Hungry on SEA - LAX (F and Y)
 

Did a quick roundtrip SEA-LAX this weekend.

Outbound in F on 3:30pm flight - the only food offered was snack basket. Return in C+ on 1pm flight - no food for sale offered (but F seemed to have lunch).

I did not have time to grab something to eat before flights and was hungry.

Is it recent enhancement on SEA-Cal flights? I remember sometime ago SEA-LAX/SFO were some sort of special or shuttle routes and even received free hummus plates in C+.

I think around a year ago DL cancelled the West Coast Shuttle program that offered enhanced inflight services on flights between LAX/SFO/SEA. Now on SFO-LAX they explain that they will only offer coffee and water because they don't have time to do a full drink service in coach, even though the magically had enough time to do it when it was called "shuttle service."

Also, F flights ex-SEA only get meals during meal times now.

LH was able to do a full meal service in Y from FRA-CDG. I think DL can manage beverages on LAX-SEA

I think DL does offer full beverage service on LAX-SEA. It's LAX-SFO where they are now claiming they don't have enough time on the 55 minute flight. But yes, your point is well taken. KL serves breakfast in coach on AMS-TXL. Granted, it's a small sandwich that they pass out quickly along with coffee and juice, but they get it done.

Yeah DL killed the Shuttle service on the West Coast sometime early last year. The early days of DL's expansion in SEA were quite special.

For those interested - here's an idea of how special that was...

SEA-LAX F (2015 or 2016)
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7b9a68d4c8.jpg

SEA-SFO C+ (2016)

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...a9668786bf.jpg

SEA-LAX F (2018)

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c50f7ad16e.jpg

There are still meals served on SEA-SFO/LAX in first class, but the meal service is offered under the standard parameters for a flight of that length (so no meals in the 1-4pm and 8pm-6am).

US carriers are hilarious and terrible-there isnt any use comparing them to airlines like LH/EK/CX, especially when it comes to food service. Want a good chuckle? Maldivian, using a Dash-8 prop, serves a full drink service front to back and hands out candy on a 35 minute flight.

On the other hand, I'll take our domestic first class seats over Europe's "Euro business class" any day. Have you ever flown in the front cabin on a BA flight in Europe? You get 29"-30" of pitch.

+1. Was served breakfast on a 630am SFO - SEA last week, choice of either pretzel breakfast sandwich or cereal/fruit/yogurt.

Your times are slightly off --

On flights ranging from 900-1,399 miles, enjoy a full chef-curated meal service. Find breakfast and lunch items on flights departing from 5 AM to 1:30 PM, dinner for departures from 4 PM to 8 PM and a hearty selection of snacks at most times in between.

https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...rst-class.html

SEA-SFO is well under 900 miles (679), but looks to be one of a number routes where they make an exception and serve meals during the meal windows listed above. SEA-LAS is 867 miles, but doesn't get any meals in F as it's under 900 miles and DL has decided not to make an exception for it.

Good points.

The link on that page "see the full first class menu" still goes to a page that tells you nothing about domestic F meals. It's been that way for a couple of years.

None of this has been my experience on BA. The staff are grumpy and the food is as good as typical food in England (bad).

ive never had a great experience on intra-europa BA. do you mean the food and drink that they make you purchase in Y? I had a better experience on ryanair than on BA.

You will get a nice warm snack (its tasty) on most Indian airlines where the flying time is around 45 minutes...

Are you kidding me? Full meal in Y on LH FRA-CDG?

DL has a solid second place in terms of market share on SEA-LAX. They're probably satisfied with their position. And they'll likely be stuck in third (and last) place on SEA-SFO no matter what they do given the dominance of incumbent leaders (UA/AS) on both ends.

Are AS/AA/UA doing anything substantive more than 'meals at meal times' on SEA-LAX? No? There you go. It was never charity on Delta's part. It was an attempt to get people to pay more.

Did the Delta meal service descriptor online point to something different than the OP received?

