All Hot Meals Gone Domestically

[PI-RDU-SS]

I flew RDU-CLT-PJU last Friday AM. 3:30 flight time and I was offered a sandwich that looked like it was either liverwurst or beef tounge and maybe even a autopsy of some small animal. It was the worst looking sandwich I had ever seen. I think I would rather eat road kill on rye then attempt to eat what was offered. Luckily my wife and I got two sandwichs freshly made at a deli on the B concource. $7. a piece but the best money we spent on trip! The F/A's were very nice and embarresed with what they had to serve. After I found out what some of the people I was traveling with who flew coach got I just had to laugh. The only difference in snacks from coach to FC was my two Oreo cookies were presented to me in a dirty wooden basket with a wash cloth that looked like it was stolen from a H/Inn. The coach psrs, had them wrapped up inside plastic snack box that had two crunchy bread sticks, some type of soft cheese that they said looked like they sprayed "Cheese whez" in a peel open container and one pack of Oreo's. They then gave you a small bag of pretzels that you used to dislodge the two bread sticks they gave you that stuck to the top of your mouth with the cheese whez.

If you are flying first class on US then I suggest you bring a big bag of Oreo's from home and you could sell them on the flight and make a huge profit walking back through coach. Bring your own meal unless you like mystery meat. US must only allow for two oreo's per psr. per 4 hours of flt time I guess.

I think that they must differentiate the product so here is my cheap suggestion to US MGT. F/C gets at least the double stuffed Oreo's and coach gets regular Oreo's.

I flew coach back and we had the same coach experience that others in my party had on the way down. 3:50 flt time and it took maybe 3 minutes to eat the food and 2 minutes of that was opening the snack box. Also, almost 4 hours in the air and F/A or Crew could not make time to tell us connecting information or anything about what to expect at US Customs. I have traveled internationally before and had the entire plane follow me and I was able to tell them what to do. Go through US Customs first, then reclaim bags, take bags to customs again. clear bags and recheck bags back. I never once saw a US person at the gate or telling people where to go. We got into CLT 5 minutes early and gate was open that we were assigned to but no one was there to park us. I know I could see the gate and nobody was home. Finally parked and then it took 5 more minutes to get someone to pull jetway up to plane.

F/A going down were very nice and helpful. The return crew on both flights from PUJ-CLT and CLT-RDU were worthless. I think they are now on commision to try and sell duty free goods that no body wants. They spent more time on that then on refills of Coke and ice.

My prayers are still with those 3 former (PI) F/A's on the trip down as they tried their best to make up for the "F/C beef tounge sandwich that speaks for itself. I think that the customs official at D/Rep made them take that sandwhich back to the US as USairways F/A did not know what to declare it as. I think the D/Rep Customs agent thought it was medical waste from an unsuccesful operation.

 

[US1YFARE]

F/A going down were very nice and helpful. The return crew on both flights from PUJ-CLT and CLT-RDU were worthless. I think they are now on commision to try and sell duty free goods that no body wants. They spent more time on that then on refills of Coke and ice.

[post="246348"][/post]​

Is that really fair? CLT-RDU is such a short flight. I am CP and have been stuck on that leg in a middle seat and it really isn't that long (I know, the flights lately have been so empty, but there are times when they are packed.). Quick takeoff and quick landing. What do you expect them to do on that flight? I have found the F/A's to RDU (from either CLT or PHL) to be very very nice.

 

[US1YFARE]

Pack a lunch. The food is not the healthiest.

[post="246330"][/post]​

Since I'm vacation, I'm not even looking to be that healthy, just looking for something edible. I don't usually eat any snacks from the carb basket, but a decent meal in FC shouldn't be too much to ask. I feel sorry for the F/A's because they have to put up with the complaints. And, lots of those flights have not so very FT in FC and they don't understand how bad the food is before they get on board and then they carry on like they are expecting a meal from LeBec Fin. At least VFF can laugh in digust with the FA's.

 

[ISP]

Let me bring this topic back to the top by asking a simple question:

Does anyone know how much money US Airways has saved by cutting its FC services so drastically?

I know that the FFOCUS group asked the execs at their meeting about the cost savings associated with eliminating glassware domestically, and supposedly it was quite a bit.

I guess you would need to compare the savings from cutting FC amenities against the number of preferred members no longer flying the airline as a result of the cuts... We all know the amount of people that actually pay for first is low, but I would assume losing a few thousand preferred members due to product devaluation could offest the costs of offering a more premium product. Am I wrong in this assessment?

Lets look at it this way:

Say US lost 1000 CP members due to them going to UA/AA/NW, etc (this is simply a guess, I have no clue how many people have stopped flying US but I think this might be close) I got my BOA US Signature annual statement this week, and it told me that I spent close to $20,000 on US Airways travel this year. Multiple that by 1000 defectees, and you are looking at a loss of 20 million dollars in revenue.

Have the drastic FC cuts saved 20 million dollars in catering fees?

If US had kept their services, and actually enhanced them, could they have kept an additional 20 million in revenue and possibly attracted other airline patrons?

Food for thought.

 

[isthisok]

hey, for up and down and around east of the Mississippi, just call it business class and forget about service. But keep the service on transcons. I too agree, that ffmiles should be able to be used more and more for amenities, comforts and conveniences, discouraging actual award tickets. If you have reasonable fares sell the plane out and use award and sell ff miles for upgrades, drinks, bigger seats, meals and even refundability/flight change rights. You'd get folks buying ffmiles that way and maybe using them maybe not.

