No inflight pax meal on medium/long haul flights

[fireflybob]

I have recently returned from a package holiday booked through a leading tour operator. This was a late booking taken only two days before the flight departed.

Right at the end of the booking procedure I was informed that is was too late to request a pax meal but that snacks would be available for purchase. This fact did not register too much with me until the day I travelled.

We were flying to Tenerife from the UK and the flight time was 4.30 and it was 1.40 before I was offered any form of inflight refreshment and that was only a drink. The snacks were not existent (peanuts!) and I was starving by the time we arrived.

Whilst I accept that I was informed about the lack on infllight meal at the booking stage I think that when you are spending circa £800 on an all inclusive holiday not to be offered a meal is an insult to say the least and almost borders on the inhuman.

If I had been travelling on a LCC it would have been different. The airline in question was Air Europa and the holiday was booked with SkyTours via Lunn Polly - part of the Thomson Group. Other aspects of the flight were satisfactory, the cabin crew spoke good english but there was not ONE pa from the flightdeck on outward or return flights. There was also no IFE on the outbound sector and the "film" on the return sector was wall to wall adverts for - you've guessed it - Air Europa!

I place this posting to warn any Prunners to verify the meals status on long haul flights at the beginning of the booking process and whilst I do not wish to be called prejudiced I do expect to fly with an Anglo Saxon airline when I book through a local UK agent!

[reynoldsno1]

flight time was 4.30 long haul flights
Spent longer than that in the circuit....
I was starving
No, you weren't[
was informed about the lack on infllight meal at the booking stage
You made an informed choice
:sad:

[fireflybob]

Yes, reynolds1, I agree that contractually I knew what I was agreeing to and that parhaps 4.30 is medium haul but its still quite a long time to go without food but my real point is that leading tour operators are not, in my opinion, giving themselves a good image by presenting this sort of deal.

Perhaps I should also add that other pax on the flights WERE served with meals - I cannot understand why it is not possible to book an inflight meal 2 days before departure. On arrival at the resort I asked the tour rep to book me a meal on the return journey (a week away) and was informed it was still too late to book an inflight meal!

[dudduddud]

I cannot understand why it is not possible to book an inflight meal 2 days before departure.

Maybe they need more than two days for the in-flight meal to completly dry out and/or rot.

[bugg smasher]

FF Bob,

The normal time between meals is usually about four to five hours, from breakfast to lunch, and from lunch to dinner. It is a well-known fact that the smell of food triggers hunger and predation in the mammalian order of things, even when hunger has recently been satiated. As humans we are not exempt from this basic biological instinct.

If you insist on paying minimal tour-operator dollar for flight, hotel, transport, disposable camera and buffet breakfast, please expect occasional inflight meal inadequacies at times that may be inappropriate to your liking. Eating a decent meal shortly before boarding should solve your problem neatly.

If it is a First Class experience that you desire, my day-tripping friend, it is always available for a First Class fare.

[AntiCrash]

Perhaps this thread should be merged with the GUNS thread. I'll bet if you had a gun then could have hunted down something at shot for dinner. And what about that travel agent then?

Sorry the meds just kicked in...

[Blacksheep]

Peanuts? Hey that's my wages you're discussing!

Its amazing how people expect the airlines to give them rock bottom prices yet provide the same old glamorous in flight service of the 1960s. Costs have to be contained somehow, and if costs have gone up lately, my salary certainly has nothing to do with it. IFE for 'Shells' on 800 quid package hols? Fly business class within Europe and you're lucky to get a cup of coffee, a tub of yoghurt and a cheese roll. It goes with the demand for lower fares.

And they have the cheek to complain when fuel prices rise and we add a surcharge.

[flyblue]

fireflybob
4.30 is Medium Haul. However, I would not blame the airline since any single inflight service (meals, movies, earphones, duty free) is agreed with the Tour Operator with a contract.
I really cannot understand why 48h were not enough for ordering a meal. Where I work we need 48h only for some kind of Special Meals, and only in outstations. A Special Meal request is 24h and since we are a schedule airline you can get a meal until the last minute. So maybe we should ask someone who's in the UK charter biz now (because in the charter companies where I have worked in the past we also had a last minute policy).
Even more incomprehensible is their refusal to book you a meal for the return flight.
I would definitely write a letter to the Tour Operator.

[Xenia]

Well ... I strongly believe it's all a matter of tour operator here. It all depends with the kind of contract they have with the airline as Flyblue said.

[B Sousa]

It wont be long before the travelling world is totally advised.
you want food on a flight, bring it with.........