In-flight Cafe Idea

ITRADE

Veteran
Aug 19, 2002
2,860
0
DCA/IAD US2
I've noticed on a couple flights that they have quite a few In-flight cafe meals left over owing to a lack of interest/appetite.

In the interest of harmonizing the number of meals ordered to the number of meals purchased, is it possible for US to take a meal order at the time of reservation??? Then, have the itinerary or boarding card have a line item for meal paid. That way, in-flight has some feeling ahead of time of how many meals to load on a plane and passengers can possibly show the boarding card to the FA on a scheduled/rescheduled flight as proof that a meal was ordered.

Thoughts?
 
ITRADE, US does not pay for those meals, it is provided by LSG at no cost, and they do have a formula that they use to cater a flight. What they do need is a kids meal, my son would not eat those sandwhiches or salad if we flew.
 
The Inflight Cafe program was to give the pax a way to eat on board without a lot of cost to US. If we started charging or tracking meals in the computer that would defeat one of the parts of the program. Also trying to keep track of people wanting meals would be a pain and inevitably there would be a time when someone said they wanted one and it wasnt there, which leads to another whole can of worms. I talked with some F/As the other day and they said that some flights are doing real well and others have no takers. They are tracking the sales, and I'm sure in the not too distant future when they can get a couple months worth of data will be able to better match supplies to demand. There is always the possibility that they will have too much or not enough, but its the caterers taking the hit when this happens and not US.
 
LavMan said:
Tadkjr, it is tracked by our computer system and LSG
Yes, I know. I work gates and coordinator and speak with LSG agents during the day with their little clipboard. Did you think I meant that the Flight Attendants were tracking it??? :shock: Like that would happen.
 
Actually, I've been on quite a few flights where the crew ran out of meals by the time they got half-way down the aisle. The result was coach passengers in the first 1/2 of the plane generally grousing about how overpriced the meal was and those in the 2nd 1/2 of the plane generally declaring "I'm never flying on this airline again." Seemed like an all around crowd pleaser.

-Airlineorphan
 
Compared to what most airports offer along with the added benefit of not shlepping the food around with you, the price isnt much different than what you pay for meals in the airport and its made fresh daily and actually is fairly tasty. Some people would not be happy if you gave them filet and dom and they'd find a reason to ####. I guess they could go back to not offering anything at all again. I've noticed that the FA speech states "we have a limited supply of meals available for purchase". I guess if you are really starving, you need to give yourself extra time to buy something in the airport before you get on. Free food is gone from the planes domestically. Its one of those things that we are going to have to learn to adjust to, just like the other cuts that have happened.
And for those pax who HADNT paid for the meal yet and didnt get one, just imagine what they'd be saying if they had paid and they ran out of meals....
maybe they could have asked some of the pax up front who thought it was overpriced if they could buy theirs.... :D
 

Latest posts

Back
Top