Britannia ski flights on 767-200 1hr 30min 273 to 290 pax

on ski flights pax were mostly well healed

hot towel
free headphones for music
newspaper
sweet
hot meal with a free bottle of wine on tray
tea/coffee followed along right behind
duty free

simples - all done no fuss
no one moaned
crew hard work but had fun
passengers loved it

on longer flights the bar trolley would be first and a second round of drinks after the meal if there was time on say RHO/TFS

$40,000 according to : How to cure airlines? ills - Business - US business - Aviation | NBC News

Late 80s/early 90s.

Some interesting background on the long-running spat between BA and AA in this Fortune Magazine article from 1990:

AMERICAN TAKES ON THE WORLD With tough guy Robert Crandall at the controls, this airline has soared to the top of the U.S. industry. Now it's pushing into fast-growing international markets. - September 24, 1990

Of course, they have long since kissed and made up. :O

Went to that same RAeS meeting - the evening's host, in the vote of thanks,
referred to Crandall as 'Mr Cranston' on more than one, cringeworthy, occasion !
(apols for thread drift)

You can get really bad food pretty much anywhere (or none at all if you're flying Y within America), tolerable food (NZ Y, LH C) and really good food (EK C, NZ C, LH F).

I tend to self-cater if I'm on standby - fruit, shelled walnuts, a piece of good cheese and a bento box. Mostly attract envious looks from fellow pax who are picking at an undefinable piece of dead animal in brown sauce...

The answer is to stick with one's favoured airlines:

Between Europe and my current location, for their food and schedules, I'll happily use Cathay Pacific all the time if their fare is right.

I'll happily use Swiss out of UK (LON, BHX, MAN) because often their fares are cheaper than the supposed LoCo's, they offer schedules to suit and their cabin service is second to none.

The few times I've flown with SAS, despite paying for their drinks and grub, it was of a good standard and one could eat and drink as much as one liked.

And even Ukraine International Airlines, reasonable grub but the (Ukrainian) Slavutich beer came in 500ml cans (none of your nancy boy 250ml mixer sizes) and so complimented would the Ukrainian cabin crew be that one actually liked their beer they weren't stingy with it either :)

MALEV was another good one but alas they've gone.

Stick with the ones that offer a quality and bin the ones that don't.

I wish that airlines would post what they will serve on a given flight on their website. Late evening out of LHR - SIN full evening meal. (Very) late evening out of HKG - LHR on return - no meal until breakfast. Not serving a meal in the early hours may be sensible its but nice to know in advance. I personally think that having a well stocked galley for snacks on flights over ten hours is essential.


I presume that North American carriers can get away with not serving food on longer flights as passengers no longer expect it. In Asia pax still do. I wonder if an American carrier would benefit with charging a small premium for better service? CO tried it for a while but it didn't work. With only three large carriers I can't see it happening.


Laker stopped including food in the late 70s. Me, I still see a long haul flight as something of a special occasion and like a proper meal, but maybe I'm old fashioned.

i think Laker only started to charge for food on the very first Skytrain flights to the USA.
the IT charters were still catered - IIRC Laker reintroduced free hot meals on their USA flights - i used them often until their collapse and i did not pay for meals on Miami or LAX.

It was Thomson holidays that were the first tour operator (and airline - in the form of Britannia) to unravel the original package holiday (where you got it all flight/baggage/seat number/meal -hot usually-coach transfer and hotel with all meals as booked)
this unravelling was all done under the title ''Just for You''
then the lo-co airlines started and the rest is history....

we have to blame Thomson for the mess we are now in with ridiculous charges and extras and no food on 5 hour flights etc etc

even the legacy carriers have cut back enormously hence no meal on a SIN-LHR flight until breakfast time!
awful

It is useful being able to have a meal when you are diabetic, the meeting has over-run and you arrive at the airport just in time for the flight. And it does happen far more frequently than is desirable....Which is why I always insist on flying business class in Europe.

As far as really long haul is concerned, it is very necessary when one is diabetic.

Peter47,

Was this also BA?

I work for BA, and operated a HKG trip only a couple of weeks ago, and it had a full meal service ex-HKG. As did the one I worked about 5 months before that, and about 6 months before that too.

I am not aware of any changes to the onboard product and having just looked at the service guidelines and standards for the route, there is still a full dinner service ex-HKG on both evening departures.

QATAR Airways give you TWO meals on a five hour flight.:ok:

Albeit one of those is a microwaved Pizza in a cardboard box.......

I look forward to the meals and and of course the wine as it breaks up the boredom of the in fight movie,s which unfortunately do not get changed enough (even on EK/SQ with 100,s to chose from) and are some times of variable quality - not the airlines issue I would add. If you fly long haul over once a month (which I guess a number of people on here do) with the same carrier you invariably get months when on the first trip you see every movie you want to out of the selection available, and then on the next trip you are stuck again with same selection. I know that you can down load to tablet but that's just more kit to carry AND SMALLER SCREEN.

Air Koryo Beijing to Pyongyang (1999) in a Il-18, piping hot Chinese 'takeaways', the return trip some weeks later in Tu-154B one very small but highly polished apple.

thread drift
On the 'flip' from Honolulu to Kauai - about 24 mins wheels-to-wheels (not taxi time), they said they would serve drinks. We weren't thirsty but wanted to see how they did it. :p

1. take pax orders before start
2. only have a variety of fruit juices
3. serve in plastic cups so that -
4. - collecting the cups can be throwing them into a plastic sack on the let down!
5. :ok:

188 on an A321 served a sandwich and drinks in 26 minutes LHR to MAN… before the sandwiches were taken off.

252 on a 767 served a hot english breakfast, tea and coffee in 52 minutes LHR to GLA.

It can be done… If organised enough.

I have to admit I was always mildly irritated by the meals on the BOS-LHR flights. By the time you're airborne and cabin services has started, you've eaten your meal and the residue cleared away, there's not much time left for a nap. At least on the flights from the other side of the US there's more opportunity for sleep.

If you don't like airline food just come to the US. You won't have a problem. They don't serve any.

Tray Surfer
I remember when BMI used to serve full evening meal with pre dinner drink on the LHR - Leeds evening service which sometimes involved circling over Yorkshire to allow crew to clear up trays !. This was in the mid 1980,s however.

MrMac was that on our lovely Viscount?

also we did LPL-LHR first early morning flight in 1978/9
DC-9 hot breakfast for up to 85 pax all done in 20 mins - admit it didn't last long but we still managed it