What's The Most Exorbitant Catering Bill You've Gotten For A Short Flight?

[GULF69]

Hi guys,

This forum is just for interest. As we all know, executive jet catering is a licence to print money. We also know that our pax expect everything they could possibly want to be onboard, or all hell will break loose...even though they only touch 10% of it. We recently got billed $7000 for our 2 hour flight with 20 pax. The main pax is VERY meticulous about what he eats, or doesn’t eat for that matter. We all know what a terrible waste all this is, with people starving of hunger etc.

Would be interesting to hear about your exorbitant catering requests / bills?

69

[hawker750]

I was realy hacked off when the sandwiches and wraps at M & S were not on special offer and they cost me £13.99. (They were delicious and the passengers were really appreciative)

[V1650]

90 Dollars U.S. for a 5Kg bag of ice out of Doha - we didnt take it.

[4HolerPoler]

$70 for the same bag of ice in Anchorage in the middle of a snow shower. Also declined.

My most exorbitant catering bill was $48,500 out of Los Angeles - 9 passengers, two meal service (dinner & breakfast). Was using the Mercury (since gone) FBO where the deputy manager was the shyster L. Ke**y. Guy was always on the take but this one literally "took the cake." There wasn't any alcohol, a tray of caviar and not much else remarkable. Other than the price. Needless to say there was hell to play.

The new (Private Catering) catering company in Nice is ripping the ring out at the mo - over €70 this month for 10 kilos of ice & half a liter of milk. Next time I'll get it elsewhere.

Good thread - must be some great stories.

[postman23]

250 euro for 10 prepacked sandwiches and a coke bottle filled with lukewarm coffee, wrapped in tinfoil. Limoges, what a crap place that is :yuk: .

[G-SPOTs Lost]

€1950 which in itself isn't remarkable apart from the fact it went into a C550 :eek:

Guess where? you gottit LFMN

[Shiner Pilot]

When I worked for Club 328 the sales team decided that it would be nice for the pax to have a really nice meal... £1500 worth of nice meals for 5 pax! Was it charged back to the customer? No
Did it tumble all the profits for the flight? Yes it did...

[Sepp]

150 quid for one 6-inch plate, upon which were sat three canapés. And the pax didn't even look at them. I, however, can report that they were quite pleasant.

Oh, and 53 quid for a pint of milk.

[CL300]

AeroTaxi Florence, ITA...a ripp off EVERYTIME!! Last bill was around 2000 euros for a 40 minutes flight....and 2 pax... Crew meals at 90 euros a piece..

[Global Driver]

Also in Firenze, 950EU for two pax and a 3.5 hr flight to TLV! I'm in the wrong business! LOL!

[hawker750]

Catering Costs
We have this sort of thread before, I cannot believe what I am reading. Catering is cheap and exellent quality if you have a good hostie that has catering supply and preparation in her job description. It does mean extra work but at least the passengers get good food that they want at a price that does not cripple the operator.
If a client asks us to operate without a F/A the price goes up to cover the cost of catering.

[LRdriver III]

True,
But for a while LFMN did not let you bring ANY food/drink airside..thus you had to use the usual rip off suspects.

I once worked out that across the fleet the company spent 3000 euros a year on sliced lemons alone (cost, delivery etc..) all so passengers could stuff them in their tea. :rolleyes: but never did

[merlinxx]

That's why I always tried (90% success) vetting those intoplane caterers for my customers, I set parameters for my GH Service Providers to send every and all menus and price lists for auth. Otherwise would not use on behalf of my customers.

[Tequilaboy]

When I worked for Club 328 the sales team decided that it would be nice for the pax to have a really nice meal... £1500 worth of nice meals for 5 pax! Was it charged back to the customer? No
Did it tumble all the profits for the flight? Yes it did...

Bold statement Shiner. You were assuming that there was profit on that particular flight and if the client is the one I am thinking of......Hmmmm

[potatowings]

My worste was 1200 Euro for 1 tray of sandwiches. :ok:

Pax never ate them so I took them home to the family. We worked out each sandwich was worth 60 Euros.

I didn't feel any richer for eating them though, but I did try and spend one in the pub :)

[Paradise Lost]

Actually while the prices are disgusting, going back to the first post by GULF69, I totally agree that it's the utter waste of good food that upsets me.....and the figure of 90% into the bin/crew/handlers is probably just about spot on.

[clivewatson]

Don't get me wound up about Nice again. Dick Turpin provides the catering there!

