Are any airlines charging for coffe yet?
 

I was checking flights today and I noticed that some airlines stated refreshments for purchase and others said food for purchase. I know some of the European discount airlines charge for water, but are any of the U.S. airlines charging for that cup of coffee, water or soda?

No.

At least not yet. But don't hold your breath!

Maybe the next step will be coin operated toilets!

Dont laugh...I read earlier in the year that Ryan Air was then set to remove the biffies in order to put a couple of rows of seats.They have already eliminated the window shades.

Havent seen any airline charging for coffee yet but to tell you the truth Iberia is becoming sooooo stingy that it wouldnt surprise me if they did very shortly. In fact, they have announced that for national trips they will not offer ANYTHING onboard. This is no discount carrier (it´s the national carrier) so you can imagine what direction airlines are going in... Anyhow, I found a site that gives you plenty of info about seat maps, entertaining on board, MEALS and bla bla bla... they dont have many airlines but seems ok... www.seatmaestro.com

Shall we compile a list of who charges for coffee:

Ryanair, Easyjet, Iberia.

I was flying from Barcelona to London and back to Miami so I decided to spend all of my Euros in Barcelona. Nearly died of thurst on the Iberia flight to London. I wanted coffee and needed water. Pay for everything. I finally found enough coins for a little bottle of water.

Aer Lingus is another that previously full-service airline that has modelled itself after Ryanair in order to compete.

Coffee/tea on intra-Europe flights are 1 Euro.

I visited this www.seatmaestro.com site and it seems to have a lot of mistakes in it. For starters, the seating for coach and business seemed to always be the same. And there was a message at the top of the screen about certain rows that always appeared. It wouldn't let me select Delta.

Off topic...

paquito,
The seatmaestro site is new to me so thanks for mentioning it. It does list a few airlines not found on seatguru or seatexpert but seems somewhat glitchy. No matter what aircraft I pull up, it gives me the same seating description (though the seatmap itself is correct). Are others having this problem too?

So apparently it's not just me ;)

Seatmaestro is a brand new site. They seem pretty ambilitous, but it'll take a long long time and lots of contributors (and visitors) to make it remotely close to being useful.

Alaskan Airlines "food" report: no peanuts, they distribute pretzel-type packages. No charge for non-alcohol drinks, and the choice was good! And all that on a short 1 1/4 hour flight San Francisco - Palm Springs.

Virgin Blue in Australia

It seems as though the "full service" airlines are struggling to compete with the discount carriers and will do anything to cut costs. This week I noticed that Air Canada has introduced a new meal for purchase service on all hospitality service flights under 4 1/2 hours within North America effective this November. It excludes Hawaiian and Mexican flights but I am not sure why.
Food items such as cereal bars and cookies will cost $1.00 Cdn/Us and goodies such as Nissin cup noodles,cashews or chocolate bars will be $2.00 Cdn/Us. Turkey or roast beef sandwiches will cost $5.00 Cdn or $4.00 Us. The real pathetic part of the program seems to be the reality that Air Canada will be the first airline that I have heard of that plans to charge for the use of a blanket and pillow. It has been rebranded as a "comfort zone" pack that will cost $2.00. I am sure this will be a marketing blunder that won't be well received. What next? Rental plastic cutlery?

I don't see what's wrong with charging for pillows and blankets. At least one gets a choice. Many airlines don't provide pillows/blankets, period, for domestic fligths.

i think simplification is key...for instance jet blue or southwest...delta tried to simplify everything by having people pay for meals if they chose, but in the end, it cost them too much to have the food, print the menus, etc...
a simplified fare structure, routes that make sense, convenient web site, and customer service...

I thought the flight attendants were on board for our safety. Using their time to sell us "stuff" takes away their time for safety measures. It took an AA flight Attendant 45 minutes to bring back my change--and she was very busy. What if she forgot an important "safety duty."

How much does it cost to put a slice of cheese or turkey on whole wheat bread? Instead they want to sell us cookies and chips. No wonder the American people are so fat they have to have a SUV in the handicapped parking zone. And when was the last time you heard our President address this issue.

More people in the United States will die from obesity than terrorism.

(Sorry, didn't mean to get political or offend anyone)

I also agree that "food for sale" is not a good idea. I wonder if the airlines are actually making much money off it. And it's much faster for FA to just give everybody the same sandwich than having to deal with orders and money.

Well, domestically, at least Continental is still doing it the old-fashioned way. Free food and no "food for sale".

I will pay for rental blanket if a cute male flight attendant tucks me in ;)

As for a pillow... will they put a Lindt on it? Or only somebody's chocolate drooling?

I'm surprised that many of you are surprised about change fees, food and drink charges, etc.etc.

Airline travel is way cheaper than it was 10, 20 30, etc. years ago.

When the customer demands cheap fares, the airline will adjust. Part of the adjustment is adding any and all possible fees when you don't stick to the original itn and start charging for food and drinks.

The airline does make money of the food and drinks. AA does not offer a menu in economy, they have either a red or blue box(not really sure about the colors). The FA announces at the beggining of the flight which box is available for purchase on that particular flight. The flight magazine lists the items in the box.

So, in theory at least, it does not take any more time to distribute the boxes to the passengers that want it. I believe they do it at the same time they do the drink cart. What's the difference if they have to collect $5 for a drink or $10 for the drink and food box? Besides, in the "good ole days" the FAs also took time off from their "safety" duties to serve food and drinks so what's the difference?

At the end of the day the airline does make money during the flight without taking away any extra time from other FA's duties.

The only one that has some more work is the purser. S/he has to do some accounting at the end of the flight, but they also get paid few extra $ if they choose that job on that flight.

Personally, I'd like to see the airlines sell everything at the gate. You know how dirty those $5 bills are? Have you ever been in a strip club? The FA touch the money, then the food. Disgusting.

Seatmaestro.com seems like work in progress... I think they made the mistake of uploading the info they have without having finished the work. You can tell that they have a template where they place the seat maps and that is why comments get repeated...kind of funny...
I personally find this could be pretty useful (once it is finished or completed) so I´ll keep an eye on them. Check AA...this seems complete and it looks like quality work.

Easyjet. And horrible coffee it was.

This whole charging for means thing is crazy. They charge you $5 or $10 for meal on a ticket that might be $1000 and create great anger in passengers when they could have built the price into the ticket. I really don't unbderstand this level of stupidity in their public relations.

Maybe if they did charge they would serve better coffee.