US Airways Long Haul Catering

[WCT]

She probably went over there because she was soooo despised by the crews on the West. Sounds like she is making the same headway in Philadelphia.

Here's a little background information for you about Ms. Dean. She was promoted to Director of Catering from, believe it or not, AIRCRAFT APPEARANCE!! This probably explains a lot since all we serve now is GARBAGE!

Before Maureen Dean, we had a fantastic Director of Catering named Sue Bettenhausen. We had a First Class product that was actually very good during her time here. America West "Signature Service" which included menus, 3 or 4 restaurant quality entree choices in First Class (served in courses with hot appetizers, salad, main course, dessert) on all long haul domestic flights, premium wines, champagne, hot towels, linens, etc. If you were working "A" it was a lot of work, but since we were serving a product we could actually be proud of it was worth it. The desserts were fantastic...and the presentation was very nice. Our customers were happy and the employees took pride in the service we offered. It was a winning combination.

If you flew medium haul routes and even what we would consider short haul (like Phoenix to Salt Lake City) you still were served a lighter fare in First Class like a sandwich with potato salad or a vegetable, fruit and cheese crudite' with hummus and pita bread. Even on morning flights less than an hour in duration from PHX to the L.A. basin we served a nice selection of fresh pastries. Hot towels, linens and glassware were available in First Class on ALL of our flights back then. Those were great times for us at America West because we were offering our passengers a First Class product that was comparable to our competitors...sometimes better! God, I sure miss those days...they were the best!

We even served decent complimentary meals in Coach, with choice of either a hot (lasagna, etc.) or cold (huge salads) until 9/11/01 happened.

Sue introduced the "Buy on Board" product to AWA to get meals back on our planes for our Coach passengers. The "Buy on Board" products were even better in quality and quantity during Sue's time here. So many of us (passengers and crew) sure do miss her now! Believe me, we out West understand where everyone on the East is coming when they talk about how our onboard product has taken a nosedive to ghetto levels. We understand your disappointment to see our service levels deteriorate to all time lows.

When Maureen came onboard it was all downhill from there for our onboard product and it has never recovered. :down:

Thanks for the great Post! Couldn't agree with you more! We actually looked like a real airline back then. That Maureen got promoted because she knows how squeeze a penny thru a pin hole. She is worthless! :down:

 

[EMBFA]

I love providing a nice service, I think most of my co-workers do too. It's embarrassing what we (don't) serve now. I try to add a little bit of class to it, but you just look silly.

I didn't imagine I'd be handing out plastic cups of wine and potato chips from behind a flimsy partition to customers who bought a first class ticket.

 

[WCT]

I love providing a nice service, I think most of my co-workers do too. It's embarrassing what we (don't) serve now. I try to add a little bit of class to it, but you just look silly.

I didn't imagine I'd be handing out plastic cups of wine and potato chips from behind a flimsy partition to customers who bought a first class ticket.

I agree totally embfa. At least bring back glassware on ALL flights! Totally embarrASSing.

 

[UWCactus]

The company has been negotiating with a company in Frankfurt to provide upgraded food on the international flights. This company is the largest provider of cabin service food and has an excellent reputation. This process will take several more months to complete. The kitchen in PHX is also testing new product and has invited FA's from both East and West to participate in that process as well and they have been pleased so far.

 

[N903AW]

The company has been negotiating with a company in Frankfurt to provide upgraded food on the international flights. This company is the largest provider of cabin service food and has an excellent reputation. This process will take several more months to complete. The kitchen in PHX is also testing new product and has invited FA's from both East and West to participate in that process as well and they have been pleased so far.

LSG Skychefs?

Now about the "negotiating" part...I wish our management would stop nickel and dimeing down to the lowest common denominator! I understand that "cost" must be kept in line, however sometimes to make money you have to spend some! This airline needs to invest some money like YESTERDAY and make some improvements if they ever plan to keep customers around. Improved onboard products are necessary from inflight meals and entertainment to a complete overhaul in cabin furnishings - in both domestic and international operations.

Right now, there is nothing, absolutely nothing that would sway me to buy a ticket on US Airways over that of a competitor. At one time, I might have said the front line employees are the only thing that would keep me coming back. Since employee morale has hit ROCK BOTTOM even that is a crapshoot at best!

An investment in employees cannot be ignored if management wants this airline to succeed. Decent and fair contracts with a livable wage to start! Hire people who have airline expertise (or give them adequate training) to manage the day to day and long term operations, and pay them a wage that encourages them to stay!!

Gordon Bethune, as brass as he may be (I LIKE the guy, wish he was here!), has said time and time again that running an airline is not all about the lowest cost. He makes a comparison of reducing the cost of a pizza. After you cut and cut and scrimp and downsize you can make a pizza so cheap that no one will buy it, much less eat it. Well, you can also make an airline so cheap that nobody will fly it! We are that airline right now, I'm afraid. I have this gut feeling that once Labor Day rolls around and the Summer crunch is over that our loads are going to plummet. If we were the Pizza...we would be nothing but the cardboard right now...and that is something that I would not want to spend my hard earned money on!

Maybe that should be our new ATC callsign...CARDBOARD.

 

[WCT]

LSG Skychefs?

Now about the "negotiating" part...I wish our management would stop nickel and dimeing down to the lowest common denominator! I understand that "cost" must be kept in line, however sometimes to make money you have to spend some! This airline needs to invest some money like YESTERDAY and make some improvements if they ever plan to keep customers around. Improved onboard products are necessary from inflight meals and entertainment to a complete overhaul in cabin furnishings - in both domestic and international operations.

Right now, there is nothing, absolutely nothing that would sway me to buy a ticket on US Airways over that of a competitor. At one time, I might have said the front line employees are the only thing that would keep me coming back. Since employee morale has hit ROCK BOTTOM even that is a crapshoot at best!

