After flying international carriers and US airlines the difference is three-fold: Catering, Service, Network. By fixing just catering any US airline could be unstoppable.
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US Business Class Catering Is Terrible
There’s still time in 2018 for a submission for “The Most Obvious Statement of 2018” and it would be “US Carriers Business Class catering is terrible.” What do I win? Flying other international carriers make the disparity dramatic. It’s everything from selection to quality to execution – across the board, catering is just a terrible afterthought. While it wasn’t the only reason I left American last year, catering was the issue that pushed me to try another carrier. In this one anecdotal case, American Airlines cheap and uncompetitive food offering cost them $15,000 in revenue I spent with United this year instead.
Their Pricing Is Uncompetitive Given Deficiencies
I will never understand why airlines that have a knowledge of how their product is inferior to competitors will price at or above the competition. I know a little about airfare pricing, though not as much as someone like Brett from Cranky Flyer. There are other factors that contribute to pricing like load factor, direct routing, equipment, etc.
But just look at the options you have on this route:
For the avoidance of doubt, I checked the space available on those flights and each carrier has plenty of seats. United and American both have the most seats they list available.
At least all of these carriers fly equipment with lie-flat beds in the front of the plane, but United’s Business product on this route is still 2-2-2 without direct aisle access. Given the choices, who in their right mind is paying more to fly any airline besides Emirates? It’s no contest.
International Carriers Have Great Catering From US Airports
If one were to argue that this is down to better catering facilities at other airports outside the US, let me stop you right there. Emirates, Etihad, Turkish, and Singapore all fly to and from US airports. Singapore offers Lobster Thermidor from US gateways, Lufthansa has caviar on board in First class. Qatar loaded an incredible Business class menu out of LAX when I flew them last year. It’s not an issue of ability, it’s an issue of gumption and cost.
Take the Wagyu beef cheeseburger from Cathay Pacific, for example. They offer it, not as the main course, but as a snack. And it’s really, really good. I tried it on the way to Hong Kong two years ago around Christmas from O’Hare. American has access to the same catering facilities out of Chicago, why don’t they have this on the menu? They don’t believe they will get a premium for it. However, not every flight is competitive, dollar for dollar. Adding $17 in cost to 30-50 seats that are less sensitive to price seems like an easy decision.
Spend $50, Become Insta-famous
Harping on bad catering offerings from US Carriers in premium cabins is certainly not a new concept. However, what I am proposing is that US carriers could spend just $50 more per Business class passenger and drastically improve their offering. The average cost for Business class meals is already about $33 on average including cutlery, china, and delivery. Imagine if airlines added another $17 per person and had meals that beat the world’s best. Airlines could limit their cost increases by requiring passengers to “book the cook” as Singapore does for truly premium meals and avoid waste.
There’s an opportunity to go from bad, to great. I left American Airlines after more than 15 years of loyalty because of the appalling approach to meal service when compared with oneworld partner Qatar, who blew American out of the water for half the price. Imagine if your next flight on United included a surf & turf option (assuming good execution), or Delta offered a Chateaubriand. If American Airlines offered xiaolongbao on flights to China, they would forever have my daughter’s heart.
US-based airlines have a huge opportunity to impress their customers. By spending just a little more than they already do to deliver something over-the-top for their Business class customers, they could create something worth bragging about online.
United has already generated some of this buzz for themselves by revamping their international Business class Polaris lounges and introducing the invite-only Classified restaurant at Newark. Spend a little money and make it something to look forward to; Business class passengers have a reason to book United over Delta and American – but it’s an awful lot more expensive than just improving the catering on each outbound flight (which leaves an opportunity for Delta and American).
Execution is Just As Important As Food Quality
US Carriers will have to do more than just have better food onboard, they will have to execute the preparation and presentation of that food on the aircraft. I used to routinely order the filet on American Airlines in long-haul business class. Sometimes it was executed at a high level, other times it would come out in the tin used in the oven swimming in its watery juices.
Flight Attendants cannot mail in their performance if the investment is made. I have found that in United Polaris service, flight attendants enjoy offering something better. They encourage wine flights and walk the cabin with a peppermill. But they need to add a flight attendant instead of removing them to deliver because no matter how good the food is if it’s poorly prepared or presented it might as well have been flushed down the toilet.
