Aer Lingus no longer offering pre booked breakfast

kevinandrew

Ryanair have one crew member walk through the cabin to take hot food orders before the main service starts, appears to work very well for them and ensures there's no waste. It gets handed to you as the main service reaches your row and you pay for it then, doesn't take too much time and is probably the easiest way to do it.

Wizz Air doesn't do hot food and their service is still quite slow, they offer a lot of combo deals where a certain item will get you a free drink or bar of chocolate, the cabin crew actively promote this which takes up some time. Most Wizz Air flights are around 2 hours anyway so there's never much of a rush but it still shows how minor differences in each airline changes service times.

When I compare Aer Lingus to the likes of Wizz, Ryanair, Easy and Norwegian they're no better or no worse in service delivery times but do tend to offer the best menu options of the lot, even with the recent reductions.

billy few mates

Unless it's a flight which includes a meal I quite enjoy declining the onboard fare in favour of my own catering like a sandwich and a drink from one of the shops or restaurants in the terminal. It's quite often better value and a better choice.

gendrol75

I've greatly missed the pre-order option for breakfast since they removed it from the website.

On my last flight to Malaga (Dec 2017), they ran out of first-come-first-serve breakfasts by the time they reached me -- and I was in row 5! This was on a 7am, 2.5-hour flight. The flight attendant informed me that their rule is to stock only 5 breakfasts per flight. She agreed it seemed like a ridiculous rule, given that they had run out of stock even before reaching the fifth row.

My only option, apparently, is to file a "suggestion" with the home office. Not holding my breath that this will make any difference.

Locker10a

gendrol75 wrote: »

I've greatly missed the pre-order option for breakfast since they removed it from the website.

On my last flight to Malaga (Dec 2017), they ran out of first-come-first-serve breakfasts by the time they reached me -- and I was in row 5! This was on a 7am, 2.5-hour flight. The flight attendant informed me that their rule is to stock only 5 breakfasts per flight. She agreed it seemed like a ridiculous rule, given that they had run out of stock even before reaching the fifth row.

My only option, apparently, is to file a "suggestion" with the home office. Not holding my breath that this will make any difference.

Not allowing the “pre-order” breakfast seems a throughly stupid move for the exact reasons you experienced, but I can hear the chatter among bosses at EI HQ as if I was in the room, arguing points about simplifying their catering operations to save costs and complexity, even applying a one size fits all catering stock for short haul, despite different routes serving entirely different demographics and demand. Perhaps enough feedback and indeed demand would warrant them to review it but like you say, I wouldn’t hold my breath. Always worth a try though.

Inquitus

The best breakfast option in the airport at the moment is the Marquette Pancake and Omelette truck, I always arrive early enough to get myself a freshly made Omelette and that sets me up nicely for the day ahead! Far better than the fry on Aer Lingus, just my 2c!

Locker10a

Inquitus wrote: »

The best breakfast option in the airport at the moment is the Marquette Pancake and Omelette truck, I always arrive early enough to get myself a freshly made Omelette and that sets me up nicely for the day ahead! Far better than the fry on Aer Lingus, just my 2c!

For me anyway the whole benefit of eating on the flight is to turn up at the minimum time required to get through the airport and use the hour or so (depending on destination) sitting on the plane with nothing to do to eat. This is especially true in the mornings, personally I value highly that extra 25-30 mins in bed!!

Inquitus

Locker10a wrote: »

For me anyway the whole benefit of eating on the flight is to turn up at the minimum time required to get through the airport and use the hour or so (depending on destination) sitting on the plane with nothing to do to eat. This is especially true in the mornings, personally I value highly that extra 25-30 mins in bed!!

I usually have a snooze on the plane myself.