I recently flew United on a three-hour flight…enough time for a movie and a lunch. When the flight attendants rolled their cart up the aisle I was surprised to find my typical lunch replaced with a wee-little bag of crunchy snack items. When did this change? What happened to the little lunches with the little bowls, and the neat, little, compartmentalized, food items? Following the snack/beverage cart was another flight attendant SELLING boxed lunches. What?? You have to pay for lunch now? When asked if I wanted to buy one of the boxed lunches, I felt like saying, “I already did…it was included in the $750 round-trip ticket I purchased…now give me my ______ food!”
Does this bother anyone else?
Soon, they’ll be saying, “No outside food or drinks allowed.” Anyway…
This has been happening for quite a while now. It’s merely a product of airlines trying to cut costs during a period where revenue from selling tickets is under considerable pressure.
Personally, i don’t mind it, as long as i know before the flight so i can come prepared with my own food.
I like the idea of not giving away free food on planes. When you go to the movies, do they give you free popcorn and candy? No, and if they did, a ticket would cost $15. Instead, they sell you the ticket for $8 and let you choose whether you want to buy the extras. Same for flights. Let the cost of food be borne by those who actually want it, not spread around to everyone who buys a ticket even if they don’t eat the meal.
Oh, and before someone comes back with the rejoinder that this argument only works if airline fares are actually cheaper as a result of not giving out food, I will state right here that they are. Airlines operate on razor-thin margins and are constantly fending off bankruptcy. If they served free meals on every flight, they’d either:
Charge more
Go belly-up sooner
Both of the above, as the added ticket price would decrease the number of flyers while not making the airlines any additional money.
Does anyone miss those horrible airline meals? I can just as easily bring my own food. Of course, then you’ve got an airliner full of various food odors and all those food wrappers to be disposed of.
United stopped on-board meals some time ago, except for the first and business class flyers. It doesn’t bother me. I’d rather buy something I like and take it on board to eat during a flight. While loitering in the back waiting for a bathroom vacancy, I once spoke to the flight attendants about the meals. They say that the “mini-meals” they sell are money-makers for them, but the previous on-board meals were big expenses for the airlines.
Last time I flew was 2003 on Air Canada. They had recently switched to offering food for a price on flights under a certain length.
Complimentary food service is now only offered on flights over 4 hours and 30 minutes. I was never a huge fan of their rock hard rolls and rubbery chicken anyway and always brought my own snacks for the flight. The “onboard restaurant service” actually looked pretty decent, though.
I guess I don’t really care so much if the airline cuts back on food service if I can find out a day or two in advance what food service is included in the fare. I don’t mind so much packing a lunch, but going hungry on an all day trip or getting held up for in-terminal prices on a layover really gets my goat. Expedia et. al. should find a way to get all this stuff printed in detail on their itineraries, but they don’t.
Another thing to watch out for is wacky boarding procedures. A friend of mine really got bit the first time he flew Southwest. He didn’t realize that they do it differently than everyone else, although he should have been clued in by the fact that he didn’t get a seat assignment.
As long as I knew ahead of time, I’d think I’d prefer no meals, even, on a relatively short flight. The last traveling I did was ridiculous with the food. Never any peace, just getting ready for food, getting the food, eating the food, getting rid of the dishes, then settling back to normal. By then the flight was over. What a pain.
The only part I liked was the last leg into Seattle when they offered free beer from a local brewery.
And yes, Dewey…me. I would always place my pre-order for the vegetarian meal and, therefore, was assured a meal a tad more fresh than the standard fare. Although mediocre in content, it was never about the food really, but more about the idea of getting a little something in exchange for the cramped little space in which I would be placed. Perhaps this rant stems from my most recent travel experience where I was forced to sit cramped between two other passengers. As I have rather long legs, I was unable to position myself in a position that provided any sort of comfort. When the person in front of me put their seat back as far as it would go…whewwww…tight…cramped…no air…horrible…with no aisle seat available I was stuck where I was. The boxed lunches were merely toppers to my already abismal flight…
I understand the savings that must be involved but, Opus1, I’m just not seeing it.
I always bring my own food on any flight longer than a couple of hours. I don’t miss airline food at all. A few ziplock bags, a Gladware container, and I have a gourmet snack while others are gnawing on the aforementioned rubber chicken. It isn’t hard to fix a meal before I head to the airport, or to stop at a deli on the way.
I understand that the point of removing meals is to cut costs and I would be fine with that, except the cost of my ticket doesn’t seem to be improving much with the further decline of comfort. I still sit in a cramped seat, between some smelly people, with no leg room (and I’m only 5’3!), with the person in front of me reclined in my crotch, with no “meal”, and yet I still have to pay more then is reasonable for what I’m getting.
As someone said, the meal felt like you were at least getting something.
Presumably the rise of low-cost airplanes, that don’t offer free food, contributes to this.
Thus as more passengers get used to this on budget air trips, so the majors follow suit.
Typically, if it doesn’t say anything about food, that means you get none. If it mentions a meal, then you do.
As for the OP, this has been standard for years now. That’s OK, I’d rather carry on my own food (or pay for one, special) than eat the stuff they used to serve.
The last time I flew anywhere was on a 26 hour flight from Sydney to London. I hope that, if food isn’t included anymore, the airline tells their passengers to bring sandwiches.
And they wonder why the ‘full-fare’ carriers are bleeding to death. The original low-cost model was no frills, meals or seating allocation. Turn up, get on, fly, get off, STFU. In exchange for the inconvenience, you got a cheap flight.
The full-fare carriers invariably witter on about ‘service’ and ‘trust’ and ‘convenience’ and whatnot, when in fact their response seems to be:[ul]
[li]Offer the exact same service as the low-cost carriers[/li][li]Lobby govt. frantically for special treatment[/li][li]Lock up landing slots, collude with each other and do whatever else they can to keep the LCCs out.[/li][li]Charge the same old fares[/li][li]Continue to piss away money[/ul][/li]I have no problem buying my own sandwich before getting on a €50 return flight with Ryanair. In fact shop sandwiches are much nicer than anything you get on a plane unless you are in business and I normally get my own anyhow.
I have no problem with my company being charged a chunk of change to fly me on a full-fare carrier so I can get to a meeting at a sensible time without being half-dead.
What I have a problem with is being charged €500 for an economy flight and having to pay another €8 for a sandwich and a bottle of water. WTF is next? Are they going to put advertising stickers on the overhead and jingles on the cabin PA to squeeze out a few extra cents?
It’s getting to the point where the sole difference between the LCC and the full-fare carriers is the branding on the plane, a 200% price differential and a seat number. The High-Cost Low-Service carrier. Fuck that. If this is the best business model the legacy carriers can come up with, I wish they’d do us all a favour and just liquidate themselves and let someone else start up airlines using second-hand planes and a clue. That way we could have a choice between Ryanair at the low end, something like JetBlue Europe at the top end, and squeezyjet in the middle. These dinosaurs trying to be all things to all people and fucking it ALL up are just a PITA, and they can’t even make any money out of it. AAARGH :mad: