In the fall, I was first to report that Southwest Airlines would end onboard service earlier, and make passengers stow their laptops earlier. They argued that requiring passengers to prepare for landing when a flight descends to 18, feet instead of waiting until 10, feet promotes safety. United has moved to requiring passengers put away laptops away earlier, too. This means less time where service is available on board, and as a result Southwest is cutting drink service entirely on some flights.
Paddle Your Own Kanoo offers flights that lose service, but that would have had them in the past:. This let national airlines match and even undercut their pricing. Southwest had to innovate, and in became the largest liquor distributor in the state of Texas, rewarding customers on expense accounts who paid higher fares.
To me, though, the loss of work time onboard is the more significant passenger effect of this change. Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.
More About Gary ». More articles by Gary Leff ». I fly a lot of minute flights on a Delta Connection route operated by SkyWest. Almost always in first-class. Tight connections have always kept me from going to a Sky Club. Air France and KLM, among other European airlines, can serve a whole meal albeit a cold meal on flights of 1 hour.
On Delta shorter flights with the Skybus service: Water or coffee in back. FC usually gets a drink and snack. Smaller planes got full service in the past. They are flying larger s and have up trying to provide full service. That would mean larger cabin crews. The smaller 8 oz. Hand them out at boarding, or pre-place them at each seat.
