My wife’s grandfather Irving was in the habit of offering guests food he didn’t have.
“Are you hungry,” he would ask, “want a piece of fruit, an apple, an orange, a banana?” Even if I wasn’t hungry, I would always accept his offer. “Sure, I’ll have a banana, thank you.”
Irving would look at me for a second or two, as if lost in thought, and then he would lean over, his face close to mine, and say in a warm and grandfatherly way, “How about an apple?”
I was reminded of Irving yesterday on my flight from Boston to Phoenix. U.S. Airways flight 524 departed Boston at 9:50 AM with 124 passengers on the plane. After takeoff, the flight attendant invited us to review the menu in the seatbacks for the lunch items available for purchase. The two main lunch selections were “Chicken Caesar Salad with a Twist” and “Beef Pastrami Sandwich” each for $7. The color photographs of the salad and the sandwich were fantastic, which by airline standards means the food actually looked edible and delicious. But alas, I didn’t get to taste the salad or the sandwich. By the time the flight attendant reached me in row 18, both items were sold out. All six salads and six sandwiches carted into the plane, gone.
Yes, only six sandwiches and six salads were available for 124 passengers.
“How about a snack box?” the flight attendant asked me, and I looked at her for a second or two, in a state of mild confusion, and said, “No, thank you.”
I then heard the flight attendant tell a passenger behind me that an irate passenger on a previous flight had threatened to sue her and the airline for not having enough sandwiches on the plane. Being hungry at 37,000 feet brings out the worst in some people.
As I sat there empty-stomached, a few questions popped into my head:
- How does U.S. Airways (and the other airlines) determine the mix of food items to include on each flight?
- Do they use point-of-sale data—by lane, flight number, and time of year—in their analysis, or do they just use back-of-the-envelope forecasting methods?
- Why not allow passengers to reserve and pay for a meal (non-refundable) when they purchase their airline ticket? Or at the check-in kiosks at the airport, up to 30 minutes before boarding?
- Have any of the supply chain software vendors explored this supply-demand planning problem?
- Why spend so much money on glamorous menus if the main items are always out-of-stock?
I don’t know much about the airline food supply chain, but based on this experience, it seems to me that supply and demand don’t talk to each other very much, or they don’t communicate very well. Either way, the airlines are leaving money on the table and hungry, irate passengers in their seats. Only playful grandpas in their 90s are allowed to offer guests food they don’t have.
Seems kind of like the fish that goes for that delicious looking fake meal lure, and then WHAMMMMO the fish becomes the real meal here. Of, course, in this bait and switch scenario, the airline is the fisherman and you are their meal ticket.
bon appetit
This reminds me of a story.
I flew into Philly once and rented a car from Enterprise. Surprisingly, the flight was a head of schedule. So, we got to the car rental location about 1/2 hour early. To our surprise there was one not one car in the lot and a line of a dozen patrons waiting to pick up cars. I’ve never seen this in my 20 years of travel.
When we got to our personal consultant or whatever they call this person. Enterprise does it a little different. The person that checks you in at the desk also takes you to the car and goes through a check list, then hands you the keys. Personal touch. By that time, a few cars had arrived and personal consultants were busy handing over the keys. We had to wait about 15 minutes once we got to the check in counter. Our personal consultant said there was an accident on Rt. 95 which caused a delay in cars returning. He said, in an hour this lot will be full. Sure enough, by the time we drove out of the lot, the lot was starting to fill up.
Now that’s JIT if I’ve ever seen it.