Do NZ also charge $700-$2000 one way fares?
(Honest question, I never flew NZ Dom)
I don't mind being served Y meal in J if the ticket price is reasonable. On short sectors in AU you don't usually get lie flat seats so the hard product is just slightly better than Y. The big difference should be in the catering but in reality pax often get Y quality meals served in nicer plates.
tbh this has probably gone off topic for this thread(?) but no, of course they don't charge that
but again I say this fare paid/charged really isn't directly related to service provided on board.
you know though you don't NEED lie-flat seats on a 1 hour sector (well 99.99% of pax don't
) and I think the airline's philosophy is more that J food on these sectors is more of a snack than anything rather than a meal replacement - you can either eat before or after the flight (yes, connecting passengers is a whole other kettle of fish and argument).
fares buy transportation. Sure, you buy a premium care then there's certain expectations with that - and I agree that QF can often do a poor job of meeting those (but I have had some bloody brilliant meals on these short sectors - but most of them are meh to poor). I don't fly those sectors for the food but I can understand to some it is an important point. Perhaps the foodies can find a better meal at VA? I don't know (I don't fly them).
I totally understand the desire for better food (Look at some of the slop in the lounges!) - even on shorter sectors - don't get me wrong on this, but I think QF know their competition (probably, as I said I don't fly them) serves similar stuff (and I know many airlines "mystery shop" on each other to keep tabs on the competition - in fact I know of one major US airline who sent peeps out to see product offerings all over the world - so much so that those folks got elite status elsewhere from these types of flying - as part of a strategy to build a new product to compete, but I digress
).
QF only has to "match" what the other guy is doing - until someone decides to "innovate" and provide a better service level we'll probably get more of the same.. and with the amount of folks actually paying the ridiculous full J fares they charge being relatively few, there's little reason for either carrier to make a lot of effort in this area as it's not worth it to them cost wise.
If we had a jetBlue type operation offering a superior and funky product at a great price, a la Mint, that would up the ante, but our market can just not cope with another offering, specially premium (remember ozjet?)
anyway I guess everyone's mileage varies. maybe in the future carriers can somehow offer a online ordering of meals (I know AA and some others do this already) but more complete such that you could even potentially choose from say a cupcafe, muffin, fruit or IC "dessert" and say out of a choice of mains) - manage it through the apps, cut off say 24h before flight then catering can figure it out and board the meals much like special meals are done. logicially difficult and more costly, but it could happen - if someone wanted to take the time and effort to invest in it.
just some random thoughts
