Even first-class fliers see less food By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY Gina Maddox savored the five-course dinners that airlines used to serve her= =20 in first class. Now, she says, she's lucky to get little entrees or salads= =20 when she flies first class on domestic flights =97 if she gets anything at= =20 all. "It's not as nice as it used to be," she says. "The quality has gone=20 way down." First- and business-class passengers, coddled for so long by=20 airlines eager for their repeat business, are seeing fewer food choices.=20 The celebrity chefs are gone. Some airlines have limited meals to longer=20 flights or ones during traditional meal hours. In the second quarter, the=20 nation's 10 largest airlines spent $572 million on food. Food spending=20 relative to their flying capacity was down 10% from the year before,=20 according to Aviation Daily. Airlines paid more for food than they did for= =20 travel agency commissions, landing fees or advertising. "There is=20 definitely a downturn," says Jim Fowler, executive director of the=20 International Inflight Food Service Association. "Airlines want to continue= =20 to please the customer in the most professional manner. The issue is cost." Some of the changes to in-flight meal service for domestic first-class=20 passengers: =B7 American Airlines used to have meals for first-class passengers on= =20 all flights more than 90 minutes in the air during regular meal hours. Now,= =20 the flight must be longer than two hours. =B7 Delta used to stock meals for first-class fliers on flights as=20 short as about 500 miles. Now, with few exceptions, meal service is limited= =20 to flights over 700 miles. =B7 United just enacted a policy of no first- or business-class meals= =20 outside of regular meal hours on flights of two to three hours. Salads and= =20 plates of deli meats will replace hot meals on all but transcontinental=20 flights. First-class fliers have seen other changes, too. The chateaubriand and=20 wheel of cheese that American Airlines flight attendants used to slice in=20 the cabin now comes pre-sliced. Metal knives are no longer allowed on=20 board. Airline officials say the overall quality remains high. American's=20 current first-class transcontinental menu gives first-class passengers a=20 salmon appetizer, a salad course, bread basket and choice of filet mignon,= =20 vegetable pasta, chicken Caesar salad or barbecue chicken as entrees. For=20 dessert, there are berries with pound cake or a hot fudge sundae.=20 International food service is even more lavish. Airlines typically spend=20 more to compete with foreign airlines, sometimes having multiple meal=20 offerings on some of the longest trips. It shows up in the spending figures= =20 they report to the government. Overall, five major airlines =97 American, United, Delta, Continental and=20 Northwest =97 all reported cutting their spending on food in all classes of= =20 service for domestic passengers in the second quarter, compared with the=20 year before. But some raised it for trans-Pacific or trans-Atlantic routes.= =20 Northwest, for instance, reduced per-passenger spending on food for=20 domestic flights by 23% to $2.30 in the second quarter compared with the=20 same period the year before. During the same periods, spending on=20 trans-Atlantic passengers increased 9% to $16.72, and trans-Pacific costs=20 fell 11% to $25.14, according to Department of Transportation data provided= =20 by Back Aviation Solutions. Marketing experts say passengers do not choose an airline based on meal=20 quality. Most people don't fly first class or business class because of the= =20 food. They fly because of the comfort and the experience," says Lynne Doll= =20 of Rogers & Co., a corporate image specialist. But airline officials say=20 they need to treat food issues seriously. "The customer who is hungry is=20 more likely to be upset that it took longer ... to get to the lavatory,"=20 says Rahsaan Johnson, a spokesman for Continental Airlines. Likewise, "A=20 customer whose flight is late on arrival may not notice it's five minutes=20 late unless they are also hungry." *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.atlanticlng.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************