Paying for meals on charters

[TightSlot]

I can only speak reliably for my employer - Thomsonfly.

Meals are loaded to the precise number booked in advance, with no spares, and are sold at £10 round trip. If there are no-shows/refusals, these are sold on board at £6 each way.

The only circumstances that I'm aware of when we would cater full on such a flight, would be when another company is sub-chartered in to cover a flight, and their IT systems (or crew) cannot cope with the split service. Otherwise, we cater as booked. The reason for this is that it generates the very reaction shown above...

I will remember the point above though, about not bothering to pay, as you'll probably get a meal anyway

and also enfuriates those customers who have pre-booked and paid.

It is certainly true that airlines now regard catering as a revenue service. Previously, catering was the third biggest cost item on the books after salaries and fuel - now it is a major revenue stream. How much is saved on the fares for those not eating? I don't know, but immediately, they are paying £10 less than their eating colleagues.

On a purely personal note, I think it is worth it, and pay for myself and family when we travel together. Meals are therapy as well as fodder. The quality of our meals has improved since we started charging - they had to otherwise people would not choose to buy them.

There will always be some people who don't like or want our food, and that's just fine and dandy. Marks & Spencers at LTN are doing a roaring trade, and if that's what does it for you, then enjoy. We'll still give you an option to buy drinks and snacks from us in flight - an option that you can of course, decline. The only thing that I refuse to do for customers is to use our ovens and urns to make their self catered food and drinks hot - I'm sure somebody aroundd here will tell me that I'm being unreasonable, but I'm afraid I intend to take a stand on that one!