Xrayman

Was upgraded to FC overnight (1:00 am) for 10:50 am flight today. Unable to choose meal in advance due to same day upgrade, not unusual or unexpected. Midcon Seattle to Midwest.

Was notified by FA 1 hour into flight during start of meal service (sitting in row 1) that there wasn’t enough meals and that they had my fruit plate available that I preordered. Lucky I preordered the fruit plate otherwise would be eating popcorn and chocolate.

This is the second flight in a row within 4 days where there has been less than stellar service, but perhaps my expectations are just too high. Has this happened to anyone else?

anteater

It sounds like the flight was improperly catered. Write or call Customer Care and you’ll likely get a travel credit.

🤙🏻🍹

dayone

I'm confused. It appears that you got a Fruit & Cheese Plate (and a Gold chocolate bar, too). Other than it not being served on a plate, what did you miss?

TheDudeAbides

Coach meal served in F?

rjque

I'd say he missed an actual meal. Yes, I know the fruit and cheese plate is offered as a meal option, but it's not a meal.

mtofell

This exact thing has happened to me and is why I don't pre-order food. Not sure if that would have mattered in this case but have to think they'd pre-load enough meals for everyone in FC to have something. Basically, they saw you ordered a cheese plate and assumed that was what you wanted. I've asked several FAs and received vastly different responses. One told me once the upgrade happens your pre-ordered food is canceled. Another told me when you pre-order it follows you and that's your only choice. And yet another told me if can follow you but you can also select something else. I figure my best bet is to just not pre-order and I'll get to choose but that's assuming they pack enough meals for all the FC seats. Would be nice if they had a consistent policy.

Eastbay1K

Your expectations are not too high. Unless things have recently changed, I thought AS was regularly catering for a full F cabin, even if not booked to full. Years ago (prior to unlimited comp upgrades, when F wasn't frequently so full), AS had a published caveat that you might not get a meal on upgrades within a certain time period prior to flight time.

rune87

Had a flight down to Vegas Thursday night where there was zero meal service. I think like 45minutes prior to landing she walked around with the snack basket. No announcements, no nothing. The whole flight crew felt to be very junior in general.

notquiteaff

Looks like a great opportunity to get a voucher worth a multiple of the value of the unavailable meal. Where can I sign up?

Xrayman

Salad, bread, butter, silver ware. But other than that correct nothing.

Xrayman

Even better, the individuals below me on the upgrade list actually got meals in their upgraded seats.

anteater

AS certainly made some form of mistake then. Even if you pre-order a coach snack option and are upgraded without being able to pre-order a FC meal, there is no association between that pre-ordered snack (eg F&C plate) and FC catering assignments. You should have been given an option of the FC meal choices (as available).

For example, if you were in Seat 1A, you generally would have be the first pax who didn’t pre-order to be given a choice of meal. If you were however in 4F, you may be left with what remains after every other pax makes a choice.

Theres an certain ratio that is stocked for each flight and it should be stocked full, including the pre-orders.

However, your situation seems to be either improperly catered load or the FA decided you were to be assigned your coach snack as the meal, without offering you a choice. Either way, contact AS.

🤙🏻🍹

AinthePNW

I’ve had very similar experiences with AS. I stopped pre ordering food (in Y) and pre order once my upgrade clears (usually at t-24). I’ll then pre order FC meal. If I can’t pre order, the FAs are sometimes salty with me … they have “found” me FC meals before. I’ve had it twice now where the system “glitches” and my FC pre order is deleted, so I ended up with the fruit and cheese platter.

If you haven’t pre ordered food, my opinion is that the FAs should ask the 100k and 75ks first. UA used to do this (and hopefully still does this).

Also, I’ve had some odd upgrades on AS, especially with companion fares. For example, AS was only releasing 1 U seat at a time on a recent flight to PHX. so even though we were 1/2 on the UL, we kept getting skipped over even though there were 5 open FC seats.. so they ended up processing 4 upgrades (of people below us). Boarded the plane (I wasn’t very happy) then gate agent came to get me and asked if one of us wanted to be upgraded. I took the upgrade. Needless to say the FA “didn’t have a meal for me” and I ended up paying for a snack box from economy (no joke). Meanwhile the other 4 upgrades below me all got a meal. Great way to make me feel like a second class FC citizen, lol. Even worse they split our reservation so again my spouse wasn’t upgraded on the way home - even though we both would have cleared if they didn’t split the reservation. I complained hard to AS about this - ended up with a $75 credit, which honestly isn’t enough considering the two missing upgrades.

bottom line - AS isn’t catering their planes right, they don’t prioritize non-preordered food for elites, and generally have attitude regarding U class upgrades and non-preordered meals.

Xrayman

for $75 credit I’m just gonna let it go. This has already taken more time than I think it’s worth.

Eastbay1K

It is worth an Alaska Listens or other quick write up - if not for yourself, for the rest of us. If an FA isn't following policy, or there's a catering issue, and a critical mass of kvetches for a particular issue / crew member aggregates, perhaps an executive call bell will ding.