Alaska’s “midcon” meal service is truly subpar.
Houston-Seattle is 1,874 miles. It departs at 6:25pm. The flight is scheduled at 4 hours and 45 minutes. First class gets a ‘snack’ — on Friday is was mushroom ravioli (5 large pieces) with a salad on the same plate. No meat or fish. No side(s). No dessert. Not acceptable for first class service.
On the other hand, the flight was wifi enabled (well worth it to me to catch up on days worth of work), and I had only paid $129 for the one-way ticket, confirmed upgrade at booking with an MVP Gold Guest Upgrade certificate..
Usually I just complain about never seeming to get pre-departure beverages on American. Last night I added something a little more substantive to my usual complaint:
On United that would have warranted a $250 e-cert.
Alright, Wing and a Prayer Blog, flame away…
Gary, that would be even funnier than it is, if it wasn’t so scary! As to the food issue, that almost seems about right. One packet of free pretzels for a short-haul coach domestic, sandwich for $5 in coach domestic, basic meal in biz domestic? This is an American carrier, you can’t really expect more, can you? We’ve all been spoiled by BA, Iberia, Cathay, etc.
Gary,
I flew on a 763 from Chicago to LA last month (after the conference) on AA and the first class food was inedible. I spoke to the flight attendant about it, saying, “It’s really something when the first class customers wish they could have the Boston Market sandwich served (for $$$) in coach.”
Her reply: “That would cost AA $6 and we only allocate $4 for first class meals.”
$4!
I bought the sandwich.
Seems UA is really winning the domestic food service category. The new snack service never ceases to amaze me! Either on flights that are relatively short and / or oddly timed, I’m continually impressed at the quantity / quality available. And the curry chicken wraps are incredible — I was just telling me wife that I would actually consider buying them! Yum.