pre-select / do not book on delta.com etc. At most 5%-10% of D1 pax will pre-select. At this rate Delta does not need to change food planning per flight (which is expensive workflow change, especially for D1 flying from outstations). It will just give pre-selects priority choice and therefore reduce choice for the remaining 90%.

Even without change in food planning (only priority choice for pre-selects) adding and maintaining website support, adding menu choice to flight manifect (or worse printing additional food manifest) for each flight is very costly, because its an additional workflow, which should be maintained, it will have bugs, exceptions, require fixes, etc.

They can not even make a good PR out of it like SQ does with book the Cook. What kind of ad they can make if they need to exain in the ad why it's good to pre-select? Because they do not load enough entrees?

IMHO not worth it, giving implementation cost, low usage %, questionable PR benefits and potential reduction of choice for remaining pax.

If loading a few more entrees is not an option, just keep it as is.

If they have extra money to spend on cool projects, spend them on seat maintenance. My last two D1 flights had broken storage pockets so that everything was falling through on the floor.

KDCAflyer

Are you making up numbers, or do you happen to have an inside source?

It seems to work well for AA, otherwise it wouldn't be a thing there.

Miesque

I have but not many and its been a while since I avoid Chardonnay.

I very much enjoy the Montrachets but that is not an everyday sort of wine (at least for me) and when I am buying a bottle of wine in that price range its going to most likely be from the Champagne or Bordeaux region or a Chateauneuf de Pape. A decent Chablis is nice paired with certain items like oysters and other shellfish.

The white that I really enjoy that you don't see much of is Pinot Gris (epecially from Alsace) which is different from Pinot Grigio.

Miesque

[QUOTE=WWads;27402697

It seems to work well for AA, otherwise it wouldn't be a thing there.[/QUOTE]

^

gooselee

I was just about to post about the sparkling red Chandon! Have a couple bottles of it in my cabinet and it is really great stuff!

I'm with Rene, though. I can't remember the last time I drank a white wine that wasn't champagne or sparkling.

gooselee

If people don't want to use it or can't figure out how, they don't have to and can still hope for the best on board.

For others that like to plan ahead and are willing to spend a few minutes on it, why not let them have that option?

Nobody is forcing you to use this feature, and in this case putting choice in the hands of the customer is a good thing. Some people don't care about seat selection either (look at how many FC seats are sold but unassigned on many flights, but that's offered and apparently something you choose to take advantage of.

AntonS

1. Because implementing and maintaining this feature will cost money and will benefit relatively small % of flyers. I would rather have Delta spend money on more important stuff.

2. Because it will likely reduce choice for everyone else (or it will cost even more money to integrate it with food provisioning workflow).

3. Because it sends strange message to customers: "pre-select meal, because we do not load enough choices for everyone".

Zorak

1. Other airlines have implemented this, and apparently disagree with you since they continue to offer it.

2. It can't possibly reduce choice for everyone else. People who pre-order get exactly what they want. For people who don't, they can load the same proportion that they current load when nobody pre-orders. And in those situations when there is a catering disconnect and the choices are different than predicted, everyone is back in the same situation we are today. No one can be worse off in this system, merely the same or better. And complaining again about cost here is redundant since you already said that in #1, almost like you're repeating yourself because you're stretching to find things to carp about.

3. Congrats! It takes amazing mental contortions to twist this into a negative. The message I think most people would take from this is "have an idea in advance what your choices will be and, most likely, get what you want."

But you seem determined to be unhappy about this, so enjoy (or don't, whatever )

SDQBound

Been using it on AA for years, and it has worked for me 99.9% of the cases. When the FA is taking pre-departure drink orders or meal orders, most of the time they confirm that my meal choice is there, and in several cases I've been asked if I would like to change it as well. Only one time, departing from LAX on a 3-class 777 the menu was different from what was available online, but the FA made a great effort to accommodate the requests of those who preordered based on the new menu.

cmd320

1) Yes there will be an initial cost of implementation however that cost will be far less than what it would cost to cater and then throw away extra meals on every flight.

2) If people truly are too stupid to figure out who to click a menu and select from one of 2-4 choices, then IMO they probably deserve to have less of a choice (kinda like natural selection).

3) US airlines already send plenty of 'cheap' messages to customers, I doubt this will be received that way.

Based on your logic, airlines should never have started allowing customers to pre-select their seats either. I mean, if I select a seat early then it reduces the choices for everyone else.

GRALISTAIR

^

bennos

I don't think it's so much an issue of whether or not pre-select is a good idea in the abstract (I'd use it if it were available), but if I were prioritizing IT and logistical development issues (it's not just the website, but also integration with the food services vendors at every airport), there's no way this would be on the top of the list.

Put another way, I suspect the number of people shopping for premium cabins who would pick an airline based on the meal reservation capability is vanishingly small. In my case, it would be the absolute last tie-breaker, after price, schedule, equipment, seat availability, FFP considerations, airport terminals, previous experiences with in flight crew, overall meal quality, wifi, IFE, and probably some other factors I'm forgetting.

gooselee

^^

That's fair enough. I suppose my counter would be that with an organization as large as DL's, they theoretically should be able to tackle multiple initiatives at the same time (insert jokes about DL IT, etc.), and other priorities raised here, like seat maintenance, are likely owned by entirely different departments/teams at DL.

So, yes, this isn't at the top of anyone's priority list. But to say it shouldn't be done because only a few people will use it isn't a good argument, IMO. I have to believe that something like this falls into a continuous improvement-type list that any business as large as DL knows they need to keep supporting.

Also, I'm mindful that I'm responding to another poster who said this:
So...the same person that think about flying OAL due to lack of meal choice is saying that he can't be bothered with spending a couple minutes ahead of time to pre-select and nearly ensure meal choice.

mridley2

Any updates on timing for implementation?
I'm flying TCON D1 in a couple weeks and i'm wondering if this option might be available to me soon.. thanks