ID vs Full Fare

[RevMan2]

Flew FRA-LAX in Business the other week, noticed that a couple (seated at the rear of the compartment) were being served Y meals and overheard the cabin crew saying that they were upgrades.

I went into the galley, identified my ID status and said that if they had problems with meal counts, they should take my meal.

"No", they said "they're Y passenger on a Miles and More (FQTV mileage) upgrade on short notice and the Flight Manager at the gate said they were only to get Y meals and you've paid Business class so you're getting a Business meal".

All this in a quite "Don't you tell US how to do our job" aggressive tone.

I ventured that if they've paid for the upgrade and IT'S AT ALL POSSIBLE to provide them with a Business service, then they should perhaps take me up on my offer. (In fact, they should have looked me up on the pax list and approached me.) Might even "Wow" the customer, who'd tell everyone he knew what a great service he got etc etc.

The discussion went downhill from there and even the purser wasn't convinced that it was a Good Idea.

How do you guys and gals see it?

Disclosure: Recently retired exec management with the outfit, so maybe I'm used to seeing the bigger picture. I dunno.

[Glamgirl]

The ID pax should get last choice of meal. Basically because they haven't paid full fare versus commercial pax. What I tend to do in J class, is to ask ID pax (if there are any) what they'd like to eat, and also ask for a second choice (just in case). This tends to work really well. I can't understand why the crew behaved like they did, as it would surely create more hassle for them.

Gg

[Jean-Lill]

I cannot understand why your cabin crew acted in the manner they did, are you sure they realised you were a staff pax?

With only 3 up-grades it is usually possible to find 3 business class meals due to the extra catering loaded to ensure a choice of meal is offered which I presume your airline offers in business class.

Depending on the amount of pax there are usually a few meal refusals too. I have been cabin crew for over 36 years and rarely had to offer economy meals to unexpected extra pax in business, if I did it would have be done with absolute discretion. I certainly would not reveal to a passenger we had staff pax on board (who were entitled to business class) or up-grades for whatever reason.

If you had travelled with me your offer would have been respectfully considered and I would have been grateful that you had made your offer.

[RevMan2]

@ Jean-Lill

Are you sure they realised you were a staff pax

Absolutely.

This whole episode still bugs me..