stevento

When bloggers review flights, they seem to devote a sizable portion of their piece to the airline's soft product.
Lots of pics of meals and IFE options...smiling faces of FAs and GAs.

Do you really care about that stuff?

I know I don't. For me, flying in F or J is strictly about sleeping. I often waive the meal service altogether to maximize sleep times, especially on overnight flights 7-10 hrs. An episode or two of Big Bang Theory is all I need before I pass into Ambien-induced coma, with relaxation music or sounds in the headphones.

The best meal I've had on the plane was still plane food. The best steak was no better than $15 selections at TGIF. Some serve decent wines but also nothing to write home about.

All I want is a flat seat, a decent pillow/blanket, and a mattress/duvet would be a nice but rare touch. My wife cares about amenity kits, so I guess that's important too. But food and IFE......

fransknorge

I do, not all the time but most of it.
I do not travel J for work, all of J travel is self-funded through hard-earned cash or air miles (and some of those are from work travel at the back of the bus). I choose to travel J for many reasons, most being comfort (so the hard-product) and service (so the soft product). So while I agree that this is still plane food (most of the times OK, sometimes good - exception being JL F which is real restaurant quality food) it matters to me as I want to basically be as relaxed as possible.
Sometimes (short TATL East Coast US--> West Europe) I will care 99% about the hard product, but even then I will plan to it something in the plane.

WorldLux

Yes, I care about that stuff. A good seat alone isn't necessarily going to make a flight great. I don't like F/As overdoing it. For me it's the whole package that counts. The seat is the most important factor to me. When I book a flight in C or F, I tend to say that I care about:

• 50% about the seat
• 10% about the ground expierence (chauffeur, faster CI/drop off, priority lanes, lounge, etc. particularly, if I don't hold any usable status with an airline)
• 10%Courteous and professional crew
• 10% Food and drinks
• 7.5% Past experiences with IRROPS
• 7.5% Having clean lavatories (vs. the Y lavs where more pee lands next to the toilet than in it )
• 2.5% good IFE (I only need a series of recent shows and films, but I do care about screen quality, air show and sometimes games)
• 2.5% additional baggage allowance
  

Depends on the flight departure and arrival time. Departure at 11 pm? I drop the meal and prefer to go straight to sleep and have breakfast before landing. On the other hand, I have plenty of flights that depart around lunch or dinner time and I certainly don't mind having a real meal, rather than what most lounges offer. In some cases, I skip the lounge altogether (e.g. late arrival to the airport or short connection time) or only visit it to freshen up and have a cold/hot beverage.

You're still on a plane. Food is largely prepared on the ground and it's essentially the reason why I usually avoid steak (I want it rare or medium rare and freshly prepared which is of course somewhat difficult when you are in a metal tube traveling at >33k ft at over 550 mph).

That said, some airline manage to serve steaks in consideration of the limited facilities onboard that taste good. Other dishes are certainly. Most may not be worthy of an award, but they are still good. Compare to what you get behind the curtain and you'll notice the difference.

Regarding wine selections, I always find them odd. The problem with wine is obviously, that the airline has to make a selection for all the customers. What you and I don't like, may be the favourite wine of another passenger. And don't forget, that airlines have to buy huge volumes of wine. LH served nearly 423,000 gal (US) of tomato juice and just shy of 400,000 gal of beer in 2010. Even if they only served half of that in wine, that's still an awful amount of grapes.

Duke787

To me it depends on the flight length and what I'm looking to get out of it.

Eastbound TATL it's all about the hard product given the flight length and desire for immediate sleep (I prefer the late night TATL flights unless I have to be there for something early morning). However for a long, partially daytime flight to Asia or Westbound TATL, I certainly care about having a good meal and IFE for the significant portion of the flight where I'm awake (which especially on an Westbound TATL is basically the whole flight).

Most important things for me for long hauls:

1) Seat (hard product)
2) Lounge access on both ends with shower (soft product)
3) Food & Drink
4) Amenities particularly PJs and toothbrush/toothpaste (I like PJs that are provided because it means I can wear them on the flight and not worry about getting my clothes dirty and I like the throwaway toothbrush so I don't have to worry about digging mine out, etc.)

deniah

Yes..... but the bar for service and soft product is real low.

I don't want obsequious, luxury treatment, but at a few thousand $ and 2-6x price of alternative seating, I do want more than public bus treatment.

Food: across a 10-20hr journey including ground transport, this is the 1 opportunity to have a paced, sit-down meal. so no, not expecting $30 restaurant plate, but expecting more than $5 restaurant plate is reasonable to ask.

Service: dont need servile bow-to-eye-level treatment, but a greeting during boarding, a smile during each contact, costs nothing to the airline. walking past multiple times, oblivious to need for refill, taking 30m+ to bring a bottle of water, etc... inexcusable. i wouldnt accept it at TGIF, and i wouldnt accept it on the air.