Oh and award the ffmiles to employess, spotting every employee 80,000 miles, plus one for every dollar earned in salary, and do away with space available travel, but allow employees only to get award tickets. But that's a totally different topic.

[post="245477"][/post]​

I've got 34 years in this company and I'll be damned if anyone junior to me gets on a flight before I do.

 

[ALCARLOS]

I've got 34 years in this company and I'll be damned if anyone junior to me gets on a flight before I do.

[post="246518"][/post]​

A number of companies would believe their compensation is too rich if it keeps employees for an extended period.

 

[JS]

Is that really fair? CLT-RDU is such a short flight. I am CP and have been stuck on that leg in a middle seat and it really isn't that long (I know, the flights lately have been so empty, but there are times when they are packed.). Quick takeoff and quick landing. What do you expect them to do on that flight? I have found the F/A's to RDU (from either CLT or PHL) to be very very nice.

[post="246454"][/post]​

I expect flight attendants to do a beverage service, and when they don't (barring rough weather), it is a service failure. It happens far too often on US and almost never on WN.

 

[BoeingBoy]

"I expect flight attendants to do a beverage service, and when they don't (barring rough weather), it is a service failure."

You might want to talk to management, then. While I can certainly be corrected by one of the F/A's, I believe that CLT-RDU (or reverse) is a "no serve" flight. As are flights somewhat longer than that.

Jim

 

[USAirBoyA330]

Everyone talks about service consistency. Well, RDU-CLT is about 30 min of FLIGHT TIME from take off to touchdown. When we leave the ground the F/A's are not allowed out of there seats until 10,000 feet and then we have to set up the carts and then break then down again of that's another 5-10 min. How do you suppose we serve 150 people in coach with 2 F/A's on a 30 min flight?
Then I hear people griping all the time on EXPRESS service (Coke, D. Coke and Sprite). Flights like PHL-BOS with only 45 minutes of actual flight time.

I hear "The last time I did this flight we got pretzels." Well, thats because some flight attendants didn't follow the company written service guidelines and veered off to "improvise." Then it makes the ones doing what we are supposed to do look bad.
If I have a full 757 from PHL-BOS I am going through with Coke, D.Coke and Sprite and if I have 40 people on a 757 from PHL-BOS they will get the same thing because it's consistent.
The service guidelines are by mileage now.
Heck, I remember when we had PIT -PHL Hot Breakfast and we had to tell them to throw the trays under the seat because we had no time to collect them! Some never got served.

 

[JS]

Express service would be fine with me. It can be done on a short route like RDU-CLT if you pass out bottles rather than pouring one drink at a time.

 

[BoeingBoy]

If you want the whole bottle (or can), again talk to management - that disappeared over 15 years ago.

If you can get that changed, then I presume folks would want some ice with their drink - at least in the warmer months. So there's more to it than just "pass out the bottle". Take a full 737-400. That's 132 coach passengers. Say 1/2 would take a beverage if offered - that's 66. Time above 10K feet can be as little as 8-9 minutes. Two F/A's doing the service equals as little as 14.54 seconds to solicit the drink order, fill the cup with ice, and hand the ice and beverage to the passenger in a "worst case". That's allowing no time for getting the cart out, setting it up, moving it in the aisle, or anything else.

If you can't do it on a full flight, do you want consistancy of service regardless of load or whatever a particular F/A crew feels like.

Jim

 

[PSA1979]

If you can get that changed, then I presume folks would want some ice with their drink - at least in the warmer months. So there's more to it than just "pass out the bottle". Take a full 737-400. That's 132 coach passengers. Say 1/2 would take a beverage if offered - that's 66. Time above 10K feet can be as little as 8-9 minutes. Two F/A's doing the service equals as little as 14.54 seconds to solicit the drink order, fill the cup with ice, and hand the ice and beverage to the passenger in a "worst case". That's allowing no time for getting the cart out, setting it up, moving it in the aisle, or anything else.

Jim

[post="246708"][/post]​

On behalf of all the F/a's that bust their butts out there just to serve coke,sprite,and diet coke on the express beverage flights "THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU"

Most passengers can't see past their row and wonder what the heck we are doing just sitting on our jumpseats under 10,000 feet. It's nice know you understand our nightmare.
I was on an AA DFW-AUS flight a couple of months ago and they served juice and water cuplets along with coffee. That to me is the only way these short flight should be served. A prepackaged drink along with a few coffees and your done. It takes way too much time to pour ice into cups, then soda, then hand to pax with napkin. Now if we had 3 or 4 f/a's on the 737 or A319/20 in coach we could do it. Of course I'm talking about the express serve flights. The no serve ones, you could'nt do with an army of f/a's and make everyone happy. Anyway, can't you go a half an hour without something to drink?

 

[local 12 proud]

the problem is people want CHEAP FARE'S but still want premium service might I suggest to those who bit#h about service GO GREYHOUND, its about the same price on many trips and see if your served your coke, diet coke, or sprite. THIS INDUSTRY IS MELTING DOWN BEFORE OUR VERY EYES!

 

[Whatnow?]

Gimme a break....a 30 minute flight and you complain about not being served! Ok, let's give a cup of coke, and a tiny cup I might add, and you take a couple of sips and now it's gone! Wow, that was worth it! I think I'll fly this Airline again! The F/A's are onboard those short flights as well as long flights for the PRIMARY concern of YOUR safety, not a couple of sips of soda! Gimme a break! :down:

 

[USA320Pilot]

Earlier this week I flew out to LAX and back and the F/A’s asked the US1 CP passengers what they thought of the Inflight Café presentation. Interestingly, virtually all of the passengers preferred the new FC meal.

Regards,

USA320Pilot