An investment in employees cannot be ignored if management wants this airline to succeed. Decent and fair contracts with a livable wage to start! Hire people who have airline expertise (or give them adequate training) to manage the day to day and long term operations, and pay them a wage that encourages them to stay!!

Gordon Bethune, as brass as he may be (I LIKE the guy, wish he was here!), has said time and time again that running an airline is not all about the lowest cost. He makes a comparison of reducing the cost of a pizza. After you cut and cut and scrimp and downsize you can make a pizza so cheap that no one will buy it, much less eat it. Well, you can also make an airline so cheap that nobody will fly it! We are that airline right now, I'm afraid. I have this gut feeling that once Labor Day rolls around and the Summer crunch is over that our loads are going to plummet. If we were the Pizza...we would be nothing but the cardboard right now...and that is something that I would not want to spend my hard earned money on!

Maybe that should be our new ATC callsign...CARDBOARD.

903, right on! Maybe you should send this to mgmt. I wish I could just smack them, and say, WAKE UP!!! Start caring about us for once, like you would YOUR OWN KIDS!! Pay off will be huge, believe me!!

 

[Harry Callahan]

I agree, send it to mgmt.

 

[US1YFARE]

The company has been negotiating with a company in Frankfurt to provide upgraded food on the international flights. This company is the largest provider of cabin service food and has an excellent reputation. This process will take several more months to complete. The kitchen in PHX is also testing new product and has invited FA's from both East and West to participate in that process as well and they have been pleased so far.

Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah. Can you even hear yourself without laughing? you have been promising catering upgrades for how long now and what have we seen--NOTHING. You have been promising glassware for how long and what have we seen--NOTHING. You guys suck. You are pathetic liars and are too immersed in your own egos to even realize that your airline is as bad as it is--and when I say airline, I refer to both the product you offer and the morale of your employees. DL if for no other reason will kick your a$$ because of the morale of the people--more so than the fact that their planes are cleaner, they offer a real domestic product, they have inflight entertainment and not that Cranium nonsense--cripe, their snack basket has full size, name brand snack offerings--not the generic garbage that America's Worst airline is now known for.

 

[Travelpro72]

We have no product. The upgraded wine in f/c is now Crooked Limb Cabernet. Has anyone had it? I ordered it twice now in two different restaurants and had to send it back. You have to be kidding. Anybody that drinks red wine will tell you that if it gives you goosebumps and shivers when you sip it it's bad. We have no glassware and don't see it comming any time soon. glassware should be on EVERY leg you have f/c regardless. That is tacky period. The snackbasket which was once a signature piece of the usairways flying experience is tired and degraded now. Nobody wants the crap in that basket. The planes are filled with enough granola bars to build a bomp shelter. Want better gas mileage get rid of those damn things. How about snacks that people actually want to eat and better yet something more breakfast oriented. Who the hell wants cashew/sesame sticks or cape cods at 7am? There is NOTHING f/c about our so called f/c cabin except for your ability to board well, "first". EVERY other airline out there just about is upgrading their products in some manner. Why is it that when WE promise to upgrade something which NEVER happens does it have to take MONTHS. It's such bs and spin. Any update from Tempe as to when the glassware is comming? I mean really? Also let me ask this...why can't we get liquor in LAS when you come from the east coast? Our cart was sooooo depleated that the return crew would have hardly ANYTHING to offer but vodka, gin and a few scotch. We had 8 buds and 6 bud lights. ONE AIRLINE HUH? Ummmhmmmm. The fact that HP may not get catered when they get to the east doesn't make it right. FIX IT so we can get it in either east or west. My God folks this is simple airline sh!t that just should be done automatically.

 

[EMBFA]

I'll say it again, this airline cannot manage industry bare-bones service on domestic short haul flights. They have no business placing us in the international arena to be humiliated more.

 

[Travelpro72]

Basically what I'm gathering here is that our management team seems to be under the impression that since our flights are full they will continue with business as usual and screw the customer and make the job hell for the flight attendants. How long do they honestly think that will last? With offering this trial bs to be an elite they must be losing something. I think they are seriously grabbing at straws in Tempe. Just like Kirby's answer to the seat pitch on the A330 during the last crew news session. He said, "Your not gonna like the answer I'm about to give you". The seats are being filled. Does that make it right? Why can't we be industry leading instead of industry lagging? After taking a trip with your family would you buy a US ticket again? It won't last forever.

 

[StraaightTaalk]

What is this donut-thing everybody keeps talking about?

 

[LCC_#1]

What is this donut-thing everybody keeps talking about?

It is a turd looking donut given to the passengers on TA for the morning arrival service and on the am Shuttle flights.

 

[computer guy]

Whoever said that 3rd world airlines offer better catering then US is right on the money.

I flew into Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe last year in Y. I forget which carrier (Comair, I think) I was on but I was on their "new" 733. It was only an hour and 30 minute flight.

They had 22 seats in C with a pitch of 39 inches (4 rows of 5 across and 1 row of 2, part of the galley makes up the seats on the other side of the plane in this row) and 94 seats in Y with a pitch of 34 inches (15 rows of 6 and 1 row of 4 (exit row).

In Y I was served a very tasty hot entree each way and a drink. I am sorry to say that the hot wrap I had on the one flight and the pasta dish on the other were both better then anything I've had on US F in a very long time.

I believe there were 3 FAs on this flight and every seat on the plane was filled.

 

[hp-csr-phx]

It is a turd looking donut given to the passengers on TA for the morning arrival service and on the am Shuttle flights.

I really used to like the Dave's Buttermilk Bar. Is this what we are serving?