US Airways offers a very decent meal on domestic flights–when you can get one. The problem is that unless your flight is scheduled for more than 3.5 hours during conventional meal times, you’re out of luck. That has put US Airways at a competitive disadvantage, as American, Delta, and United all offer meals on flights over 2.5hrs. Starting April 01, 2014, US Airways will begin offering meal service on shorter flights. The carrier also announced improved IFE choices and the end of designating business class as “Envoy” class.
Meals on Flights Longer than 2:45hr
- On flights less than 1 hour, enjoy a morning and afternoon/evening beverage with a snack
- We’re offering our signature snack basket on flights 1 – 2 hours in length
- Lite Bites, a new snack basket including fresh fruit, breakfast cakes and finger sandwiches, will be offered on flights 2 – 2:45 hours long, as well as on flights departing after 8 PM
- On flights from Charlotte to Minneapolis and from Philadelphia to Minneapolis, enjoy meal service: Breakfast 5 AM – 9 AM, Lunch 9:01 AM – 1:30 PM, Dinner 4:01 PM – 8 PM, Lite Bites 1:31 PM – 4 PM and after 8 PM**
- A meal is offered on flights 2:45 – 3:30 hours long from 5 AM to 8 PM, and Lite Bites are offered after 8 PM**
- On flights longer than 4:30 hours, enjoy meal service with a snack basket 5 AM to 8 PM, and Lite Bites with a Continental Breakfast Box served after 8 PM and on late night flights
- New glassware on all domestic First Class flights
This is great news for premium class travelers who may not have time to eat before boarding a flight. Hopefully the “updated menu” will not mean a cutback on catering. Even the “Lite Bites” menu sounds good.
More IFE Options
On B757- and B767-operated flights in Business Class, enjoy the new Samsung Galaxy Tab™ offering 60 movies, as well as a greater variety of television programs and audio selections. Plus, this spring on our international Business Class flights, tune out with new Bose® QuietComfort® 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® headphones. We’re also doubling the entertainment selections on our A330s to offer you more than 250 movies, 350 audio options and more.
US Airways already has a world-class hard product onboard its A330 aircraft and this enhancement to IFE only adds to it–250 movies approaches the best of the best in the industry. The handle-held IFE is a nice option on B757 and B767 aircraft and I use my Bose QC15 headset every day–it remains my favorite noise-cancelling device.
“Envoy” Class is now Business Class
The names of the US Airways classes of service will be changed to align with American Airlines.
- Envoy is now Business Class
- Coach and Economy are now referred to as Main Cabin
I thought Envoy was a cool name–but it causes confusion and simple is better in this case: no one will confuse business class for coach or first. “Main Cabin” is just a polite way of saying economy–I would have kept economy class.
“Business Class” is so unimaginative, “Envoy” has a lot of memories for me. I was hoping they were going to keep it as the name for J and go with something like “Flagship” for F (which would be a nice nod to pmAA)…