Catering problems

[Travelpro72]

Let me ask a question here. When a west crew worked PHX to PHL or LAS to PHL are you catered when you arrive in PHL?

 

[Travelpro72]

Ok, the reason I'm asking this is that when we do a west coast flight the vegas flight in particular you get no NEW liquor. We had NO snack mix AT ALL and we were left with 2 white wine, 10 red and 14 beers. How in the hell are we to make it back to the east coast with that. The f/c cart was seriously lacking the booze as well. We had to do a beverage service and no snack mix. LAS is a hub right? Do west operated flights get catered there? This is happening all the time. So that is why I was asking if west a/c get catered for their westbound return flights out of east cities where we cater.

 

[N903AW]

I can't speak for PHL, because I avoid the East Coast flying as a preference. West flights always get catered in Las Vegas. It sounds like Maureen Dean has already started in her position in Philadelphia. I hate to say this, you probably haven't seen anything yet! If she does out there what she did over here, your provisioning is going to hit all time lows. God help you all.

 

[Travelpro72]

All I know is that our liquor for coach and first are round tripped to the west coast. I don't think it's always a problem for other cities but to round trip liquor carts to Vegas Ummmm Helloooooo! ! ! ! It's party central for petes sake. On top of that you don't get certain kinds of liquor from day to day. Oh yeah, how about a trash bag? That would be nice. This isn't a gripe about a trip but many trips. A full 757 round trip needs to be catered full. Oh yeah, BOB meals in back on the way from vegas to PHL was a joke. We had 15 sandwiches, 20 fruit/cheese plates and 20some snack boxes. This was the "LIMITED" amount of food to offer on an oversold flight to philly leaving at 4pm vegas time? Why even offer it. 🙄 So when we ran out of BOB we had NO snack mix or pretzels to hand out.

 

[N903AW]

Could you elaborate? I've noticed not as many snacks lately or booze for that matter.

When Ms. Dean was in charge of catering for HP, and the later the "west" side of operations with US, she made so many service cutbacks to please ($$) the higher ups that our product onboard became bare bones at best.

She provides little if any oversight on the contracted catering (LSG, etc.) operations and we constantly get less than what we are supposed to for our flights. When you see us serving the items for a snack basket on a tray it is because catering did not provide a basket to begin with. The plane may fly for days, even weeks, before a basket is ever put onboard. We (FAs) complain, we write up catering irregularity reports and submit them and yet we never see any improvements. I think our reports go right into the trash, to be quite honest.

There was a period a couple of years ago when we ran out of plastic cups!! Now, as a Flight Attendant who prefers working "A" position, I would prefer to serve my drinks in First in real glassware - regardless of the stage length of the flight. We sank to an all time low when we ran out of plastic cups. Imagine, as I'm sure you can, being a Chairman's Preferred and having your Gin and Tonic being served to you in a cheap styrofoam coffee cup!! It was so bad that I went to Costco and bought my own plastic cups to use onboard during that fiasco that lasted almost two weeks!

All I can say is that if the product seems pathetic or you are not getting the minimum that you expect, please do not get angry with the Flight Attendants. We are only offering what we have been provided and trying to do the best that we can with what little we have or don't have.

I work Hawaii flights often, again as "A" position. I spend my own hard earned money to buy a few "extra" things to offer my First Class passengers a product that I think they deserve. I like to buy real limes, snacks (in addition to those from the snack basket) for a "Snack Station" that I set up in my forward galley after meal service, etc. I will usually spend anywhere from $75 to $100 of my own money to enhance the bare bones service that Ms.Dean created on our Hawaii flights. If I could afford more, I would even do more. The sad thing is that I have to explain to my First Class customers that they cannot expect this level of service on every flight because what they are being provided is essentially a gift from my crew to them.

You see, after a meal on a Hawaii flight, you have essentially nothing left to offer in First Class for the remaining 5 and a half hours of the flight except for refills and a smile. I prefer to provide more than that. I guess what I am trying to say is that isn't it sad that an employee has to cough up their own money to provide a level of service that our First Class passengers come on board to expect?

 

[flytchick]

Out "West" we are liquor provisioned in PHX and LAS only - the other stations restock soda, H20, and ice, cups, etc. Our "new" liquor count is 70 minis, 24 beer, and 38 wine. The mini and beer count remained the same, the wine went way up - which makes no sense as wine does not sell enough to warrant putting that much on. I can say as a pretty senior f/a that I have never had a problem running out of minis. There may have been an occasion or two where we ran out of a certain mini, but very rarely does that happen. If it is something it will probably be the Heinekken as they only put 6 of those on. Anyone posting about Maureen Dean is right on the money - we would complain non-stop, document non-stop and nothing changed. Now she is at East. Beware!!!