What do you think? Would you be more likely to book one carrier over another if their food was exceptional? Do you think $17 more on a $3,000 ticket will cost airlines considerable margin? Are there other cheap and easy ways to improve?
Will never happen. Never say never except for this. Cost cutting only.
I would fly UA anytime over Emirates because UA’s hard product in business class is actually more comfortable, not worse, in my opinion (I don’t care about aisle access). Air Italy is a low-cost carrier, so if something happens and the flight is canceled, you’re screwed with no rebooking options.
LH does not serve caviar in business class; Singapore does not serve Lobster Thermidore in business class — these are first class offerings.
Regarding the lobster thermidor, that amongst many other offerings are part of the business class “book the cook” service.
If you look at Singapore’s Book the Cook menu available in First, Business and Premium Economy you will find that Lobster is available in First and Business on almost every route that offers the service.
I’ve had it twice recently.
That said, Singapore is now definitely on the way down after years of being industry leading and IMO they are well below Qatar and a few more.
I bet you don’t have much traveling experience in front of the cabin.
United employee spotted. Speaking as though he knows his competitors very well which in fact isn’t. Same mentality as Scottie.
Yes you are right. Easy to fix. Why don’t they do it? Easy asnwer. They can get away with not fixing it thanks to the american public. The average american is will book a US airline as first choice. Probably because the brainwash that america is the greatest country on earth still works despite it is very obvious america has fallen far far behind, not only in airlines. Which probably explains why trump is doing his trade barrier tricks. The issue is simple: america is not competitive anymore on the world stage but the average american does not know that.
Ron, it’s mostly all about cost. The average American books the flight that makes financial sense. Many times it’s on a U.S. legacy carrier since miles are easy to accrue on domestic travel and domestic purchases. When it comes time to use said miles, numbers matter. It’s pretty much the same all over the world. I’m sure you know this Ron, but I’m also sure you’re not here to discuss the potential benefits of better catering on U.S. legacy international long haul. You’re really here to kill an unrelated discussion with political diatribe. Please, take your frustration out in the voting booth, chat about it in a political forum where you’re comfortable, and when it’s not election time, maybe try watching sports.
Agree on all fronts, but you leave out that US carriers benefit heavily from contracts, as well. The US government essentially indirectly subsidizes US carriers through commercial travel contracts. Add in other private sector companies that also have contracts with AA/DL/UA and that’s a lot of built-in business. I don’t have numbers and this is all conjecture (aside from the gov’t aspect) but why should the US3 change when they have a constant, immutable customer base that simply cannot vote with their wallet?
Getting a bit overheated I see? Just to clarify, No political intentions here. I am blessed to be not american, and have no particular pro/con views on republicans or democrats other than that u guys have a silly polarized political system.
So u can read my observations as such and if you open your eyes, see that they are just a statement of fact.
Interesting to look at that pricing, it’s a similar story on this side of the Atlantic too so much so that I always conclude that United do not want my business as their pricing is so out of line with everyone else’s for what is generally a much lower quality product.
I can only imagine they sell mostly to large corporates and really don’t care whether they sell the rest of the seats or not as I really can’t see any smaller company or a leisure traveller paying their prices.
Almost all western carriers could do with upping the game in terms of food service, Lufthansa, Air France and strangely Alitalia are exceptions at least in the premium cabins but then food is in their DNA and even if it’s a small offering on intra-European services it’s generally a very tasty and well exectured small offering.
Lol are you really comparing domestic American Airlines against world leaders?
Great Sunday read.
Yugo will always be Yugo.
Unless I have to, I won’t fly an American based airline. It’s not just the food, it’s the service. Service you can’t fix with a $ bump. It’s just poor union attitude which translates into everything else.
Comparing international routes by US carriers to international routes by foreign carriers.
We NEVER book an American carrier when flying international, so not an issue.
Getting Kirby to bite on this simply will not happen. Polaris wouldn’t even exist if he’d been hired a few years earlier.
Agree; not going to happen on Kirby’s watch. Yes, UA business class fares are often overpriced but so are Lufthansa’s.
