Delta Air Lines has added an option for business class passengers to “Skip First Meal Service” as part of their pre-selections for on board service. Customers fying long haul in the ‘Delta One’ cabin might choose Trout, non-meat Meatballs, chicken breast or to skip the meal. That is described as having an environmental benefit, to “help[..] reduce food waste.”
The airline’s business class passengers, booking the least expensive business class ‘Z’ fare roundtrips on a route like Detroit to Seoul, are currently spending over $8000 roundtrip. And the airline is asking them to help save money on catering bills.
As Delta opens Delta One lounges starting next year, more passengers may eat in the airport before their flight and take them up on skipping the main meal. Even better would be a ‘dine anytime’ business class service that offers to save the main meal for later in the flight, or in place of a second meal (since the second meal is usually quite bad, especially when it’s breakfast on a transatlantic Eastbound).
If they want passengers to commit in advance not to eat – even if they wind up running late to the airport and not eating before their flight – so that the airline can save money by boarding less food, then Delta should consider incentivizing passengers to do so. Environmental guilt over food waste is surely less effective than offering devalued SkyMiles or an airport food and beverage credit. In other words, split the savings with the passenger and make it win-win, instead of
No one actually believes that the Atlanta-based airline, which owns an oil refinery and operates a fleet of older and less fuel efficient planes than competitors, is actually green – just like they don’t believe Frontier Airlines is the ‘greenest airline’ because its cabin interiors and aircraft paint jobs are green.
Delta made huge environmental claims before the pandemic saying they’d be carbon neutral in 2020. They got there mostly through buying carbon offsets which frequently don’t offset carbon at all and can even increase carbon emissions.
The carrier made a big deal of moving from plastic utensils in domestic first class to wood, framed as ‘getting rid of plastic’ when the real announcement was they didn’t plan to bring back reusable metal. They moved from bottled wine to cans, which are heavier and burn more fuel, and serving the wine in… plastic cups (so much for ditching plastic).
Once again as Delta makes cost cuts, they want customers to cheer them on ‘for the environment’. On the other hand, United Airlines saves money on business class catering by just not boarding enough food.
Get woke go retarded.
They’re out of their minds…
How can they honestly say their best-paying customers will believe this bs ??
Delta is do woke….pathetic
Give me a travel voucher or a partial refund then we’ll talk.
@James
Woke is a mental illness.
Part of me hope the fearmongering about the gop ending elections comes true. People who would vote left don’t deserve democracy.
On a similar note, my husband and I recently completed a DEL-ORD flight where we were seated in the rear of the aircraft.
At meal service, passengers were offered a meat or vegan entree, until choice ran out.
Why not divide the economy section into meat and vegan, and your meal selection is done along with seat selection. Meat seats have a pale red logo and cost more than vegan seatsseats. Maybe middle seats are vegan. with a lower price. If you trade seats you get what that seat gets
In other news Delta said if passengers would just stop eating for good they could save a fortune and save the planet.
1000 miles bonus for all Delta medallions who give up eating
On the other hand, United Airlines saves money on business class catering by just not boarding enough food.
THIS is one of the best lines EVER!!
As for Delta, the mind boggles that they pay people to come up with idiot ideas like this. Why not just slap the faces of first class pax one by one as they board?
It’s an option, it’s not a requirement. There is nothing wrong with, if someone doesn’t plan to eat, the food go to waste.
I regularly fly DeltaOne between JFK and Europe/UK, and always make time to eat in the Centurion lounge or Clubhouse so I can take a sleeping pill at wheels up and arrive rested. As a business traveler D1 is never about the meal, and I’ll choose this option every time if it reduces food waste.
Calling this environmental impact is dicey and greenwashing, but less wasted food is a win in my book and I’m supportive for that reason.
All airlines are woke.
Cue all the lazy posters imagining that offering a choice is somehow “woke.”
“Tripping over dollar bills to pickup pennies”.
