US Airways Long Haul Catering

[LCC_#1]

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

Yup! They aren't bad. It's just CHEAP!

 

[StraaightTaalk]

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

Yukkkk...Sounds appetizing.

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.

But the bare-bones service offered by US carriers is exactly what the US public bargained for.

Cheap price. Cheap product.

Watch what you wish for.

Personally, I would like a return to all the frills, but, I, as an employee am not willing to subsidize it.

I do feel bad, however, for the last-minute purchase business traveler who is forced to endure the same stripped down service as everybody else.

 

[N965VJ]

<SNIP> We have no product. The upgraded wine in f/c is now Crooked Limb Cabernet. Has anyone had it?

Never heard of it, but it sounds like something a teenager would drink if they couldn’t score a six pack of Blatz.

 

[US1YFARE]

The wine is apparently named for the pax that have to sit in the last rows of the A330

 

[Travelpro72]

It all comes together perfectly. A glass of "crooked limb" watching "brokeback mountain" listening to "on bended knee". You have crooked, brokeback and bended knees on the a330.

 

[LCC_#1]

It all comes together perfectly. A glass of "crooked limb" watching "brokeback mountain" listening to "on bended knee". You have crooked, brokeback and bended knees on the a330.

Sounds like the making of the next Viagra commercial.

 

[WCT]

TravelPro I hear your pain. We don't get catered in the East Coast either, CLT or PHL. Very frustrating. We are very depleted also on liquour. That Maureen really screwed the coach carts and got rid of 70 mini's and added wine. It is a joke! It doesn't make sense that HP planes always get new liquour carts in LAS and PHX, yet you don't!!

 

[Travels2mch]

Sounds like the making of the next Viagra commercial.

Or a porn flick!

 

[EMBFA]

Someday US Airways will be used in marketing classes as an example of a company attempting to lower expectations futher than the rest of it's competitors, forcing a bizarre unrelatable product on unwilling employees and customers and failing miserably. The lesson will be titled either "Biting Off more than you can chew" or "Misunderstanding your market share".

 

[AstroLounge]

Someday US Airways will be used in marketing classes as an example of a company attempting to lower expectations futher than the rest of it's competitors, forcing a bizarre unrelatable product on unwilling employees and customers and failing miserably. The lesson will be titled either "Biting Off more than you can chew" or "Misunderstanding your market share".

Or how about "The NEW USAirways has a management style comparable to impalling yourself on a telephone pole"

 

[UWCactus]

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.

Negotiating with vendors is business!! If you haven't figured that out, then I feel bad for you.

 

[HP_JACK]

Can we negotiate Maureen dean's job away?

 

[AstroLounge]

Can we negotiate Maureen dean's job away?

NEGOTIATE? From what WE have been told SHE needs to be sent adrift.......like a wayward Pirate........WHO IN THE HELL WOULD WANT TO BARTER FOR USELESS MANPOWER? If anything Tar and Feather her and send to Lindsay Lohan as a Jailcell companion.

 

[Travelpro72]

We have meetings with Doug, Scott and even Travis on occasion. Why not arrange a meeting with Maureen and flight attendants? I bet you'll NEVER see that happen.

 

[hharotz]

We have meetings with Doug, Scott and even Travis on occasion. Why not arrange a meeting with Maureen and flight attendants? I bet you'll NEVER see that happen.

Actually Ms. Dean is Director of PHL International Operations and PHL Catering. She heads up the PHL Intl ramp, PHL Intl Customer Service and PHL Catering. She has nothing to do with the inflight product anymore (since I think January). From my understanding PHL catering is IAM work and all her group does is actually cater the a/c (put the meals, liquor, etc. onboard), they dont cook or design the meal service or provisioning. All of the planning and decisions about what you see (or are "supposed to see")takes place in PHX. Maureen's group just drives the supplies/meals from the contracted kitchen to the aircraft.

From what I have heard from people in PHL she is fairly approachable and rather understanding...*and* she seems to be one of the better directors permanently assigned to PHL.