It's a different product for sure - Euro business gets lounge access too. At least KLM (a Skyteam partner) offers the equivalent of "C+" with a blocked middle, compared to BA. I've only been in these cabins as feeders connecting from the USA, how do their prices compare? The F fares I find are usually about 2.5x or 3x the economy fares here.

KL does full service in F on AMS-HAM during meal times (I've experience breakfast and lunch, not dinner), they even warm up "airplane fresh" rolls. FAs are incredibly polite and attentive too.

I'm sorry, are we talking about the same BA? The one that thought it would be a good idea to cut their second meal service for economy and premium economy? The same BA that has 8 abreast business class? Sounds a lot like the cargo business to me. If BA was the only TATL option, I'd go TPAC the long way.

Meals did not disappear on US carriers for any reason other than that consumer sentiment favors lower prices over ancillary services. SEA-LAX could serve a full meal in all classes. Put simply, offering a Y meal on SEA-LAX apparently did not change sales, so it's gone. At the same time, European carriers are dialing back their Y service and most have moved from serving a hot meal to selling BOB on short-haul.

Also worth remembering that not only is intra-European J a 3-3 seating arrangement with the middle seat blocked, but freebie UG's as are expected in the US, don't happen.

Well, they do happen, but not as a published benefit of the frequent flyer program. However, elites are sometimes given upgrades as has been reported on FT. I presume this is usually because Y is oversold and, even though the divider can be moved, it can still leave 1-3 more seats than are sold in the front cabin. But I would not be surprised if a European airline occasionally upgrades very good customers just as a matter of loyalty retention.

This is not true. When they first introduced shuttle service, the entire flight, all cabins, got a Luvo snack box plus beer & wine. This lasted for a few years. Later, service was reduced to what you describe with only F and C+ getting the Luvo box and Y getting premium packaged snacks.

I might have missed this because I moved from DTW to SEA in 2015. Sorry - didn't mean to spread fake news around!

This is correct. Under Delta Shuttle moniker, coach got free spirits and some Luvo cardboard snack. Of note, Luvo meals were railed upon by FF's to Delta. A source of constant complaint.

Really? What's so bad about a small box of fresh fruit with nut butters or crudités with hummus? It's far better than the premium snacks in the form of a bag of chips or a banana that they normally serve in Comfort.

Nothing. And I don't think these snack boxes were the source of the Luvo complaints. For a while there were Luvo branded full meals on longer flights, which I actually happened to like.

There is constant whining by BA customers that on short-haul flights, the BOB cart can't make it more than 1/2-way through the cabin.

Back when A31X's were staffed with 4 FA's. 2 in each cabin, it was easy enough to hand out tray meals in ET (Y). Whether the tray concerned a muffin or a 3-course meal is irrelevant. But, taking orders, finding the item, taking payment and moving on, takes far longer and now there are only 3 FA's.

In a previous life I flew as cabin crew and then purser for BD (rip) and BA. Before moving to longhaul, I did my fair share of EuroFleet, and I remember those flights doling out a hot breakfast to a 200 passenger configuration A321 or 185 passenger configuration 757 from LHR-MAN with as little as 32 minutes in the air. Serving a hot breakfast to 200 people on a 30 minute flight seemed impossible at times, but we had 8 cabin crew staffed on those flights and managed to make it happen. I think this had to be the shortest flight in the world, or at least one of them, where a hot meal to the entire 200- pax cabin was served.

This is a route I really don't understand why DL doesn't offer a meal. I've had flight times around 3 hours or more on the 717 from SEA-LAS over meal times, too many times to count. You can expect a hot dinner on Alaska on this route, yet just a snack basket on DL.

Took a KLM late morning flight from AMS to London (forgot which airport!) years ago which is a very short flight. The FA walked down the aisle with prepared sandwiches in a small open half box type "holder"- egg salad or shrimp salad sandwich handed out quickly and efficiently. Minimal fuss, minimal trash and sated passengers. I can only dream of such service on some shorter flights within the US.

(the egg salad was *delicious!*)