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The NBA charter jet served 2 hot meals and a snack in the minute flight from LAX-PHX. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
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My 4 recent ORD-DCAs in the 4-8pm range have featured a choice of meatloaf or salmon in first. Having tried both, I give the meatloaf a slight edge, although neither are great. This is about a 1:50 flight (with the last half hour reserved for stay-seated paranoia)...
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What would one pay for a round trip ticket Newcastle to Brisbane? What would one pay for a Baltimore to Orlando flight? Or Portland, OR to Los Angeles? I guarantee you that you are paying a premium to enjoy that meal you love so much. Passengers in the U.S. demanded lower fares, they got them, and they also got a reduction in amenities. Incidentally, you say that people in Australia would never tolerate no meals, look at your newest most succesful start up airline - Virgin Blue. They are expanding and wildly succesful down under and you get...... you guessed it, NO MEALS.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by QFAA: Had full hot breakfast Newcastle - Brisbane (1250km/780m/1 hour) on a Qantaslink whisperjet (Bae 146-200); also all major routes in Australia, BNE-SYD, SYD-MEL, full hot meals (70 - 90 min flights). Had full lunch (turkey croissant et al) on flight down the coast to Sydney, 50 mins in a DASH-8. Australians get a bit pooey without at least a reasonable snack. Even a snack (afternoon tea) on way back from Brisbane a couple of months ago had a brilliant meat pie with tomato sauce, some camembert cheese, onion marmalade, and great service -- 737-400 series! It's never been clear to me why Americans put up with no meal services. How dumb. The bistro bag thing just really wouldn't "fly" here either. And everyone else is using metal cutlery in the air, except for flights to the U.S. where some folks think it will prevent in-air nastiness. Cheers! </font> |
Hi,
We get a hot breakfasts and hot dinners on A/BD short haul flights within the UK ( ie EDI/GLA- LHR/LGW flight times around 1hour). Outside peaktimes we get the all day deli on BA ( sandwiches and cake) and a snack on BD. On the low cost airlines- BYO (bring your own or buy your own) |
AS Flyer.
Have you ever seen Aussie airfares? You get hot food flying for $66 MEL-SYD, SYD-BNE, etc, etc. That's $33USD. Cheers, Justin |
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Skystar: AS Flyer. Have you ever seen Aussie airfares? You get hot food flying for $66 MEL-SYD, SYD-BNE, etc, etc. That's $33USD. Cheers, Justin</font> You can thank Virgin Blue for those low fares. Did QANTAS offer really low fares prior to the entry of a low fare carrier? No is the only honest answer. If Virgin Blue continues to eat away at QANTAS profits with their low fares you will see an erosion in the service levels on your domestic flights as well. Air New Zealand is running into horrendous financial difficulties, Ansett is suffering as we all know. Can you not attribute their high costs to any of this? If you really believe that they are able to offer all this service and still make money then you are lying to yourself. Low cost airlines have only recently been able to thrive in Australia - as the effects of those low fares settle in you will see reductions in the service. Just look at the U.S. air service for an example of what happens when the fares fall to such low levels. |
I don't believe the hypothesis that good service = financial difficulty is true. US airlines offer cruddy service AND are in horrible financial difficulties that rival those of Australian airlines. And it's not even all due to 9/11 either. I think the main problem is that airlines in the US no longer even think of themselves as service businesses. The US airline culture is that they are there to transport you from one place to another, and service is an anachronism left over from a bygone era.
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Believe what you want. It's true that it doesn't cost anything to smile and treat people well, something the U.S. airlines don't always do well, as opposed to their foriegn counterparts. Service, in terms of being able to offer hot meals on 30 minute flights and open bars and newspapers and extra flight crew members, is dependant on the revenue being produced. Take a look at the European airlines. They are currently a little further behind their U.S. counterparts and ahead of their Australian and Latin American counterparts, in terms of "airline evolution" goes. That is to say that no frills/low fare airlines are rapidly taking over many shorter, inter-continental routes in Europe. They are driving the prices down as well as the service levels. You see some European airlines starting to offer bagged snacks instead of hot meals, no seat assignments on some flights. The frills are slowly starting to disappear. They are going in the same direction as the U.S. airlines. The Australian airlines (or airline - singular - I should say) are just beginning to face low fare/no frills competition. They are bleeding $$$ left and right anyway. As the fare levels drop, so too will the service levels. Take a look around you. It's not just a U.S. thing - we are just a little further ahead in the evolution of airlines. A sign of things to come you might say. IMHO of course.
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