Irish Times "Aer Lingus didn't wake up a passenger on a transatlantic flight for her dinner"

Opposite happened to me flying business with Etihad. At a point in the long haul journey to Hong Kong they increased the heating in the cabin to almost suffocation heat level. Everyone fell asleep except me as I generally don't sleep on planes. Then no sign of the staff in the cabin for hours.

When we flew with them we had as much food as we wanted in the lounge at Dublin Airport.....but as soon as we got on the plane they were feeding us again, even though we weren't hungry. I think that the airline staff plan it in such a way that they get the food served as quickly as possible then do their own thing.

It really shouldn't be a problem to hold a meal back for a person if they fall asleep. The passenger has paid for it. It can be explained to them that the meal might not be in tip top condition as it has been sitting there for awhile.
 
WaterWater said:
Then no sign of the staff in the cabin for hours.
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Why didn't you hit the call bell if you needed them?

They don't randomly walk up and down. They are very busy some of the time, and take a break or a nap some of the time. But if you hit the bell, they would usually be there promptly.
 
I flew Emirates to Japan recently, four flights with two stop-offs in Dubai and at the beginning of all flights they announced that they would not wake up any sleeping passenger during meal times do Aer Lingus not do the same??
On the final leg home I somehow was asleep during breakfast and when I woke my first thought on discovering this was Damn,
Quickly followed by sure I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it anyhow and if need be I can get an Egg McMuffin at the airport
It's not like a flight goes on for days, its a few hours how hungry can you get???
 
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Brendan Burgess said:
Why didn't you hit the call bell if you needed them?

They don't randomly walk up and down. They are very busy some of the time, and take a break or a nap some of the time. But if you hit the bell, they would usually be there promptly.
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I didn't need them.

Flying business class and paying €5k for two people, I would imagine that one of the staff might at some stage walk through the plane over the period of a few hours. I am not asking for all of them to be available.......maybe just one of them.
 
Leo said:
And then the passenger can sue if they later get sick due to the food cooling to the range where bacteria growth accelerates.
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I am not sure that all the food is cooked at the same time. I am sure it would not be that difficult to count the number of passengers that are asleep and hold back some uncooked meals to be cooked at a later time.
 
gledswood said:
I am not sure that all the food is cooked at the same time. I am sure it would not be that difficult to count the number of passengers that are asleep and hold back some uncooked meals to be cooked at a later time.
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Well it's not cooked on the plane but you could count the sleeping and reheat those later, then you have to do another clean up for them. Of course people will wake at different times so multiple rounds of food service.

And if people know they can have dinner when they please then there is no need to wake a partner etc which I am sure happens a lot. Or maybe I'll pretend to be asleep and ask for it in a hour when I "wake"...
 
Or better still. Stick a posted note on your forehead reading 'please waken me for dinner ' if you really want it that badly...
 
I worked in the industry .... had a client say to me once ... "we never eat anywhere thats not as good as our home"
They came back with a list of complaints.
 
Salvadore said:
Airline food is only marginally preferable to hunger at the best of times.
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Airline food is actually fine. The problem is that the cabin isn't fully pressurised and that diminishes our sense of taste. It's also the reason that tea taste bad on an airplane; the boiling point of water is 100 degrees at sea level but in an airplane it's around 85 degrees.
 
Purple said:
It's also the reason that tea taste bad on an airplane; the boiling point of water is 100 degrees at sea level but in an airplane it's around 85 degrees.
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That's the best explanation I have heard of this. Explains why the coffee tastes almost normal* as well.

* I only know 2 coffees. Black and White.
 
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