CPH-Flyer

No, and I actually live quite fine without book the cook. I think I have pre selected once on Thai F, and that was more because I had to call them for something else, and the Japan office was very insisting on getting a meal choice as well.

Call me a minority, but I find the SK J meals good among European and US airlines. Compared to JAL and ANA it does not come even close. Plus long haul is pretty weak, Go looks abysmal, I have only seen the trays, I have not flown SAS Go (or economy as it was) long haul since 2006.

I think premium dining is a poor choice of term for the new concept. Especially as you can't upgrade the meal in Plus. Select Dining, Preferred Meal, etc. Sonething without the Premium word would be better

nacho

The whole point of sitting in Plus is you get a better seat and premium dining - something in between C and Y - so the food should be something pleasant and hence there's no reason to spend extra $ to upgrade your food. I also don't know if there's enough demand for paid upgrade food in Plus.

I eat almost anything and I had to give up on finishing my meal in GO - either it's too spicy or too salty meaning that I'll deplete more water than I'd like to have with me - smart for SK because they can sell more drinks (tea and coffee is free but according a crew it's max 2 cups per meal and that is).

CPH-Flyer

To be honest, there should not be a reason to pay for a decent meal in normal economy either. But most airlines seems to create the differentiation from Y to PY by decimating Y rather than providing a good PY soft product.

Expecting a premium dining experience in PY is either 10 years ago, or reading too much airline marketing material. But expecting a reasonably good meal should be par for the course.

​​​​​​If there is a market for paying for a better meal in Y I principally don't see why there would not be a market for getting a more business class style meal in PY.

We can agree that it should not really be like this in Y. But it is a consequence of passengers considering a 4000 DKK flight from Copenhagen to New York an expensive flight. And we can also agree that it moat certainly should not go that direction for Plus, but I would expect that to come as well eventually

nacho

I really don't believe in the price war thing - flight tickets are perishable products, a ticket CPH-EWR Go can go from 2500 to 8000 DKK depending on when you need to fly.

If SK continues to do this they will lose more customer to DY - for TATL you have to pay for checked bags anyway and SK gives you a bottle of water and a drink and an inedible meal + snack. Eventually there will be minimal difference between the 2 airlines, and why would someone fly SK? (This is mostly for Y pax)

Tennen

I was wrong! They don't even plate it on china.
I've checked my photos from previous trips, and for the life of me, I can't tell that SAS Plus meals aren't Economy meals. The main course is served in foil, and the appetizer and desserts appear to be in some kind of reusable plastic (but could be porcelain), similar to what other carriers do in Economy. The only noticeable difference is the presence of proper glassware on the meal tray, but I've never been offered drinks in anything but plastic in long-haul Plus. I do recall that the pre-arrival Go meals were dumped into the garbage, so perhaps those meals all use disposable (or hopefully, recyclable) materials. I can't believe that the Plus meals are actually better than Go!

But you're right; there's nothing premium about Premium Economy dining, at least on SAS...

CPH-Flyer

It is very much a price war thing. The airlines needs to have a price that shows up as one of the cheapest via OTAs to catch a certain part o the market. There are examples of airlines that does not go for this, but it is typically in markets with a very different competitive landscape than Scandinavia and Europe. Good examples could be JL, NH, SQ. A different options is to go for very low cost and economies of scale to be able to compete on price and quality, EK, TK, QR could be examples. Some would argue that neither EK nor QR makes money on this, I don't know what is the truths of those arguments so I leave that side for now. But agian it is not based on a market dynamic that is really available to SK. To SK is really left with making sure that they can afford to offer the 2000 DKK return flights to New York, and the stuff handed out in Y in the name of being food is part of that.

SK2751

What happened to competition for schedule? I normally set the OTA flight search on my schedule, arrival and departure constraints, and duration of the flight (sometimes adding terrible airports that I don't want to connect at). Then I pick the cheapest. Not the other way around. But perhaps I am unusual.

CPH-Flyer

Considering how many people fly from Scandinavia to Japan via the Dubai or Doha because of price, I would say you are in a minority. I am part of the minority as well, but it is less common that one would think.

But for business travel that is indeed a consideration, but an airline is probably going to win that traffic whether they serve good or bad food. I used to pick SK for business related flights to Copenhagen, based on sheer convenience from Tokyo. A connection with ANA was not really a consideration.

nacho

Mr feels pretty much the same and these are the criteria for him to pick a flight for work travel:

1. When it leaves as he prefers at least having a morning with us before leaving;
2. He prefers the shortest duration - he doesn't want to waste his time travelling;
3. Shortest connection possible without risking missing connections (e.g. no connection less than 1 hour at LHR).

SK has that for his route - CPH - RDU via IAD - however it was at least 3000 DKK more than a BA connection with one stop at LHR, so it's a big NO for Mr (He said the price difference is too huge to justify). Finally I found him a connection ex-MMX with 2 stops but then he will be in just past midnight, the fare is the same as BA. A big mistake to route through ORD as his flight was delayed due to rain and he was at RDU at 3am and no taxi and 2x Uber drivers refused to take him.

Price war? I don't think so, maybe on the direct routes that's served by SK. I think to the US BA/AY/LH/AF/KL are all ahead of the game.

Honestly I don't know what the SK management is doing except having fikas - I think they think they still have a lot of corporate customers to pay whatever they are asking for - maybe it's true to some extent. I don't think people will purchase this "premium" food on board if they can eat at the airport instead (maybe with the exception of CPH as everything inside is insanely expensive - and it's not fair to compare this food with Mash for example). Mr. said the "premium" food looks disgusting except the previously frozen cake (we are spoiled by the fresh ones you can get in local supermarkets) and he said he will pick Burger King over the "premium" food.

Tango Alpha

How do you know?

Tango Alpha

Haven’t flown SK economy long haul (thank god) for a long time, but if it should happen, I would happily pay for the premium meal - because the standard catering was crap last time, not that it is fair to need to do it.

What puzzles me here (as indicated by others) - what will happen to PE catering? Will it be as the Y premium meal? Would be fair. Or as a minimum it should be possible to order it – though that would absurd. Or will PE catering just be inferior to what you can possibly get in Y?

To my experience from flying PE is that the catering is the same as in Y, just with one extra option for the main course. Has that changed? Some here indicate, PE catering is better than in Y.

herwig

Plus catering is improved over Go. Salad / side dish is definitely improved, I think also the dessert. Furthermore, you get nuts and hot towel (to Asia at least) and you get free drinks and alcoholic beverages including metal cutlery and a glass. In addition you could order free snacks (from the galley or from very proactive crew members) and I remember that they bring the fruit basket (same as you can get in the business buffet) in mid-flight together with the sandwiches / snacks (long day flights only).

ilkkao

I just had the premium meat menu on my SFO-CPH flight today. To put it mildly it was a total disappointment:

What I got was actually the exact same menu other got except the very average piece of meat which was hard to cut with the plastic tools.

I also had to ask get my two included beverages. Total waste of my money, can't recommend to anyone. I can't post an image as this is my first post, but it's available if you remove space from imgur.com /a/8DpZ98T

CPH-Flyer

Are they f...ing kidding people???

If it was me, I would demand my money back, while I don't expect it to look in marketing materials this is just ridiculously far apart. If you are Danish, get them shamed via BT or Ekstrabladet. Or the equivalents in Norway or Sweden, if those are your home countries.

Hope we get a few more pictures coming. If you are OK, I can upload the picture to the thread.

ilkkao

Feel free to post the image if you like. I filed a complaint through the official channels. Happy to report what they say. I guess there is a chance that is a logistics mistake, broken telephone somewhere.