SeaClay007

I've been lurking for a year-and-a-half or so. Finally, I have something to comment on.

I flew up front (as I do 97% of the time) on PDX-DFW-BOS yesterday and on the DFW-BOS leg (738) the Food for Purchase program was used. Near the end of the flight when the co-pilot made his obligatory trip to the lav and to banter with the FAs, the FA from the back came up through F with a HUGE wad of cash from food purchases in Y. I do not remember her statement verbatim, but the gist was that 75% +/- of the pax in Y had bought food. This is a trend I have seen on most flights I have flown where the program was offered.

The meal in F was a chicken/mushroom pizza, dried out salad and pie. We did get the Ghirardelli squares (very nice).

Conclusions: The food for purchase in Y seems popular and every F entree seems to contain mushrooms.

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DL PM, Marriott Platinum, HHonors Gold

Cholula

SeaClay007...welcome to the DL forum and we hope you will continue to post! Don't hesitate to weigh in on the various issues in this forum. I'm living proof that it's not a requirement to have anything intelligent to say in order to post here.
On your "mushrooms in everything" comment on FC meals, you have discovered the trick that chefs have been using for centuries. Throw a few mushrooms into anything and the common thought is that it's suddenly becomes a gourmet entree.
Doesn't do much for oatmeal though, IMHO....

JS

I love mushrooms. It's great for my diet, because then I eat at Popeye's only instead of Popeye's followed by a meal on board.

jeffreyt

Don't think for a minute that for a minute the purchased food will remain like the "test" food was: nice portions, good quality, decent selections. Once they start selling it, everything will be cut down to more airplance-style foods and portions. Mark my words. (Wasn't that chocolate cake and the Cheesecake GREAT in the test?).

Dovster

Jeffrey, how could you possibly make such a slanderous statement about Delta?

"Cut down"? Never!

The portions will be "enhanced" to a smaller size as per popular demand.

paradocs

Robert Leach

While no one can accuse Delta of having a brain sufficient enough to think this through, what they should do (if the food sale tests have indeed been successful) is the exact opposite: they should offer an even broader range of product, including some that are even higher quality and more expensive. Once you break through the resistance to paying for food on board and have the populace conditioned, then you take the people you have captive for 4 hours in a plane and really try to make some money off of them.

I also hope that the day will come that they stock some sort of food on flights of every length at every time of day, rather than just the longer ones. There are times when you're stuck on a late night flight and didn't get a chance to eat; on those occasions, a snack would be great even if it is only a 700 mile flight to Little Rock and it's 11 p.m.

Any my ultimate air travel fantasy is for the airline to stock half bottles of truly premium wine in the first class galley and sell those. It would be so cool, and I'd pay for it in a minute (even in F), if you could buy a really quality wine to enjoy along the way.

SeaClay007

Thanks for the warm welcome, Cholula!

I point out mushrooms because they disagree with me internally. I can usually dig them out of the breakfast omelette and other entrees, but they're fused into the breakfast quiche. Yesterday's pizza was a struggle to remove them, as well.

I suppose I should just request a different meal when my company's travel agent books my flights.

indufan

I am not saying Delta shouldn't get grief over it but it looks like they are going to pay for the use of the word enhanced for a long time.

gannet

Lets go the whole way and have in flight gambling if you really want to make some money.

Cholula

I believe the Dovster is currently snoozing at this hour but I’m sure he’ll eventually weigh in on his favorite subject.
I’ve read elsewhere that some foreign airline is already testing this. I don’t have a problem with it personally but doubt I’d participate. Not that I have anything against gambling...just returned today from LAS where The Bellagio thanked me for contributing to their 2004 bottom line.
I like the whole gambling experience....hotel suites, shows, gourmet meals, live action, hollering, screaming and the like. That’s the reason I don’t participate in Internet gambling. Plus I would imagine the US airlines would have a severe uphill battle trying to get this approved.
But it would solve many of their financial difficulties to be sure.

Dovster

Swiss Air was testing it but went out of business before it could be implemented. Maybe if it had a quicker dealer it would still be in business.

The idea had been to have Microgaming, or one of the other large online casino software producers, make a program which would be played on the inflight video screens.

Of course, the difficulty with that is that you have no way of knowing if you are getting an honest deal, roll of the dice, etc. I imagine people would get quite suspicious if they were dealt an ace to the dealer's 6, doubled down, and pulled a 8 -- while the dealer got a 4 and a face card.

I sure as heck wouldn't have trusted a video game telling me what cards I received when I knew that Leo Mullen was the man behind the programming.

On the other hand, as I recently mentioned in another thread, if you are really interesting in airborne gambling, take a look at Josh Wilde's explanation on http://www.gambling.com/static/go_page.cfm?ID=721

rhetor

I'm just sorry that the free-food-for-PMs- flying-in-coach policy is coming to an end. I thought it was a nice way for DL to show a little sympathy to those usually high-fare pax that couldn't get an upgrade.

[This message has been edited by rhetor (edited Feb 15, 2004).]

JRF

DL's coach product is so nasty, espically on the 757, a free good meal for PM is always a nice way of trying to make things a little nicer. I guess when pay for food hits the rest of the airlines, should you be one of the PMs stuck in coach, that the free meal may be a big player in switching airlines should any of the other airlines offer free food.

I really wish Leo would just pack up and move so we can see what is going to happen to DL.

yashan

I try to pick them off too. However DL trumped me on a flight last month when they served mushroom risotto. The big chunks of mushrooms were easy to find. It was the mushroom juice, however, that made the dish inedible. Looking around the FC cabin, I wasn't the only one who avoided the entree on that flight either.