If Continental was still providing meals to coach passengers at no charge up until now, they must have been the last airline in the U.S. to be doing so on domestic flights.
True.
This change has been announced way way ago. If I'm remembering correctly it was even before the merger plans was announced. I'm convinced is was not directly caused by the merger, but rather by the changes that have come out "lately" to cut costs. They were on their way already and with Smizek coming in, they just got intensified. Paying for certain checked luggage, no more pillows or blankets on many flights for eco, cutting out drink selections on certain flights, upping prices for certain cocktails, there have been a lot of things being changed to cut costs.
At first it was "somewhere in fall 2010 this will change" then it was "somewhere september" and now thus october. Imagine my surpirse when mom told me she still got some food back in eco on our IAH-MCO leg (sept) and MCO-IAH leg (last thursday). I flew BF/first on our both inbound legs, so no seeing it myself. Flew eco IAH-MCO outbound (BF on tatl outbound leg) and as always was still surprised just how relatively big the packages were they still did provide for such a short flight. Less than 2 hours and they handed out packages consisting of a sandwich, package of chips and a kitkat.
My personal experience? No biggie what so ever. What was being handed out was not something to particularly remember culinary wise, most flights aren't that long to begin with and it isn't hardly difficult to bring along something to munch upon yourself if you think you can't handle the flight without food. Bring something wrapped from home, something bought at the airport et voilà. It will never be a deciding factor for me to pick the airline I end up flying anyway.
As far as the merger goes? I'ld better not go there. Probably just had my last CO-as-it-still-is-CO experience. Until now CO is the only airline that not only understands my special needs, but deals with them and goes above and beyond. Not one bad apple ran into, and I've dealt with about 3+ dozen of CO staff for just this last roundtrip flight. Not something I'm expecting to be around after it becomes "United airlines". Heck, not even expecting the "getting it".
