I fly EI, IB and AF quite alot. You still geta pretty nice "free" meal and drinks with AF, even drinks and biscuits or other snack on internal flights, but their fares are INCREDIBLE expensive. To be hones, I doubt their fares are justified by this inflight service. Not an expert thought on cost cutting strategies for airlines.
Flew EI on the first day they stopped their free inflight service. My first reaction was... How dare they! But then I thought to myself, well I haven't paid more than € 175.00 on a return European service with EI for quite a while, sooooo why should I be abboyed at paying for food. By the way, they have quite an acceptable chicken and stuffing sandwich for €3.50 and a soft drink (normal size 33 ml. can) for € 1.00. Well, in two years EI have increased their route network by I believe around 30 new routes and their fares have decreased, so if in turn I have to pay for the food, well done EI. And if IB do drop their fares some what, well done also.
One thing I find very funny, before all this no frills talk, everybod complained about plane food, saying "Oh, I NEVER eat the food on a plane". Now all of a sudden that it's no longer free, airplane food seems te be remembered as some kind of gastronomic feast... NOT.
Another thing, I have been told numerous prestigious European airlines have already done the same as EI and IB. Some of you seem to accuse these airlines of becoming no-frills. Well I tend to disagree. Having flown on Easy Jet and BMI Baby, it's not the same thing. EI, IB and co. still have nice cabin interiors, reasonable leg room, well dressed cabin crews (nothing agains you at the low cost carriers, bu come on, the EZY uniforms are certainly not what I'd call uniforms!), inflight entertainment, inflight shopping, inflight magazines, assigned seats, airport lounges, frequent flyer programmes...
Just my humble opinion...