Ok, the reason I'm asking this is that when we do a west coast flight the vegas flight in particular you get no NEW liquor. We had NO snack mix AT ALL and we were left with 2 white wine, 10 red and 14 beers. How in the hell are we to make it back to the east coast with that. The f/c cart was seriously lacking the booze as well. We had to do a beverage service and no snack mix. LAS is a hub right? Do west operated flights get catered there? This is happening all the time. So that is why I was asking if west a/c get catered for their westbound return flights out of east cities where we cater.

You should have been liquor provisioned in LAS.

 

[JMM]

Catering is a disaster. As a west crew, it is either feast or famine. We either have enough snacks and drinks for two 747's or barely enough for one leg on a 319. Irreg reports are not listened to, we request items at the gate and never get them. It is a complete and utter disaster and has gotten progressively worse. We are wits end and basically just apologize and tell pax to write to corporate since management does not listen to us.

 

[Itestwell]

I work Hawaii flights often, again as "A" position. I spend my own hard earned money to buy a few "extra" things to offer my First Class passengers a product that I think they deserve. I like to buy real limes, snacks (in addition to those from the snack basket) for a "Snack Station" that I set up in my forward galley after meal service, etc. I will usually spend anywhere from $75 to $100 of my own money to enhance the bare bones service that Ms.Dean created on our Hawaii flights. If I could afford more, I would even do more. The sad thing is that I have to explain to my First Class customers that they cannot expect this level of service on every flight because what they are being provided is essentially a gift from my crew to them.

You see, after a meal on a Hawaii flight, you have essentially nothing left to offer in First Class for the remaining 5 and a half hours of the flight except for refills and a smile. I prefer to provide more than that. I guess what I am trying to say is that isn't it sad that an employee has to cough up their own money to provide a level of service that our First Class passengers come on board to expect?

Woah. For real? If that were case out East, you would probably be shelling out between $250- $500 per transcon! I knew West FA's were overpaid.... I just knew it.. 😱

 

[air747]

Catering is a disaster. As a west crew, it is either feast or famine. We either have enough snacks and drinks for two 747's or barely enough for one leg on a 319. Irreg reports are not listened to, we request items at the gate and never get them. It is a complete and utter disaster and has gotten progressively worse. We are wits end and basically just apologize and tell pax to write to corporate since management does not listen to us.

From a West FA...catering is at it's all time LOW...I've been here 20years and have never seen Catering as bad as this...Yes, we only get liquor on the West a/c when we go through PHX or LAS...east coast cites give us ice/take trash/repleninsh Soda only/and for sale meals only/and first class meals...in other words, no new liquor...I work "A" most of the time, and you know how embarrasing it is when someone asks for a red wine, and you tell them we don't have any(since the inbound crew used it all, which they should if paxs want it), and I just tell them I can get some from coach but it won't be a first class wine. I tell them the company is not providing us with the tools we need...I KNOW LONGER DEFEND THE COMPANY....I tell the FF in first class this is all we're provided with and hope they write to the company because they aren't listening to us....We WRITE AND WRITE AND WRITE irreg reports on the West side and nothing becomes of them....so I've stopped writing.....and this Maureen who now heads PHL catering is when it all went downhill.....a FA I know, when someone complains about food/catering, he just gives them her phone nos and email address to write to....maybe we should all do that and have her bombarded with customer complaints and maybe she'll get a clue of how bad catering is online!!

 

[Travelpro72]

I'm all about it. Whats her email.

 

[flytchick]

Maureen.Dean@USAirways.com

 

[flytchick]

Maybe you should quit ordering the Long Island's and just stick with one mini per drink - it makes them last longer.............just kidding!!!

 

[Travelpro72]

Well Piney you should be glad you weren't on my flight from vegas. We had some british folks that drank ALL of the gin we had in coach which wasn't much anyway. We had to take it from up front since she had nobody drinking it. We also used EVERY chardonnay. I am surprised we didn't land at the Betty Ford Clinic.

 

[crushed]

I believe that HP flights are still under contract to be catered by "Gate Gourmet" in PHL and not US catering.

 

[Travelpro72]

I do sooo hope I get on one of your flights. Keep up the good work and keep writing it up.

Also you are welcome to join FFOCUS and add your voice to ours. You're not the only F/A in FFOCUS and that's all I'll say.

Thanks for the invite.