Last week I paid 21 Euros for three nicely presented smoked salmon salads, and got 2 kg of ice for free - all from upstairs in Terminal 1.

Same would have cost Eu 300 + Eu 40 to deliver it to the airplane!

And don't waste your money getting them to wash your dishes either - buying replacements is MUCH cheaper, and that is a FACT!

[Private jet]

Last October my employers decided that they no longer desired inflight catering. Our TOTAL operating costs have dropped 4-5% since then. Thats £20-25k per annum just on food. Incredible.

[Sepp]

+1 for the disgust at the wastefulness of the whole thing. We make it clear that catering to requirements will be put on at cost, but no request=drinks and dry snacks only.

It's amazing how many pax who previously couldn't live without having a plate of sarnies to watch going curly, suddenly demand 'no catering under any circumstances!' when they realise how much it was costing them...

[nas1022]

A 250 Uk pound litre of milk, that could have been picked up at a petrol station for under a pound!!!!!

[hawker750]

Quote
When I worked for Club 328 the sales team decided that it would be nice for the pax to have a really nice meal... £1500 worth of nice meals for 5 pax! Was it charged back to the customer? No
Did it tumble all the profits for the flight? Yes it did...

Profits would not have tumbled because like most suppliers of 328 the caterers were probably not paid

[hawker750]

Quote
Last week I paid 21 Euros for three nicely presented smoked salmon salads, and got 2 kg of ice for free - all from upstairs in Terminal 1.

Good man you can come and work for me!

[Tequilaboy]

If you have the leadtime and are near a Waitrose use their entertaining ordering service. Seriously good and well presented variety of food all for 10% of what an FBO/Catering firm would charge. I always had less complaints about the Waitrose stuff than the real expensive stuff!

Just a thought . . .

https://www.waitrosedeliver.com/wdeliver/servlet/JSPs/shop/shopping_fs.jsp?siteCode=BI

[hawker750]

LRDRIVER 111
Quote
I once worked out that across the fleet the company spent 3000 euros a year on sliced lemons alone (cost, delivery etc..) all so passengers could stuff them in their tea. :rolleyes: but never did

I do not understand how lemons and a knife can amount to €3,000 p.a. At the local supermarket they are about 20p, unless of course the hosty was ordering "sliced lemons" from a catering company, if so time for new hosties.

A lot of the high catering costs can be eliminated by by the simple mind set of "would I be doing this if I had to pay personally?"

[merlinxx]

A good CC member is worth their weight in gold:ok: Maybe they are not slinky 21 year old, perma tanned bints. Give me a 40 year old who's learnt the trade any day:ok: There are lots around, employ them:ok:

[Cecco]

50 Euro for a bag of ice cubes...I enjoyed the fact that most PAX never touched (and those who did left a servere mess...) the catering and that we could eat it all ourselves:}

[hawker750]

Merlin
You are correct
A good CC member is worth their weight in goldhttp://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/thumbs.gif Maybe they are not slinky 21 year old, perma tanned bints. Give me a 40 year old who's learnt the trade any dayhttp://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/thumbs.gif There are lots around, employ themhttp://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/thumbs.gif

I had a hostie once who actualy said that she could not find sliced lemons in the supermarket! She probably thought they came from the "sliced lemon tree". Thank god she was only a freelancer and she only did one trip for us

[smallfry]

Thats hysterical! Did she look in the sliced fruit section? Dear me!:)

[flybypilot]

40min Flight £2000 Lisbon - NEVER AGAIN!!!

Thanks god for CC!!

[merlinxx]

There is one company (you know it) run by an ex Corporate/Bizav CC member in the Southern UK who I think has excellent standards, no name, but my customers were always very happy:ok: I guess the fact that her other half is a Bizav Capt may assist, but this Lady has been there, seen it & done it:ok:

A tremendous amount of planning goes into menu planning & construction, and only an experienced Lady can do that in a small pantry, after all the CC are with the paying punter longer than anyone else:ok::ok::ok:

How many ad hoc charter crews understand that?:ugh:

[GULF69]

Hell, and i though my experience was bad...

69

[Challengerjetdriver]

We have been using hotel dining services, most of them offer paper or aluminum containers, of course coffee and ice is a different story. We have saved ALOT of money...

[flying mechanik]

Once in nice catering was ordered by ops, was really suprised how its possible to pay 2900 eur per person on a 5 hrs flight.
normal we use the restauraunt upstairs, good food for max 50 eur per person:ok:
crazy people over there