@Dom
Hope the fears of the GOP ending democracy are true because I don’t want people like you to be ever allowed to vote.
Most Delta meals aren’t worth eating anymore anyways.
Singapore Airlines already does this. It seems to me that that it fits with the effort to make sure = passengers get what they want by choosing ahead of time. “Nothing” seems like a reasonable choice to offer.
I work for this company and I’m ashamed of what we offer. It’s such a joke. Almost like we’re giving up as an airline and just racing to bottom of mediocrity.
Pretty sure United has that exact same thing on their printed menu. At least delta actually lets you opt out prior to your flight. It’s too late to claim that once the food has been boarded.
FNT, amen to that.
Looking at that menu, I’d stop by the nearest Chik FIL A first.
Bleh
Their fat ass flight attendants will just hoover the scraps. Dumb idea.
Delta’s next dumb idea is “Just stay home and send us lots of money and save the environment”
Maybe Delta should fly slower to burn less fuel “for the environment.” Who cares if the flight time is longer.
Or, better yet, let’s not fly airplanes at all! Announcing Delta video conference service!!! Please see the scantily clad drag queen for assistance.
The wokeness has gotten completely out of hand.
As @chris says, this is an option. You don’t need to consider it, but if you know you are not eating anyway then it is helpful to not throw away food. Don’t see how this is even an issue and being called woke by the right wingers. Believe it or not, some people don’t want to eat airline food or just want to go straight to sleep. Not everyone looks forward to airline food or wants to maximize the “experience”.
.
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@ Gary — If they will skip all devalutions for their customers, I will skip all meals on Delta for the environment. What moron decided this would go over well with customers?
Is that why I am sitting in Delta One from JFK to LAX with no non-meat Option?!
Come on Delta, do better
Get woke go retarded.
Delta is do woke….pathetic
The wokeness has gotten completely out of hand.
This has nothing to do with wokeness, and everything to do with capitalism, and having an easy target.
Let’s face it, Delta thinks their passengers are too stupid to see through the smoke screen. They could be right? Lol.
STOP, fleecing your customers.
Why not? The world wore masks, gave into the Covid exaggerated numbers and chose to be vaccinated by one to four vaccines of which they had no clue of the ingredients. Surely we will fall for such ridiculousness as skip a meal for the environment?
I think your title is very misleading to what it sounds like Delta is offering.
As a very frequent Int’l traveler I appreciate the option to not waste food. Like many road warriors, I typically eat in the lounge so I can sleep on the flight.
You sound very disgruntled with Delta rather than being neutral in reporting.
This is BS unfortunately. Corporate greed empowered by this society. I pay to fly in business class (not delta lol) and last thing I want to hear is skip a meal on a plane. If u skip the meal on the plane, the pilot/flight attendants will eat it. Look, whether or not u r a business class traveler or not, this will trickle down to more corporate greed and Executive greed.
Same bs as hotels with signs in the bathroom asking to reuse towels “because we care about the environment”
No, it’s because they care about their bottom dollar.
@CW I really want to punch you in the face for such ignorant comment. As a care provider at a major ecmo center during covid time, just seeing the amount of people waiting to get ECMO and not able to, subsequently lose their lives, many in their 20s and 30s. This comment insult my profession and insult the deceased one. I wish your kind would learn a hard lesson one day when you are denied care or your loved one denied care because you only stick to your conspiracy theory. I’m a proud republican, not a dumb republican.
How about Devilta stop flying all together for the environment?
The other aspect of this is that they don’t need to load extra meals to allow more people to get their choice, and don’t need to load the meal at all if not eating. This not only saves on the food waste, but also the weight of the food. The extra weight likely costs more. For international flights, the food waste may need special handling, if it’s not admissible to the country. I’m not sure why saving money is ever considered woke.