Amenities: pair of cotton slippers cost 1$ at the store. weighs nothing. if visiting the bathroom multiplel times, dont want to to slip my shoes on and off releatedly. for 3000$, its not unreasonable to ask.

IFE: i have an ultraportable laptop loaded with media, high quality headphones, etc. but others might not. the charging port often dont work. or if travel for work im not packing my media library, etc.



so really, its not about seeking branded-toiletries, wanting to be pampered, but as part of a relatively stressful journey, handling big bags and luggages, disruptive sleep cycle, essentially being captive in a metal tube, and for paying a significant sum of money... one expects not wait in long queues, or be given surly treatment

darthbimmer

I care a little about the soft product on F/J flights. My priorities are:

1) The seat. At least 50% of the value to me is in the seat.

2) Lounges. I like a good lounge with good food and drink before departure. If I get my fill I may largely skip food offered on the flight. A lounge with shower on arrival makes a big difference when arriving at the start of a workday.

3) Get all the basics of in-flight service right. Be professional, be courteous, be pleasant. Be timely on visits to refill drinks and remove empty plates. Don't wait for me to press the call button for these while you hide in the galley gossiping with coworkers!

Somewhere beyond these top 3 is white glove service. I notice it when it's present and I appreciate it but I don't assign much value to it. If one of these top 3 were lacking, white glove service would not make up for it.

pinniped

I mainly notice "soft product" when it's BAD.

- A surly FA.
- A wine lineup that I wouldn't cook with or make sangria out of, let alone actually drink.
- Running out of entrees. (This should never happen in a premium cabin.)
- Inattentive service.

In J, I don't expect world-class luxury treatment. (And on the US3, I definitely don't get it.) Although it's still a pleasure to fly some foreign carriers where you're surprised at how good J service can be.

In F, then my expectations for soft product are higher, and the lounge experience is definitely included in that.

Beltway2A

It depends on the flight for me. If I'm flying for business, all I really need is a good hard product, decent food, and maybe a glass of scotch before bed.

If I'm flying for pleasure though, I would like to enjoy myself and the various soft product offerings play a big part in that.

C W

I do care about both. The split is pretty simple, honestly.

The hard product helps me sleep and arrive well rested wherever I'm going and ready to function.

The soft product is what makes it fun. I love elaborate meals with multiple wines etc. Take SQ J and F on the 777. Not a big hard product difference apart from a not-that-great mattress pad. But a huge difference in experience almost completely on soft product.

PaulInTheSky

If I am flying out of a big hub with luxurious style of lounges, then not by a lot; but if I am flying out of a city without any good lounges or food, then I care a lot about the soft product in J and F. I would look more into the F food because I want to see how emphasis an airline has put into the F food for the HVFs. Just like the current decision I am trying to make for the LHR-HKG flight. I am wondering if I should make it for PEY instead of J because PEY is much better now in CX, and CX First class lounge in LHR has vastly improved, similar to the Pier in HKG.

stevento

I can see all of these points.

I travel exclusively for leisure, and always Thursday evening after work, and coming back late Sunday or early Monday of same or following week. I am usually exhausted trying to get all my affairs in order before a trip, so all I want to do it is pass out in a bed or something resembling it as quickly as possible.
Thanks to the miracles of modern pharmacology, combined with oenology, I am asleep for the vast majority of my flight, esp on TATL or 10 hr long-hauls.
Even on super long-hauls, like NYC-HKG or NYC-JNB, I manage to sleep through most of it

I mostly sleep on daytime flights too...

emma69

Yes, I care about soft product. When I think about my best flights, it is because of the soft product. When I think about my worst flights, that was also because of the soft product. For me, applies to Y as much as F or J, but expectations to be met differ.

mdkowals

Long haul J I care about the soft product, but don't know if I'd really make a decision to fly/not fly on a certain airline based on the soft product.


I have gone out of my way to try to book 1-2-1 long haul J configurations vs. 2-2-2 or other arrangements.

CPRich

As with many others, I care, but not nearly as much as the comfort of the seat. The IFE is probably the one key for me - I'll watch 3-4 movies on the way to India, so a good selection is key. I'm not too critical on food, everyone has the water/Diet Coke that I drink, and FA attentiveness, bar in the back, etc., are fine but I wouldn't miss them.

Then again, most of the airlines I've flown are majors/well reviewed - perhaps if I ignored my colleagues' advice and tried Air India my opinion would change.

pinniped

Yes...I love a nice small 767 J cabin with the 1-2-1. AC has this setup and a nice soft product to go with it.

(It might even be 1-1-1? I know the "A" side has a very private feel.)