Flying business? Try Emirates’ new meal preorder service

Image courtesy: Emirates Airlines

Emirates is launching an onboard meal pre-ordering service for passengers flying in business class, an innovative initiative that will ensure customers get their preferred meal choice every time as well as help to reduce food wastage.

The service allows customers to preselect their hot main meal between 14 days and 24 hours in advance of their flight.

Emirates said the initiative will be rolled out from July 25 on all flights between Dubai and London Heathrow, London Gatwick, and London Stansted. The Dubai-based carrier expects the service to enhance customer experience, improve time management and add another layer of insight into meal consumption onboard.

Meal preordering will be added to the existing suite of AI-enabled customer preference tracking data and cabin crew reports, which facilitate menu planning and optimal food loading to deliver the premium ‘restaurant in the sky’ inflight dining experience.

Up to 14 days before a flight, passengers will be able to browse the onboard menu on Emirates.com or the Emirates app and choose from a selection of regionally inspired dishes with locally sourced ingredients. Passengers can also pre-order special meals if required.

Emirates plans to expand the meal preorder initiative to more routes and classes soon and is closely monitoring customer feedback from the initial rollout phase. The carrier said its cabin crew will use a custom-built application on a device to view the meal selection and serve the passengers their choice of hot dish.

The preordering meal service innovation is another addition to the convenience of digitally enabled journeys that Emirates passengers enjoy. Passengers are also invited to review all aspects of their flight in a quick digital survey that appears on the inflight entertainment screen, providing feedback and insights that ensure customers fly better with Emirates.

Emirates boosts customer experience

Meanwhile, Emirates said that as well as website check-in and app check-in, the option of digital boarding passes and itinerary management, passengers can also avail digital menus in advance.

The airline’s digital platforms allow passengers to join Emirates Skywards to immediately access free connectivity based on tier membership and class of travel. Passengers can also spend time curating a playlist of favourite movies, TV shows and music available on ice, which they can synchronise from their app to their TV screen the moment they board.

Emirates opened its new city check-in and travel store in the Dubai International Financial Centre in April. The new city check-in and travel store, which is located in the elite ICD Brookfield Place, allows customers to conveniently book travel, check in for flights, drop luggage and shop for travel essentials to save time at the airport.

In May, Emirates said that all Skywards members in every class of travel can now enjoy some form of free connectivity. The carrier said it has so far invested more than $300m to enhance its inflight Wi-Fi connectivity.

The carrier also expanded its interline cooperation with Abu Dhabi’s Etihad earlier in May to boost tourism to the UAE from key source markets by allowing customers to experience more than one destination in a single itinerary.

Read: UAE, GCC travellers can now book charter flights with Emirates