wkndtraveler

I just called to platinum line and said that I want a meal that doesn't have red meat and that the meal doesn't have to be a vegetarian. Then they asked how about a seafood meal.

wkndtraveler

Now when you mentioned, it indeed looks like a potato. It was first served as cold but the kind purser warmed it up when I asked if it would be possible. It tasted okay. Welcome change for Fazer chocolates.

OH-LGG

How can I avoid fish or seafood?

Again food (bread) on HEL - ARN in C was salmon inside the bread. Ush.

intuition

Bread with fish inside? They are serving Kalakukko now?



I think it will be difficult to avoid fish on a carrier that is determined to showcase nordic food. There is going to be fish in a lot of dishes.

cistavoda

Oh yeah that lovely lohiruisleipä. Just call Plat line and tell them you require salad.

intuition

So there has been some talk about declining quality in J food and here is my observation from first shorthaul in about 5 months.

CPH-HEL noon flight.

Meal rather lacking and can't even fill the tray anymore. Someone did a creative layout of three chocolates and the butter to cover up the fact that the left side of tray is completely empty.

No one in the crew mentioned a word about the food. ("what do you want to drink" was all that was said during meal service)

Meal was a mash (turned out to be Polenta) which I liked but I think the flavour was on the heavy side. Polenta is a porridge made from corn flour allowed to thicken in a broth - and the broth was dominating.
Item to the left on the plate I have no idea what it is (I think someone on FT told me before, but I've repressed...). Still, even though it is pretty tasteless my mouth revolts over this, and I left it after one bite.
To the right is a meat patty beef with onion and sauce. Or so I thought. It turned out to be chicken filet with a fake tan (industrially added colouring to make it look like it was grilled). Sauce had some taste, chicken was tasteless and was barely passable.


Service was extremely slow, but probably due to purser suffering or recovering from some serious health issues. I'm going to leave it at that, not going into detail as the purser likely is easy to identify.
Coffee was served but no offering of avec. I was half way through my cup and was just about to use the call button when purser showed up with glasses on a tray and waving a scotch minibottle in the air. I asked for Amarula and got it. No ice though.

Absolutely no status recognition. 8 rows of J, all seats taken. I think I was the only non-asian person in J.

Also, when did polenta become a dish showcasing nordic cuisine?

intuition

HEL-CPH noon flight


No presentation of the food, neither before or upon service. "Do you want some lunch?" was all that was said.

It was wholegrain buckwheat in a light stew and the exact same spray-tan chicken as on the outbound.
I guess airlines love buckwheat as it is gluten free but I just can't stand it and left it 100% untouched. (I tried one mini bite just to confirm)
Chicken was spongy and just as tasteless as on the outbound. Ate 75% of the chicken.
Vegetables were a mix of green asparagus and green bean. I normally like both kinds, but left about 75% of it as I didn't like the spicing (would have been just lovely with some melted butter and sea salt)

Luckily they served bread twice.

On this flight there was a dessert, a "kladdkaka" (semi-cooked chocolate cake). It was good.

Cabin very sparsely populated, but that didn't stop the new great seating system from putting all passengers on row one and having 10-12 seats empty behind. Purser "fixed" the problem by asking the couple seated in 1C + 1D if they "didn't prefer a window seat or sitting together alone, as so many seats are available". They did and moved quickly.

Zero status recognition.

Buckwheat is again not something showcasing nordic cuisine, but it is popular in Asia.

finhub

Flew today TXL-HEL on J.
I was wise enough and had preordered seafood meal for me and my friend.
There were 5 pax all together on J and the meal served to others were of course beef gulash.
1 asian pax (I guess japanese) and 2 germans were not so wise and I could watch all of them just to taste the beef gulash once and that was it. None of them ate the gulash meal.
I really hope people will send more feedback to AY to get rid of this no one’s favourite meal. Or is there someone who actually likes that beef gulash?
I think it's totally inedible. Lack of proper dessert makes it even more miserable.

ffay005

And they dare send us these ridiculous upgrade offers citing "Korkealaatuiset ateriat: Euroopan-lentojen businessluokassa tarjoamme korkeatasoisen ateriakokonaisuuden, joka vaihtelee vuorokaudenajasta ja lennon kestosta riippuen. Ateriatarjoilua täydentää laadukas ja monipuolinen juomavalikoima."

If you have received these offers in English, would you please post the text here? Anyway, they basically talk about a meal of high quality, which is just BS.

This is what the FCCA (Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority) says about misleading marketing: "It is prohibited to provide false or misleading information in marketing and consumer relationships, if said information is likely to result in a consumer making a purchasing or other decision relating to goods or services that he or she would not have made without the information provided.

Even if the information as such is correct, it may not be provided if the overall impression formed is misleading."

If this is not misleading marketing, then what is?

Imagine sending out this email to Perus-Pentti and then seeing his face when he receives Intuition's CPH tray.

wkndtraveler

Can't agree more. By the way, what did you get for seafood meal? Same what I posted on previous page here?

finhub

Almost same. Gluten free donut + fish portion looks 100% similar. Starter salad and a gluten free roll was missing on my tray.

wkndtraveler

This is so true, Finnair marketing is misleading. I've tried to point this out to Finnair several times without luck. They are happy to pay 5,000-10,000 points for those who complains instead of improving their products.

Their English website advertises short-haul business class meals this way:

"As a Business Class passenger on one of our European flights and on flights to/from Middle East, you’ll receive a delicious high quality meal."

I was hoping we could see some improvements in meals after the catering returned to Finnair but no. I guess we need to complain to authorities.

nordic

At your meeting did you discuss the short-haul issues at all or was the focus only on the long-haul product?

intuition

Yes. I was specifically asked by someone AY and I said let me show you a picture (the one above) and I could see the othe AY person at the table preparing for the worst. So I think in some functions they are aware that intra EU isnt making people happy.

Then the pricing guy arrived and I explained that no sane person would pay 6-800€ when J offers so little, and that the pricing is what makes intra eu J cabin consist of 95% connecting pax.
We got into a discussion around connecting pax, and it kind of felt that they already have abandoned any positive development in intra-eu traffic. Because if all passemgers already are connecting they are getting full meal on longhaul and in two lounges, why then feed them a big meal on shorthaul? In that context it kind of make sense, but as said - intra-eu J has very little going for it if they continue the pricing model while they cut down on everything.

Perhaps they have numbers saying something else. Perhaps some corporations still book intra-eu J and they make money from the pricing strategy (from 800€ level they can discount 50% and still make money and corporate also thinks they are getting a good deal).
But if they are considering the shorthaul as mereley feeder traffic with no intrinsic value, then I cant see a positive development in the future.

R2

IMO it's more of a quality issue than than quantity as you well demonstrated in your report on CPH-HEL-CPH flights.