Lack of meals in F and J

[Jasecoop]

Is it me or is the frequency of meal choices running out in F and J getting worse. Last flight F ran out of prawn entrees and the previous flight in J they ran out of entrees and mains, plus coke and diet coke half way through the flight along with ALL snacks. Seriously for >$10000 airfare you think they can ensure meal and drink choice!

 

[Hvr]

Wow running out of diet coke would really annoy me. I don't drink alcohol or full strength soft drinks so that would only leave water in the premium cabin.

Not acceptable.

Can you tell us which route you were on?

 

[Jasecoop]

Syd-jhb and return. The flights are very full now as there is little choice from Aus but that's no excuse. I'm the same, only drink coke and running out after 5 hours of 11 on a flight that's very hard to sleep on sucks

 

[JetLagged]

Haven't had any J or F food/drinks issues - always plenty of bubbly, and coke as well for use with the bourbon or scotch!

 

[Jasecoop]

Not getting any better. Last flight to Joburg in F. Great menu including lobster. I ordered lobster but was one of only two onboard. Why have a large menu with lobster and only have 2 onboard, surely they must expect more people would order. Even had the hostie come to me with everyone's job title and ask if my boss was my boss and whether I would swap meals with him as he missed out. Second meal they ran out of beef!

 

[ric_melb]

Jasecoop, I hope you are feeding this back to Qantas, in view of it no longer being a one off.

 

[AnonymousCoward]

Agreed - feed this back to QF (unless you are drinking 20+ cans of Diet Coke - in which case, maybe request an additional special meal request)

Maybe it is route specific? I've done about 25 SYD-SIN flights the past 24 months (plus another half-dozen MEL-SIN, and a few BNE-SIN) and no such problems (mostly J, and an even mix of PE and F)

 

[Mal]

Seems strange to run out of Diet Coke. Surely there must be a huge stash of it all over the plane...

I'm concerned about catering cuts as a whole on Qantas. Their meals do seem to get cheaper'n'cheaper by the year. And yep, it seems strange to have F catering cut that much.

 

[Jasecoop]

I have actually found the meal quality improve over the last 6 months, just not enough meals (although instead of lobster my boss had lamb. Had to send back twice as it was raw, not rare).
I'll write to them, had meant to but haven't got around to it

 

[milehighclub]

I would certainly say that this is a route specific issue. As a daylight sector people eat and drink probably 10 times more than on LAX-SYD (or even on the return JNB-SYD which are overnight flights) 300 people all drinking soft drinks and beverages, 50 cans or so of coke zero don't go very far, and there is only so much capacity on an aircraft (and this flight already has additional uplift of drinks due to the nature of the flight)

FWIW in First and Business the catering loads have been the same in relation to the number of passengers for as long as I have been at Qantas (8 years). There have been no reductions. It really does just depend on what passengers feel like.

For example some flights no one has a steak sandwich, and others they are all gone! My last flight no one had the lobster, the one before it 2 did, the one before that we had to apologise to someone as there were to many orders for it.

Catering loads are monitored for every flight. If there is an obvious trend (so multiple flights with lots of people missing out), they adjust the catering accordingly. A recent example of this is that during winter, for Y class breakfast, more people have hot breakfast so they increased it to 80% hot 20% cereal. When summer starts, it will revert to 70% hot 30% cold.

 

[NM]

A recent example of this is that during winter, for Y class breakfast, more people have hot breakfast so they increased it to 80% hot 20% cereal. When summer starts, it will revert to 70% hot 30% cold.

just out of curiosity, is that based on the season at point ot departure or point of arrival? For example, its mid summer in Hong Kong and Mid Winter in Melbourne, so how would a HKG-MEL flight be catered? My guess is arrival when referencing breakfast on an overnight flight, but just curious.

 

[Jasecoop]

I would certainly say that this is a route specific issue. As a daylight sector people eat and drink probably 10 times more than on LAX-SYD (or even on the return JNB-SYD which are overnight flights) 300 people all drinking soft drinks and beverages, 50 cans or so of coke zero don't go very far, and there is only so much capacity on an aircraft (and this flight already has additional uplift of drinks due to the nature of the flight)

FWIW in First and Business the catering loads have been the same in relation to the number of passengers for as long as I have been at Qantas (8 years). There have been no reductions. It really does just depend on what passengers feel like.

For example some flights no one has a steak sandwich, and others they are all gone! My last flight no one had the lobster, the one before it 2 did, the one before that we had to apologise to someone as there were to many orders for it.

Catering loads are monitored for every flight. If there is an obvious trend (so multiple flights with lots of people missing out), they adjust the catering accordingly. A recent example of this is that during winter, for Y class breakfast, more people have hot breakfast so they increased it to 80% hot 20% cereal. When summer starts, it will revert to 70% hot 30% cold.

All makes sense but when you are in F you should expect the choice is there. This was the first time in 3 F trips that I have been able to have lobster, then asked if I would swap. 2 serves isnt enough. Agree daylight people eat more. When they ran out of drinks J was full of the lions rugby team which may explain things - big lads

 

[Noob]

It does sound route specific, never heard of this on other QF international routes. Pretty poor it happened once, and pretty dam annoying it happened twice. I would think QF would like to hear about this.

 

[rechoboam]

It does sound route specific, never heard of this on other QF international routes. Pretty poor it happened once, and pretty dam annoying it happened twice. I would think QF would like to hear about this.

If you sit down the back as NB or PS you can have no choice on other routes, eg J to Japan. My wife is choosy and ends up not having anything she likes. The result being that she wants to use a different airline for future J trips as our first J experiences become disappointing. As everyone starts off NB this is a systematic problem.