yknot

Yesterday in first I was offered some mixed nuts and kibble instead of the great Almonds that I used to get. The flight attendant indicated that the almonds are out - a cost cutting move?

fromYXU

Discussed in DTW - ORF: FC & one bag o' nuts.

SeaMeFly

Almond has retired from flying... the new 'crew' is called : Mixed Nuts is now available for FC. Only 1 bag per person though.. No exception regardless of your status

nosoup4you

The scary thing is that I know this trivia.

Both Spain and Turkey almond growing regions suffered freezing conditions this year that severely curtailed production.
While California is seeing it’s 5 consecutive record year in shipping exports.

It looks like there may have been a slight price increase that promoted the NW decision to change their standards?

MisterNice

Those almonds tasted as if they were really stale, ie sorta soft w/o any noticable crunch.

MisterNice

wldtrvlr

There is a 4 page discussion about it in this thread:

DTW - ORF: FC & one bag o' nuts

Here is the e-mail response I received from Mr. Adler, VP or Inflight operations yesterday stating his response to the situation.

Dear Mr. XXXXX:

Thank you for your note. I've delayed answering as I wanted to be
responsive to your concern. It took a few days to assess the situation
and evaluate the economics. Based on your feedback, we will be adding
back pretzel packages to the product offering in First Class.

Our initial decision was not a cost saving measure. Here's the
background:

We changed our First Class tidbit product in response to feedback from
Elite customers who in essence said - get rid of the pretzels and give
us more low-carb nuts.

Previously, we offered a choice of a .5 oz. package of almonds or a .5
oz. package of pretzels. Typically, flight attendants would offer a
basket of these selections to customers, with those seated at the front
of the cabin helping themselves to hand fulls and leaving no choice for
those seated at the rear of the cabin. This was a source of many
complaints. (American, Continental and Delta have had a single offering
for years.)

On August 8, we introduced the new product - a 1 oz. package of mixed
nuts replacing two .5 oz. packages for one, higher quality offering.
Total spend was the same, including a 25% overboard of product for those
customers who desired seconds. The flight attendant delivery procedures
changed. We now tell flight attendants to hand the single tidbit
package to customers along with a drink. If a customer requests more
than one package, the flight attendant returns with any leftovers, or
goes to main cabin for pretzels. There should never be a situation
where they cannot offer a second helping of something.

To give you a feel for the magnitude of spend we're talking about:

Current annual spend: $1.7 Million. Cost to double the amount of new
product is $2.8 Million.

That said, we are responding to customer perception that they are not
getting as much value as they were previously, and will be adding
pretzel packages back to the product offering in First Class.

Many thanks for your feedback. We are doing our best to satisfy the
majority of our customers in a very difficult financial environment. I
appreciate your business and continued support.

Sincerely,

Hector Adler

So the people that want nuts will get to eat the MIX those of us that don't mind the carbs in the pretzels will now be able to eat pretzels. I think NWA is responsive to customer concerns and I was thrilled to get a response.