good Air Canada and horrible USAir to/from Nassau
 

Just back from our Easter trip from Europe to The Bahamas. On the way in we flew Lufthansa business class to Toronto and economy from Toronto to Nassau with AC. Aircraft type YYZ-NAS was an A320 with individual screens and movies on demand. It was a very good 2 and half hours flight. We bougth some snaks on board. On the way back we flew USAir economy Nassau to Philadelphia and again Lufthansa business class to Frankfurt. The NAS-PHL fligth was and old B733. The captain welcomed passengers on board with a "Hi folks !!" Flight attendands were 3 men in their 50s, only the one in first class was wearing a uniform with blue pants and white shirt, while the two in coach had one a blue fleece the other a coloured shirt. In their brochure I read that it was possible to buy a chicken and almond salad for $ 7 so I asked for it. The man told me: "Have a sleep ! This is a sleeping flight ! No food !!! " I read again and better the brochure and I realized that fresh meals are only available from 3,5 hours flights and that was only 2 hrs and 15 minutes. Useless to say: similar fight times but no comparison with Air Canada !!

Just be glad you didn't fly U.S. Air to Europe!

I am not sure what your issues are. The age of the plane? The informality of the pilot? The fact that there was no food sold even though you misread the brochure and would not reasonably have expected food to be sold. The fact that flight attendants were also dressed more casually than you prefer.

What you describe sounds like normal air travel in US for shorter flights - and I do not see anything that in my opinion qualifies as horrible. You are fortunate that air travel in Canada and Europe is so much better - but now you will know what to expect. When I read your heading I thought there would be serious service problems, delays, baggage mishandling.

Welcome to the US, where everything is informal, and the food is lacking :))

If seriously, nothing shocking for the US citizens in your post. This is how we fly. No, we don't like it, but do you have suggestions on what we, common travelers, can do?

Why was the OP in cattle class? It's for the peasantry. How one could go from LH J class to US Y is beyond my comprehension. :p

thank you all for your replies and comments

wally, to be honest, once in PHL there was a USAir flight leaving to FRA before LH but we had decided to keep the LH flight. I cannot compare the US Envoy class to LH business. Maybe one day.... just to compare.

gail, you are right ! The wording "horrible" may sound too hard. We were delayed from Eleuthera to Nassau on the first local small flight so we had not enough time in Nassau to buy something to eat. Yes, departing NAS at 11:40am I was expecting a similar service to the AC YYZ-NAS flight, I mean at least some chips or one sandwich for our 2 kids who were very hungry. The fact that I first misread the brochure means that if I had read better at the beginning I would have not asked for the salad, my mistake, but this does not change the fact that there were no snaks on board. As regards the informality of the FA I found quite unusual to be answered with a "Have a sleep !"

Dayenu, I have no suggestions on what you can do except to select the best US carrier for your flights, but LH AC US are all part of Star Alliance and a "similar" service should be somehow expected.

rkkwan, we just wanted a more comfort on the longer transatlantic flights

I am not aware of anyone, who if they have a choice between US Airways and some other airline, ever would pick US, all other things being equal. If anybody ever flies with US, it is a price-based decision alone.

Seriously, you cannot compare one airline with another, even if they're part of the same alliance. Especially from different continent.

For example, those who fly domestic FC in North America would be disappointed to know that business class for intra-Europe usually has the same seat as economy with the center seat blocked (or not). Just with better food.

Or like my parents' experience on a KL codeshare AMS-DUB operated by Aer Lingus. EI runs its intra-Europe flight basically as a low cost airline, charging for coffee, for example. That's not one might expect on a flight with KL flight number.

rkkwan

I flew domestic FC on DL SLC-SFO and only drinks were offered for 1 hrs 15 minutes flight ! Again not even a snak, which is less than a intra-Europe ECONOMY flight !
Intra-Europe flights are so short if compared to domestic US flights that food has a priority on the seat width, however on my post I was not going to compare US to LH or other european airlines but US to AC on an almost identical route: YYZ-NAS vs. NAS-PHL, both in coach.

Right, and as I gave the example of codeshare partners KL and EI, it shows that service can vary on the same continent too.

EI/KL I see your point... when low cost carriers in codeshare with major airlines offer different service. I had a similar experience on an IG flight AMS-FLR with KL codeshare where I was charged for the coffee. But at least there was a coffee to buy. On our US flight NAS-PHL I was going to pay but there was nothing to buy !! So I would see now another difference between free food and drinks vs charged food and drinks AND charged food and drinks vs no food available at all !

Well, more on inconsistency. Later this year, after Continental joins *A and the trans-Atlantic joint-venture with UA, AC and LH, you may be able to fly CO on some domestic US routes. They are the only airline that provides complimentary food service on <b>some</b> domestic flights - if the timings and lengths of flights qualify.

Flying with hungry kids is difficult - and to call an 11 AM flight a "sleeping flight" is strange - I did not understand that either was the case from your first post.

I hope this post serves as one more warning to never, ever get on a plane without food and not to count on being able to buy it at a connecting airport or on board. Too many delays, too many stories about sitting on ground on a plane for hours. I now have as a permanent item in my partially pre-packed carry-on some non-perishable items such as granola bars, nuts.

gail

I will follow your suggestion next time. The actual flying time was 2 hrs 15 minutes but the whole scheduled time was 3 hours, departing 11:40 arriving 14:36. To be honest I was a bit disappointed by the way the FA answered me, so the minor and almost irrelevant subjects like the " Hi folks" and the way they were dressed became more consistent when added to the lack of food. I should have used words like poor instead of horrible.

fabio grazie tante per la web sono cosi paurosa di volare ma grazie mille per il tuo aiuto comunque prendo la nave non sono ancora pronta ma cerco un cruisemate questo mese o july...