I use to fly a lot. I really mean a real lot as can be seen by me having more than a million miles in two airline rewards program. At one time the number of miles flown in one year put me in the top ten fliers on one airlines, who offered to paint my name on a plane. I declined because in some ways it was a depressing reminder of the number of hours I had spent on a plane seat, even one a nice as the company’s First Class section.
Thankfully a couple of years ago I was able to get out of the rat race and now only fly a couple of times a year. Recently I took a trip from California to Peru in Business Class. Business Class in some ways has improved. The seats in a Boeing 777 are better than what use to be provided in First Class on most airlines. What has not improved is the wine selection. You would think that the airlines would have realized that Americans have actually developed a sense of what is a good wine and what is just not worth the time spent drinking. Wine so bad that at several thousand feet where the wine has a bigger impact it is returned and replaced with a domestic beer.
On this recent trip while relaxing on the fully reclined seat on the Boeing 777, the wine list was presented as part of the menu. I was amazed at the selection. It was just bad wine. Reds, whites, Merlot, Cabs were from several different wineries but of similar bad quality. Now I understand with the high price of fuel, airline’s costs have risen just like their airline fares but their selection of wines was remarkable in their lack of value for the money. It was almost like their purchasing department looked up who produces the most wine in non-screw cap bottles and ordered cases after negotiating a large discount. I am sure there was a non-screw cap requirement was because of the incorrect belief that good wines can not have a screw cap and only corked wines had the right image.
I can understand the purchasing department’s mentality but they should really consider the image that a poor wine selection makes. Business Class for this trip was about three times more expensive than the standard fare at the back of the plane and I hate to think how much more than those discount fares. And the airlines still could not serve a decent glass of wine.
I would suggest they go to website that reviews cheap wine clubs like http://www.wineclubchoices.com/cheap-wine-club.php and just look at the list of cheap wine clubs. If they have a price point that they must reach, convert the price point to the number of $$$ and add one $. If the purchasing agent can not negotiate a volume discount of this percentage, they should be fired. Then just click on the wine clubs that are in their price range and read about which wines the club has shipped in the past. Easy to do on www.wineclubchoices.com because the past shipments all have a link to a Google search for the wine. After the price the buyer should look for the number of cases that produced. Perhaps not even the production for the specific wine listed by the wine club but for total production of the winery. Normally a winery that makes a wine good enough to pass the screening of a wine club, has other wines that are also quite good and most definitely a cut above the wines that some airlines are now serving.
Although I am sure any of the wine clubs listed would love to ship the large volumes of wine that airlines are purchasing, why not just build upon their research and buy direct. Here is a thought rather than just spend a couple of hours each month looking at the web sites, the purchasing department should join several of the recommended wine clubs and have a monthly tasting with the marketing department. Imagine the good will that would be generated if the marketing department was invited to a monthly review of the wines that promote the image that the airlines spends lots of advertizing dollars to promote. An excellent wine list is one of the few things that an airline can control after they make the million dollar investment in the type of seats the customers will be sitting in.
If you are not a purchasing agent for an airlines that purchases wine, consider following the same selection method. Let the wine clubs do the screening for you to find value wines at cheap wine prices.