EWR764

I wasn't aware of this Etihad development, but it looks almost identical to Delta's Y dining and underscores the commercial reasons for pursuing such a service concept, notwithstanding the warm-and-fuzzies. Etihad has a perception as a "quality" airline, but in reality, is aggressively trying to control costs. There's no doubt, in my mind, this is an overall cost savings. For the most part, airline service items are standard-form with limited customization (e.g. premium cabin rocks glasses) so it would appear to me that some injection-mold plastic servingware vendor, like Wessco, has a new line of Y/C disposable products and signed EY and DL up as its first customers.

Expect more airlines to follow in the guise of "providing a more personalized service", while the large trays, with multiple pre-provisioned cold items (appetizer, salad, cheese, butter, S+P, crackers, coffee cup, utensil rollup, water cup, dessert, etc... thinking along the lines of BA Y here) progressively disappear among major carriers..

seenitall

I'm confused. Are you saying you will pay substantially more for a plane ticket, travel on a less convenient itinerary, accept a less comfortable seat, eat less palatable food and be served by a more surly staff, so long as the food is more copious? I would spend $15 for an overpriced airport sandwich and some snacks to carry on with me rather than accept poorer performance on price, convenience, comfort, etc. But each to his own ...

lixiaojuventus

The point is that with so much competition today, I do not need to pay "substantially more" (usually on the order of $100, not $500) to fly CX instead of UA on TPAC, especially because at HKG there are so many airlines to choose from. In the past year I already started flying on ANA metal (and avoid UA) in order to stay full while keeping *G. However, making an extra stop at NRT is not always desirable, so I may as well just switch to CX in future.

Another point is that I can pack my own food for a medium-haul flight, but there is simply no way I can pack and keep stable anything meaningful (other than shelf-stable foods) on TPAC flights. Even sandwiches need to be kept frozen.

In addition, I don't think people always fly the cheapest airline. At least most of us here do pay more to avoid Spirit, right?

moondog

People have been bringing sandwiches to school/work ever since the invention of the sandwich, and I dare say that many have managed to avoid freezer time.

Whenever I fly airlines with bad food offerings, I try to go the sandwich route if I know I'm going to be hungry. Unfortunately, PVG and PEK both suck in this capacity. HKG is a bit better, but still falls short of most large airports in the US and Europe.

GUWonder

Artpen100

I just don't see how UA can charge a premium when its soft product is inferior. At some point, that may be a problem.

In my experience, more than half the time, UA's international business class pricing is at the high end of the competition. I fly for work, but we make individual choices for travel, and are not price insensitive - we have budgets. I will buy UA long-haul if it is the cheapest business class. GPUs used to make it the cheapest, but I can rarely find PZ at booking now, and I will not waitlist. So at least three times this year so far, I have purchased BA rather than UA because the UA price was ridiculous for the quality. (Like $6K-$10K, as opposed to $2.5K-$3.5K for BA.) Maybe UA doesn't care, or there aren't enough people like me, or the corporate contracts keep their market captive.

And here is another thing. I don't really look forward to UA long-haul flights because of the inferior soft product. I look forward to BA long-haul. The BA burger in the lounge (even at IAD), real champagne, better wines, Do & Co. food. Now, UA's marketers may say that it is unimportant that UA has that perception compared to the competition. But that seems like short-term thinking to me. (Now, years ago, BA food was worse than UA. Now it is miles better. It shows things can change.)

seenitall

Amen to that!

milypan

uastarflyer

dilanesp

This strikes me as obvious because this is how buy on board is served and we know buy on board costs are kept as low as possible.

findark

I similarly flew NK "up front" recently when it was the best-scheduled option (and a lot cheaper than competing F). Would certainly do it again long before flying any airline in Y.

But I am skeptical that we are representative of the traveling public, as the endless griping that air travel has become "unavoidably" terrible continues yet you can buy all the way up to F today for what an Economy ticket cost in the '70s.

rickg523

It's true, but a Y ticket in the 1970s bought you baggage transport, meals, a seat more similar to a last-gen business class recliner than a current Y Slimline, a far less crowded cabin and consequently better service. Also, because prices were regulated, the ticket could be purchased with open return date (up to 365 days) and was transferrable and able to be sold by the passenger. I myself sold my return coupon because I decided to stay in Europe instead of returning to the US. I then purchased a coupon for my own return flight, 17 months after I had left.
I know the arguments about dereg generally make the cross-cabin case, but in my view, dereg's actual effect was to bring Y travel down to the affordability of a bus ticket, along with a similar reduction of service.

transportprof

findark

Right.. I think my point is exactly that. The people who complain that air travel is become "unavoidably miserable" are overlooking both (a) that getting on a flying machine is fantastically cheap today by any historical standard, and (b) if you "prefer the old days" you can pay roughly what you did back then and still get a roughly comparable product (definitely less flexibility, comparable food and service in today's F to yesteryear's Y, and a better seat).

ExplorerWannabe

I understand what you're saying and I would dearly love to return to the luxuries of yesteryear, even in Y, but wouldn't want the airfares of 40 years ago. More to the point, UA's ability to pack the front cabin regardless of their pricing and your/my/someone else's perception of the quality of that product would suggest they don't have much incentive to increase costs to improve quality. I wish it were otherwise but the bottomline is that people are paying to get in that cabin (or flying enough at other times to get in that cabin).

I am willing to pay more to avoid shoddy maintenance and co-pilots with a few hundred hours of flight experience. People seem to forget that refrigeration is still a relatively new technology and mankind managed to thrive without it for thousands of years. I wouldn't suggest you take Hawaiian poke or sashimi on a 17 hour flight but I've done my share of hiking and there are lots of delicious satisfying meals you can take and eat safely after a long day without refrigeration and without being radiated or vacuum-packed or otherwise made "shelf-stable".

Agreed. I remember investigating airfares from HI to NM in the 1970s when my Boy Scout troop was contemplating a trek at Philmont. Over $2000 in 1979 for a coach ticket. No thanks.