What is “woke” about saying tell us if you don’t want a meal? I never eat dinner on transatlantic eastbounds. JFK-LHR/CDG/MXP are too short for a good nights sleep so my eye mask is on and my seat goes into a flat bed as soon as we’re off the ground so I can get as much sleep as i can. Why should a meal be loaded on board for me when I know I won’t want it? It’s stupid to prepare and then throw away food that a passenger won’t even want!
And there are plenty of frequent J class travelers like me who do the same thing. What is wrong with Delta asking if you’e skipping the meal?
What makes it “woke” is claiming that they’re saving the environment. They may save a little trash but save the environment? Please.
If they really wanted to be serious about saving waste, offer a discount to not eat.
Delta couldn’t serve enough food to ever justify $8k bucks for that ticket, Screw Delta!!!!!
@Jaybird
Yes claiming it does when In reality it doesn’t.
But the brain dead left eat it up because they are so simple minded.
They are the enemy.
Jaybird et al,
let’s be VERY clear that Delta says NOTHING about the environment.
They simply said to save waste.
Gary and Gary alone chose to throw in the environmental part.
It was a dumb message on Delta’s part; they should have simply left it at “Not planning to dine with us? Our crew remains committed to making this an enjoyable flight for you.”
But let’s not embelish what they said in order to create a message.
We do know that Gary LOVES to manipulate and throw shade on any one that might turn into page clicks for him.
What an incredible waste of internet bandwidth.
@Jaybird, @Chad, it was Gary’s headline that claimed it was about saving the environment. The quote from Delta just says “helps reduce food waste”. I can’t believe you guys are so easily riled up by a little editorializing. Is reading comprehension “woke” now too?
Kind of really shady that they only want one group to forgo meals with everybody should forgo and then not just one class not just business but everybody. But that’s not good enough people money need it oh my God Delta you should be shut down
For a minute I thought this was a replay of my last LOS-ATL flight where the flight was undercatered due to a food worker strike, and the FAs asked biz class volunteers who were willing to donate their meal to economy passengers (many of us were happy to do so, a good sign of humanity).
But no, simply another idiotic and short-sighted cost cutting ploy. The smarter move would be to bring back dining-on-demand as it has previously existed at UA, SQ and elsewhere. Many of us do not want to eat on the airline’s schedule, nor do we appreciate waking up midflight and finding only a couple of apples and crackers in the snack box. Of course, the FAs are probably not enthused about preparing meals on demand, but that’s another matter.
As a former Delta Flight Attendant who worked on the In-Flight Delta One cabin and service procedures development team. I can say the “skip the main meal” option is beyond the dumbest idea. If Delta’s management thinks by telling guest this option can save on food waste is a joke.
BTW. If you are in Delta One and you are offered a “warm Cookie” in the middle of the flight. By enhancing the experience without costing the a dime.
The cookie was moved from the pre-arrival service and moved as a mid-flight snack.
I’m glad to be a private flight attendant today.
Regardless of what you pay for your ticket, or the class you are flying – how is it not reducing food waste if you skip the meal that you know for sure you are not going to eat anyway? Waste is waste.
– and all it takes is ticking off a box to avoid it.
I just chose my meal on the same type of form, prior to my recent DL flight – and I did not see the mention of any „environmental benefit“ anywhere?
To me the option just seemed to be sensible logic.
Sure, I’ll eat the trout, only if Delta’s finance folks feast on it for 3 consecutive days, with no access to Imodium, Pepto Bismal, or Charmin.
When will the airlines realize Customer Experience is no arena for finance types to play in???
Skip a poop “for the environment”
@Jaybird – Delta did not say anything about the environment. That was View from the Right Wing putting words in their mouth to get clicks.
Delta said if you don’t want a meal and let us know, we’ll waste less food.
@Chad how about something other than blaming the left? Your repetitive posts about it are tired AF. Get a life.
As a diamond Delta frequent flyer, I actually asked for this to be implemented, and welcome it. I never take a meal on East bound transatlantic flights, preferring get sleep instead. Normally this means a meal is loaded for me and wasted. Now at least I can let them know in advance I won’t be eating. Well done Delta!