For my TATL flights I often find UA to be the cheapest, though I often have to take a connection one way to get that. Their food is terrible – if anything, worse now than before Polaris – but they have lots of good routes, and one other key advantage: if you need to change, you basically can use your ticket value less the change fee for one year. The non-US carriers are much more restrictive.
I disagree, and you pretty much provided the reason why in your second post today. Yes, they can (and should) up their catering game, but until the domestic carriers reform the “we’re here primarily for your safety” service culture, it’s really just putting lipstick on a pig. While better catering would be nice, it’s not as important a differentiator as service generally.
Where culture has to change in order to deliver value to the customer, I would rather lean toward a choice that can be purchased (because then you can calculate a way to success).
In an oligipilistic world,you don’t need to do much to ensure customers walk through the door. It’s funny how protected the US3 actually are
The exec suite don’t give a damn about anything but their own bonuses.
Perhaps what I should have more clearly elucidated was that adding this small distinction to their product and promoting it would lead me to be more likely to book them over others when the prices are the same as the competition. That would, in fact, enhance their bonuses not reduce them, by selling more seats because there would be a reason to buy them.
You have a valid viewpoint. My concern is that they have no need to spend more because the seats will in effect sell themselves. They might introduce all this if the economy tanks and airlines need to incentivise people to travel.
I think your spot on that they are being penny wise and pound foolish. Of course as MeanMeosh notes you also have to fix the service culture. It can be done and I suspect that fixing their service culture would in the end save airlines money.
This of course has been the frustration for years. American carriers could offer an amazing product if they wanted to (Look at JetBlue and Mint) but for whatever reason they have largely decided it doesn’t matter.
Meanmeosh is a favorite of mine and usually right, even to my detriment. He fails us not in this case as well.
Kyle–I wholeheartedly agree with your premise: for a few extra bucks, US Airlines could target one area in which to distinguish themselves and become the talk of the industry. People might even look forward to an airline meal. Unfortunately, due to scale in this industry and others, I am afraid that some airline employee becomes a “hero” by pointing out that if we can save $10 per premium passenger X 5,000 premium seats a day X 365 days then “I” have saved the company $18,000,000 this year! What I mean is that any savings that can be quantified and then multiplied by hundreds of thousands sounds like a big number and implementing that is just too tempting. Frankly, it is depressing to think that when one is paying $7,000 or $8,000 RT for TATL you get a limited choice of drinks and no wine that retails for more than $25 (meaning the carrier probably paid $10 for it). Really??? I remember reading in the 80’s that SwissAir cooked eggs to order for breakfast in F cabins on flights as short as 1 hour. I personally remember eggs cooked to order in F on overnight flights to South America on AA. Last, I felt that the crew made one feel at least a little special in premium cabins, even on domestic flights. I therefore also agree with MeanMeosh about the “safety culture.” IMHO, many (but not all) US Airline FAs used 9/11 as an excuse to disgard any pretense of service and concentrate on safety and security (or rather, “sit down and shut up or we will have the air marshals on you”). Oh well!
These arguments are one non sequitur after another. Yes Emirates business class has better catering…but it also has most routes with 2-2-2 business class seating. Also, Emirates and Lufthansa don’t help when flying from the West Coast to Asia. Just like Cathay and Ariana don’t help when flying from the East Coast to Europe or the Middle East. But United and American and Delta do both.
There is a consistency when flying all routes with a US carrier. You can build elite status with domestic flights and some international flights, and hope to use upgrades on longer flights. You can’t do that when you fly Emirates to Dubai, Cathay to Hong Kong, Qantas to Sydney—even if they’re marginally better.
Service is better in some foreign markers because those markets tend to appreciate and often spend more for better service. Most Americans wouldn’t recognize better service let alone pay much more for it. So US carriers don’t akways worry about it,
I’ve had it with the assumption that all US carriers have terrible food. I’ve had amazing food on my last few United flights. I had pretty good food on my last few American flights. I’ve even had incredible service on one of my American flights and most of my United fights. I had terrible service and food on my one KLM business class flight and subpar food and service on my last Lufthansa business class flight.
Averages are helpful when thinking about these things, but they are misleading when you don’t fly average flights.