CX
Cathay Pacific. To reiterate, it was the chocolate that was gourmet, not the meal. The name of the airline was omitted intentionally because it recorded a loss for fuel hedging on its balance sheet last quarter, but for those who understand this accounting practice, the airline was for all real-world purposes profitable.
Both Cathay and its affiliate, Dragonair, hand out printed menus in economy class in addition to providing the hot meals on every flight over a few hours long. Hard to believe but true. And since the airline doesn't have the headache of dealing with overly-powerful unions, the flight attendants are mostly young, attractive, and extremely friendly. You sure won't see "ancient sky cows" with years of seniority to protect their jobs droning around the aircraft, stinking it up with sour demeanors and flatulent bad attitudes. Also, I've been given a service survey about half the time when flying the airline in business class, and I strongly suspect the airline actually pays attention to what I write.
Before you retort that there are regulatory differences at play please remember that's precisely what I'm advocating. Slightly more expensive fares for adherence to a set of mandatory guidelines will result in airlines having to compete at least marginally more on the basis of service rather than price alone. Come to think of it, perhaps by banning flight attendant unions such a regulatory scenario can be balanced out a bit from a cost perspective.
Bottom line, if consumers want airline service to improve in the U.S., we must be willing to tolerate slightly higher airfares - and we must demand basic, common sense regulation from our legislators in Washington.
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