Crew Meals

BlueCrew

Member
Aug 21, 2002
35
0
PSM
www.usaviation.com
Hello LUVers...

Do you folks have crew meals provided, or are you on your own?

If you're on your own, how do most handle it? Do most people bring their own food? Do you have someone (pilots?) run off and grab food during turns?

We at JetBlue have found the crew meal program we've had to be ineffective and impossible to scale, so it is being discontinued effective August 1. In exchange, our per diem rate has been raised from $1.80 to $2.00 retroactive to June 1. It seems to benefit everyone rather than a poorly executed crew meal program for only a small percentage.

When I was at Alaska Airlines and they adopted the WN contract they lost crew meals, only to have them added back about 2 yrs. ago. IMHO the new crew meals were a disappointment, but there was always some struggle there on how to best handle it. Many people got very talented at bringing food. They of course have the benefit of ovens.

My personal experience: I'm lousy at packing decent food for a trip, so I end up eating out. Thankfully I mostly fly 1 leg transcons before I get off so I never feel like I'm going for more than a few hours at a time without decent nutrition. Those who do long duty days with multiple legs and quick turns have a different animal to deal with.

So when in doubt...I ask the pros. :D
 
No, we don't have crew meals at WN. Our per diem is currently $2.00 for FA's, $2.15 for Pilots. If our Tentative Agreement is ratified, it will bump our per diem up to $2.15.

A lot of FA's pack food bags to try to save money as well as to ensure we do have food available on those days when we never get a break. However, since we don't have ovens, you don't get a hot meal very often if you pack your own food.

Some plan ahead and get to-go food from the hotels, keep it on ice, and run for the microwave in the ground ops breakroom between flights. Sometimes this doesn't work though, as WN FA's don't have SIDA badges, and if you have to go down to the ramp to get to Ops, we're SOL.

On the other hand, I'm not sure if crew meals would work well with so many people being on so many different diets these days.

Bottom line, we make due.