NeoOfTheCRS

So I was booked on a 747 headed from FRA-MAA. Feeling really good about my chances of upgrading from Business to F with my printed UA SWU.

I arrive in FRA and the agent tells me that there are no passengers booked in F and that it is wide open. But can't confirm me a seat because they have not ordered catering for F.

In the end there were two of us in F and they did cater. But has anyone had this happen before and do they have to cater for someone who is booked in C looking to upgrade to F if they are the only one?

MapleLeaf

Don't know about C to F but I was denied an upgrade from Y to C because of insufficient catering. Even my offer of taking a Y meal was rebuked by the friendly, helpful LH agent.

SleepOverGreenland

Now we are talking about my favourite.

LH is loading F stuff in sets of 4. I can't tell you, how I hate that term loading, because even with a half empty F cabin you have NO chance to upgrade from C. A had couple discussions about this during the last 12 month.

While flying most times in F I tried to use some of my eVouchers last year. In most cases I got only a standby upgrade and no upgrade confirmation. This can lead to, that you don't get the upgrade, when checking in, but even with enough seats in F you can not buy a F upgrade ticket too. If they for example have 12 seats used in F, they are not going to open the remaining 4 seats anymore. For their famous loading they state, they need to know this at least two hours ahead.

AFAIK this is an issue C to F only. If for Y to C a customer agrees to go with the Y meal this works fine (per a GA I had such a annoying discussion, where I offered to go with my BIZ food to F and don't need the flower). He said, this works fine Y to C, but never C to F.

dia15222

I had the problem when I wanted to rebook a Flight booked in C form ZRH to MUC. We arrived from a connection earlier and we tried our luck to catch an earlier flight. The Gate-Agent said that there is plenty of room, but we wont get a meal (yes they call the Business-Class Snack a meal)! We accepted because it saved us 1,5 hours. We got "No Meal" written on our BP.
On board the plane they had plenty meals/snacks so it was no problem.

jpberendes

Quite interesting. Where did you get that information?

That means, they'll have 8 meals onboard when there are five people booked in F? Interesting, interesting. Can't wait for my next F flight on Friday to ask some stupid questions to the FA and eat all the stuff which was loaded for not existing passengers.

Guy Betsy

I believe the 'remaining' meals will find their way to some cabin crew onboard!

Even if there is only one passenger , CX (at least to my knowledge and my own experience) will cater the entire menu offerings listed even though one may or may not even eat on the flight.

Maybe LH saw that you were upgraded and that they had not planned on catering. But even so, they have to have had an idea of the load factor.

AJLondon

That used to be the case till the middle of last year. However it is no longer true.

(IIRC, I think uli might be able to verify this too. )

Flying Lawyer

It cannot be true.

LH normally has a choice of four different main courses in F. Two of these are the same as in C, two are F-only. Considering that they do not know who takes fish, vegetarian, chicken, beef or whatever, they cannot only load one meal for each pax. So there must alway be a enormous amount of meals for the trash. Furthermore: It is no problem to order special meals in quantities of one, so why should it be a problem with regular meals?

I consider this "packages of four" a myth.

Cheers
T.

TravelinWilly

Thanks for sharing. Everyone was wondering what you were considering this particular post to be.

The packages of 4 makes sense to me. Last year I flew LH intercontinentally 18 times in 1st, and while I hadn't heard this before, it seems about right, as when I've been on flights where the 1st cabin is less than full, I've never seen more than 3 leftover anythings (pyjama sets, etc.) on the cart on the 744's (I don't see the stuff on the 330's or 340's).

How they handle food I don't know, and I've not wondered before, but I'll try and remember to ask an f/a how they do that on the 2 flights I have booked with them next month.

Will

SanoCGN

Hey guys,

lets clear some things up, because one of my best friends works for Lufti as a FA

In the past, they were really catering in set of 4 people - which, in some rare cases, lead to insufficent choice of hot meals. quite embarrassing in f-class, don't you think.

nonetheless, they even changed that to a set of 2 now. however, this goes for the entrees and the desserts only. hot meals are catered by some mathematic factor, they figure out somehow in advance, which hot meals might be the most popular ones. e.g. 4 pax on board, they have 3 beef, 2 fish, 2 pasta and one chicken (or whatever, just a sample). meaning they have actually double hot meals on board, to improve the choice for pax. most of the time, the ask hons and sens in advance, to make sure they get what they want. what they changed now is, that while the above mentionend ratio (4,3,2,1) applied to 4-1 pax, they want to save more money and cater for 2 people now. meaning, e.g. 2 pax on board get 2 beef, 2 fish, 1 pasta and 1 chicken. this saved them 2 meals to prepare. quite clever...

another thing about upgrading. they need to have min 60 min in advance to prepare the meals by lsg, because - different to c-class and y-class meals, f-class meals are always freshly prepared and the catered to the aircraft.

and no, drinks are never catered by sets, they always have the same amount.

and yes, you could seize the fact, that you now know, they have more hot meals on board, but hey....who wants to? you leave f-class stuffed anyway, and good dear, let the crew have their fun with it...

regards,
SANO

berenike

Last week I flew to NRT in F and changed my booking on very short notice. I was told they need 45mins in advance to get all the food on board (I think that was 45mins before boarding, not departure). Only driving it out to the plane will take 20-30mins scheduling a truck and lifting it up into the plane

Also they had a set of four loaded. With all the choice they offer they need the time for preparation and getting it to the plane. Also it doesn't make sense to prepare only one set so there must be some min. lot size.

If you want to book less than 45mins or upgrade and no meals are left they won't take you. This is very annoying when they use old C and you only find out at the gate...

BTW: the Japanese food they offered on board was awesome (for plane food).

Christian

SleepOverGreenland

Thanks for the details. Since I was flying F all the time in 2nd half 2005 I got not aware of these changes. In 1st half 2005 I had some annoying discussions with GA and FA and pursers about the loading. And Yes, by then all of them always said, the loading is in sets of 4 and need to be known 2 hours ahead.

Anyway the change from sets of 4 down to 2 can be more annoying for upgrades. So far up to 3 people had a chance to upgrade, now it will be only 1. Because I got a statement twice in 2005, that just for upgrades they never add more food anymore. I don't know, how it works as a HON, but when arguing as a SEN for a F upgrade it worked in 2005 only for the up to 3 available seats from loading. It fits into the overall concept of making F class more exclusive again.

Uli

just confirmed with LH:

F is catered in sets of 2, available 60 mins before the flight (not before boarding start)