LongHaul C-class service.
 

Will will try and pose this question neutrally to hear what others think:
C-class 9pm departure east-bound flight from CPH
Estimated scheduled flying time 8.5 hours.
On time takeoff
After 30 minutes drinks are served
After 90minutes meal service begins

Thoughts?

P.S: Sauternes dessertwine is gone - Germanic ersatz-product in place.... :(

Sounds about standard for SAS. Pretty much the same ORD-CPH for a 10PM flight. They think it is a great idea to keep the cabin fully lit, and make sure dinner isn't over until you are a third of the way there. No option for a quick meal then sleep. I usually just eat before the flight, slip the eyeshades on, and try to sleep through the noise. Works sometimes.

Sounds like my experience as well.

For me, that's great. At the start of the trip I want to wind down - adjust from work to non-work with a cocktail and reading a book or talking to whomever I'm travelling with.

Fits me perfectly, but of course, for others it will not be that great.

I would not plan to eat on a flight like that. Maybe have a drink, then sleep. A sleeping mask and ear pods will keep me covered fine for sleeping.

That being said, it must be possible to get the meal service out quicker, it is not Noma or Geranium serving up the food....

We all have different flying habits. On some long haul flights I try not to sleep as it helps on the jet lag if I'm tired and go straight to bed when arriving. On some of those flights I see a lot of people sleeping and some going straight to sleep once the seat belt sign goes off.

I do sometimes go straight to sleep too and in those cases it has never been a problem to get something to eat if I woke up in the middle of a 8+ hours flight.

I generally drop off fast on eastbound flights starting late (like ORD-CPH), but it always feels like I am missing out... I remember flying first class IAD-LAX back in the day when AA had 3 class North American service from more east coast airports than New York (remember getting the binder full of dvds for your personal dvd player?) . I had an important meeting the next day and needed to work on the flight, but... Sometimes you have to ignore work, enjoy the flight, and work through the night.

I once madde the mistake and asked for salad and dessert straight away (knowing they were not required to be heated up) so I could go to sleep. You should have seen the look of horror on the FAs face. No no sir, we cannot serve you the last course with cocktails, it disturbs the order!! After I asked again, she said: If we do it for one guest all the others will see it and ask for the same, and everything will be chaotic. :rolleyes:

Next morning while waiting for my turn at the lav she bought up the proposed chaos again. I just commented that even Lufthansa has managed to emulate the restaurant style service started by Etihad and Qatar, striking a deal with the unions to compensate for the additional workload. Emirates and some others start heating up the food as soon as the aircraft pushes back (with a brief pause during take off) so the food is ready to be served once servicce begins.

I can appreciate the logic behind doing so on eastbound flights departing in the afternoon, as finishing dinner at the same time as the first movie is ending tends to work out well. For evening departures I would much rather have dinner as soon as it is practical, so I can have some degree of freedom when deciding whether I would rather work or sleep or use the entertainment system.

It takes forever, I've complained about it many times. On almost all flights I really just want my meal within the first 30 minutes and not be bothered the rest of the flight other than a glass of water. More critical on East-bound travel, I also don't want my breakfast service to start 2 hours before landing but really about 45 minutes before landing. The pathetic excuse for a breakfast service can be consumed in 3 minutes.

SAS doesn't seem to want to hear that people need meals faster. I really appreciate the "express"-meal options that DL and other airlines offer, allowing me to be asleep within an hour after take off while not missing out on the meal. SAS flat out refuses it every time and I stopped asking, skipping the meal most of the time. I guess that is exactly what they want, less work for the crew and unsatisfied passengers.

If anything if there is a demand for the same service from more passengers you'd expect a healthy business to play into that need, especially in Business.

Maybe I'm imagining things but I distinctly remember that the late Chicago departures to CPH and ARN had an ultrafast dinner service in business on one tray with a hot meal about 45 min after take off. This happened sometime 2004-06.

I don't think you are imagining it. Bangkok had it for sure.

You are not imagining it. SAS had this for a number of years on the ORD-CPH route - I think they stopped doing it about 3-4 years ago.

I big shame that they did - I really liked the concept.

Svantevit