Domestic Y catering in decline

[1022]

I flew on a lunchtime flight yesterday from BNK-SYD. The Ballina route is served by a combo of Q-Link and mainline. Yesterday’s 1pm QF1161 (737 mainline) offering in Y was a bottle of water and a cookie. No choice of drinks, no tea or coffee and just a cookie. I certainly wouldn’t expect a full lunch service on a 1 hour domestic flight, but this was a definite step down from the little warm boxes they used to offer (mini pies, pork bao, etc) and choice of (soft) hot and cold drinks.

A one off I wonder? Or have they already seized the opportunity to race VA to the bottom now that Virgin is heading back to BoB?

By contrast another recent (Q-Link) BNK-SYD flight I was on had a full complimentary beer and wine service with the usual Q-link snack box. The subsidiary is outdoing the parent....

 

[Pushka]

I flew on a lunchtime flight yesterday from BNK-SYD. The Ballina route is served by a combo of Q-Link and mainline. Yesterday’s 1pm QF1161 (737 mainline) offering in Y was a bottle of water and a cookie. No choice of drinks, no tea or coffee and just a cookie. I certainly wouldn’t expect a full lunch service on a 1 hour domestic flight, but this was a definite step down from the little warm boxes they used to offer (mini pies, pork bao, etc) and choice of (soft) hot and cold drinks.

A one off I wonder? Or have they already seized the opportunity to race VA to the bottom now that Virgin is heading back to BoB?

By contrast another recent (Q-Link) BNK-SYD flight I was on had a full complimentary beer and wine service with the usual Q-link snack box. The subsidiary is outdoing the parent....

I've had that service pre Covid on an ADL - Mel flight. No tea or coffee. Just a cookie or cake thing I think.

 

[kingzac]

Yeah plenty of flights I took pre covid were just a large cookie or little banana bread and a bottle of water. Got a cheese and cookies on a CBR flight a few weeks ago which felt even less substantial to the bread.

 

[RichardMEL]

dang you missed out. I saw the Lobster Thermidor was loaded on the Orange flight!

 

[AIRwin]

I saw the Lobster Thermidor was loaded on the Orange flight!

It may have been oranges you saw on the Orange flight?

 

[Guvner]

sure it wasn't duck a l'orange ?

 

[1022]

All I wanted was a cup of (orange pekoe) tea to go with my biscuit!

 

[sudoer]

sure it wasn't duck a l'orange ?

I present to you Neil's deconstructed duck a l'orange with salad of baby cos, raddichio and frisee

 

[RichardMEL]

sure it wasn't duck a l'orange ?

Ironically those were on flights out of Tamworth. Typical QF - Consistently Inconsistent(tm) !

 

[sudoer]

No choice of drinks, no tea or coffee

On a serious note - was there much turbulence? Not too uncommon for the hot drinks service to be canned if they're expecting a bumpy ride, but IME they do say something over the PA.

 

[Guvner]

On a serious note - was there much turbulence? Not too uncommon for the hot drinks service to be canned if they're expecting a bumpy ride, but IME they do say something over the PA.

You can still serve hot coffee if its canned.

 

[sudoer]

You can still serve hot coffee if its canned.

(TIL the forums now have inbuilt GIF searching!)

 

[1022]

On a serious note - was there much turbulence? Not too uncommon for the hot drinks service to be canned if they're expecting a bumpy ride, but IME they do say something over the PA.

Nope. It was a smooth flight once at cruise. And yeah, they normally clearly state when hot drinks can’t be served due to turbulence....

I’ve been a semi regular on the BNK-SYD route since they launched it last year and up until December there was always at least the usual choice of drinks no matter the time of day. It will be interesting to see where QF settle with inflight catering once VA*2 and ZL’s offerings are bedded down and when the network is back up to decent critical mass.

 

[dylarr]

It's not just the shorter 1 hr hops that the catering in Y has been cut. Flew SYD-DRW via ASP (and return) on mainline a couple of weeks ago. Outbound sectors were over lunchtime hours and the return sectors were over breakfast - both over 5 hrs travel time. Only the muffin yoghurt slice was offered on each sector along with assortment of juice, soft drinks, tea and coffee.

QF seem to have an endless supply of those muffin yoghurt slices.

 

[Katie]

Yes, a cold snack only and a drink "suitable to the time of day of your flight" is all that's on offer for domestic Y flights of up to 3.5 hours.
https://www.qantas.com/au/en/travel-info/travel-updates/coronavirus/impact-to-lounges.html?int_cam=au%3Aqantas-australian-domestic-network-changes%3Aarticle%3Ann%3Aen%3Ann#inflight

A hot snack is only on offer for longer flights.

I flew BNE-MEL-BNE, BNE-LRE*-BNE and BNE-CNS in Dec in Y and received the same cake/cookie snack on three of the five flights. Definitely worth planning around the catering offering!

(Edited to replace my typo of LHR with the correct code of LRE. )

 

[VPS]

Yes, a cold snack only and a drink "suitable to the time of day of your flight" is all that's on offer for domestic Y flights of up to 3.5 hours.
https://www.qantas.com/au/en/travel-info/travel-updates/coronavirus/impact-to-lounges.html?int_cam=au%3Aqantas-australian-domestic-network-changes%3Aarticle%3Ann%3Aen%3Ann#inflight

A hot snack is only on offer for longer flights.

I flew BNE-MEL-BNE, BNE-LHR-BNE and BNE-CNS in Dec in Y and received the same cake/cookie snack on three of the five flights. Definitely worth planning around the catering offering!

I would have thought BNE LHR BNE was a lot longer than 3.5 hours

 

[justinbrett]

QLK has always been better for beverages than mainline.

But there have been cuts due covid, there is a clear notice on the website (as opposed to spirits in J or WP arrival lounge access, which there isn't).

In this case QF has been upfront advising the changes, and we can only assume they are temporary.

 

[Daver6]

This quiche was the dinner service on Sunday for MrsDaver6 on ADL -> PER. Wine was offered. She said it was soggy and disgusting.

 

[Pushka]

This quiche was the dinner service on Sunday for MrsDaver6 on ADL -> PER. Wine was offered. She said it was soggy and disgusting.

View attachment 238472

When we used to fly, sigh, I never accepted any of the Y meals because I simply didn't want to even look at the offering let alone have it sit on my table until it was removed.

 

[Guvner]

I remember flying SYD-MEL once and when the Y meal was offered I politely declined. The FA said "I don't blame you".