[esselle]

No food or drink on AF flights up to 2.5 hours.

[EU_Flyer]

Next few steps could be to do away with free food and drink altogether (except water) in all cabins and make each person pay for what they consume?

Ka-ching, ka-ching

[Alsacienne]

Already a reality … BOB (buy on board) … Easyjet, Ryanair, Tuifly, Icelandair, British Airways short-haul and plenty of US carriers.

Of more concern, how might you stop passengers bringing their own food and drink on board … they still have to remove their masks to partake! And this might be almost ‘obligatory’ for diabetic passengers on flights over a certain length or depending on their sugar levels that day. Oh, and don’t forget those on red-eye and early morning flights going straight from their home beds to a business meeting with no brekkie.

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EU_Flyer

[AMcWhirter]

EU-Flyer – in fact BA was ahead of the game (in Europe) when all catering, drinks (including water) were unavailable with its domestic Shuttles from 1975.

Inflight ‘service’ was collecting the ticket coupons (Shuttle was no frills, guaranteed seat availability and passengers paid on board).

Alsacienne – Noel’s video shows KLM passengers lowering their masks to eat the inflight snack on a short-haul flight AMS-ARN.

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EU_Flyer

[LuganoPirate]

Short haul I eat nothing and only drink water, so not really concerned. However I can understand that some may feel the need to be fed and watered so can’t really see the problem if the crew is gloved and masked up. Restaurants are open so why not in the air?

Long haul it’s just hot tea water and maybe some cheese and caviar when offered. Otherwise I eat before leaving and on arrival.

As to the question, is it cost cutting? Yes it probably is. If you’re paying for a premium product you should get it, including the lounge rather than the airline hiding behind the C-19 excuse. Let the pax decide if he wants to use the lounge or eat the food or not! probably more chance of catching something wandering in the airport or seated at the airport restaurant than in a lounge, so long as the seats are at a distance from each other.

[Ah,Mr.Bond]

If food, trays, glasses and equipment etc are sterilised before flight then what difference does it matter if the crew hand this to you or not and use gloves to pick the tray back up again? In club Europe you’re only talking of 12 or so pax.

[IanFromHKG]

[postquote quote=1000919][/postquote]

First hypothesis: In the current environment, crew will be wearing gloves. This makes bugger-all difference to anyone else (it protects the crew member since they aren’t touching contaminated surfaces, but the surface of a glove is just as able to transmit the virus, I suspect, as an ungloved finger).
Second hypothesis: Hot food will be manually taken from storage, put into ovens, taken out, and put into a box rather than on a tray. All by crew. Who may or may not be wearing gloves. See first hypothesis. Bugger-all difference there, then.
Third hypothesis: Boxes, plates or trays will be handled by crew (whether glove-wearing or not – see first hypothesis) and touched by passengers. Again, bugger-all difference.
Fourth hypothesis: In the current environment, crew will be wearing masks. These may or may not be effective, but their effectiveness will not be affected by the manner in which they serve food or drinks. Once more, bugger-all difference.
Fifth hypothesis: Passengers may be required to wear masks, but will take them off to eat, however the food is served. Again, bugger-all difference.

Conclusion: The risk of transmission is affected (so far as I can work out, please let me know if I have missed anything!) only to the extent that the box – as opposed to any other food covering that existed pre-CoVID19 – prevents transmission of the virus.

I am unconvinced.

Before people think I am not safety-conscious, I have spent the last few months when outside my home wearing a very sophisticated N99 mask and (until very recently when it became clear that the local risk of transmission in HK was minimal) wearing latex gloves whenever handling goods, use hand sanitiser frequently, go around my office with a tissue in hand so I don’t have to touch “common” surfaces, and much more besides. I am immunocompromised and take very very few chances. But what BA and other airlines are doing all seems to me to be just pointless tokenism.

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[IanFromHKG]

[postquote quote=1000880][/postquote]

Did I not read recently that BA have abandoned Buy On Board and started providing free food and drinks?

[SimonS1]

[postquote quote=1001126][/postquote]

Suspended during Covid 19, not abandoned.

British Airways suspending buy on board menu for short-haul flights

[J_Pathmore]

Out of control. Especially since ~1 month ago we learned officially via the CDC and WHO that risk of transmission on contaminated services is very low, not what was previously thought… I’d be more worried if the crew member coughed than handed me a traditional meal.

[MartynSinclair]

[quote quote=1001161]I’d be more worried if the crew member coughed than handed me a traditional meal.[/quote]

Pre CV19, I would not expect a crew member to cough or sneeze when handing me a meal or handling food.

[capetonianm]

Coughs and sneezes can come suddenly and obviously are involuntary. This was mentioned on another thread. They are not necessarily a sign of illness, but I agree and would certainly not want to eat food that someone had coughed or sneezed over and were this to occur I would expect them to take it away and bring me another meal.

[cwoodward]

For years it has been normal for cabin crew to done a mask if they they had a cough or cold symptoms. This very sensible measure may have been started by JAL crew as a remember 25 years or so ago a flight where a couple of the crew had masks.

[thebigseats]

There is no question that some airlines are carefully positioning food/drink services to save money, whilst claiming its safer than previous offerings. Its as simple as that. BA are the worst offenders currently. Not all pax have the option of suitable food/drink options availability before & after flights. I call BS on the airlines that are adopting these practices.

[cwoodward]

My above post should have read:
“For years here in Asia it has been normal for cabin crew to done a mask if they they had a cough or cold symptoms.”

[Author]

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