What's the deal with airline food?
I have no idea what this question really means, I just hear it a lot. I've never really had a beef with airline food, except that one of the options is always chicken. Feel free to answer this question however you feel like it.
Why do they serve food on airplanes?
Hungry people have a tendency to be short tempered where as a content person will tend to be more agreeable. Also even foods like pretzels and peanuts can calm the nerves of a stressed out or scared person. its a pretty good coping mechanism. I’m sure flight attendants would agree with me that anything that calms the passengers on a flight it worth the cost to the airline.
Why do people eat airline food?
Convenience - There is not much to do in an airplane. Might as well use that time to eat. Many people also catch flights in a rush often travelling for quite a few hours to even get to the airport. Add to the fact that most airports need at least ~2 hours to get through to the boarding process and the take off and you have effectively a gap of several hours since your last meal. Carrying a snack is suboptimal since it might spill, stink or be difficult to eat or storeTime spent on flight - When you have a sixteen hour flight from Hong Kong to New York, I rather eat the food on the plane. I rather not eat a cold meal when I can get a warm one on the plane. This is applicable to business travelers as well. Do I want to get off a flight and stop to grab breakfast before my meeting at 9:00 AM. Unlikely, I rather have breakfast in the flight and rush straight to the meeting. Connections - Even on shorter routes, a lot of passengers are in fact transit passengers. Sometimes they have a tight connection or may not be comfortable eating at an unknown airport.Value - You are paying for it, might as well eat it. There are no frills airlines if you don't want to eat or prefer to carry your own.Choice - I am vegetarian and trying to find a vegetarian meal in some airports is next to impossible. On an airplane, I can pre-order a vegetarian meal and eat without feeling anxious that there maybe meat used in my meal.Its fun dining on top of the world - It is one of the simpler pleasures, looking out of the window at the clouds float by or watch a movie while you have reasonably good service.
Why is airplane food so terrible?
Before I retired due to an injury, I was a purser, or lead flight attendant on international flights.I worked mainly in first class and business, although if time permitting I worked in main cabin as well, or “economy”.My opinion, for what's it's worth, is that most the food was palatable. First class was even exceptional at times. We created 7 and 9 course meals for our passengers, baking cookies inflight, vodka chilled with caviar, sushi, you name it. Depending on city we originated from, depended on the supplies we received.What I have found mostly is that people felt disgruntled if they did not receive a choice. This making them feel the food they were receiving was below standard. Which, of course, it is no different than the food they are receiving. They simply are not receiving a choice.But they are unhappy they cannot choose, and therefore the food to them is no longer appetizing. (And yes, I agree, not ALL airline food is great. But some isn't bad, and most is pretty good considering the circumstances of having to produce large quantities of food in short periods of time and make it palitable..not the easiest feat if you ask me.)So to answer your question I believe it's all relative. To the flight you are on, possibly carrier, service, what you are expecting?(have you flown much? Are you expecting something specific and being disappointed? This may also change the way you perceive the food. Are you on an Int’l flight where the service is much more extensive, with possibly more options?)Yes I agree, service has changed. I've seen it deteriorate. Which is sad. From all aspects. But when you look at the cost of your ticket? Are you paying for a premium meal that you expect to receive in a restaurant? Or are you simply paying for airfare?
Is airline food really that bad?
It depends on the airline. I've had delicious meals on Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Emirates and some other airlines. I've flown British Airways a few times and had okay meals on most flights, but on one particular BA flight I had the worst airline meal I've ever had. To this day, I have no idea what that "thing" they served was, and after one bite couldn't eat anymore. Normally you get a small salad, an entree with vegetables and potatos, rice or pasta, you also get a small dessert. The meals are normally served an hour or so after take off and on long flights that serve more two meals, you get the second meal a couple of hours or so before landing. Cathay Pacific has free snacks like sandwiches, fruit, candy and noodles available between the full meals.
Do they give you food on airplanes, for free with fligh and..t? READ.?
I doubt the airline will give you anything except maybe a bag of pretzels and a drink. This is especially true if you have a connecting flight since each segment will not be extremely long in length. I would recommend you either eat something at the airport or bring some food with you. As for connecting to your next flight, it should be pretty simple. Sometimes the flight attendants will tell passengers what gate their connecting flight is to another city prior to landing. If Seattle is not mentioned, you can ask the flight attendant what gate your flight to Seattle will be. If for some reason they cannot give you this information, once you get off the plane, look for the TV monitors on the departure screen and find Seattle. It will then tell you what gate to head towards. If you get lost, just ask someone at the ticket counter. As for the flight, it is longer than 3 1/2 hours. You arrive in Seattle at 1:30 p.m. which is 4:30 p.m. New York time. A non-stop flight from New York to Seattle is around 5 hours.
How different is airplane food from prison food?
The biggest difference are the cooks. Airplane food is made by low paid workers who are, more than likely, happy to have the job, and happy doing it. Airplane food is generally mediocre, but rarely bad.Food in prison is bad. It is badly made, generally awful, and made worse by inmates who hate what they are and may use the food to vent their frustrations and get back at others.Although many prisons look only at price, and use only corporate made foodstuffs, other prisons raise their own vegetables and fruit, have their own dairy cows, make their own cheese, raise their own pigs. and chickens, get fresh eggs. Their food is fresh; it could be superb. That is - at least from the prison guards I have talked to and surveyed - not the case. Prison food is almost universally awful.Moreover, you don't have to be a professional chef or cook to run a prison kitchen - it just hast to get done, on time, and cleaned up after.Cooking for huge amounts of people - the kind of cooking that Army mess halls do - is both an art and a skill. Doing it well, so that the food is fresh, tasty, a joy to eat? A different level altogether. Some airlines have managed it, at least for their first class meals, most have not.Almost no prisons here in the US manage to make food that turns out better than barely edible.The two main things we could do as a nation to make prisons more humane would be air conditioning in the South, and better food in all fifty state prisons. Ideal would be a prison where prisoners have to raise their own food, where the food service is not institutional, but old fashioned, where food would have to be raised, canned, stored and eaten through the cold months, where gardens had to be cared for, where animals had to be fed and watered and milked and slaughtered, in short, where those who were lazy did without, and those who worked hard lived a decent, close to the earth life.
Why do airplane captains have to have separate meals in flight?
Imagine that you lived on the other side of a mountain, requiring you to drive a narrow, winding road at night. After dining at your favorite restaurant, where you and your spouse ate the same entrée, you set out to make the drive home. About halfway home, you both experience without warning a sudden onset of disturbingly explosive gastrointestinal episodes, narrowly avoiding running off the road, as you fortunately are able to pull into a turn-out.From that day on, you resolve to eat completely different meals whenever you dine at a restaurant. Fortunately neither of you ever have a repeat of that night, but if you had, you would have been prepared.On flights with a captain and a first officer, they would have different meals prepared in different kitchens. On flights with a two captains and a first officer, each captain would have meals from separate kitchens. The first officer would have a meal from the kitchen that prepared the rest of the crew meals. If additional flight crew are on board, they would split evenly as possible between the two kitchens.Crew meals (and all airline meals) are prepared under exacting conditions to ensure that all food is safe. An aircraft, particularly the flight deck, is the last place where you’d want to have a food-borne illness. Hot entrees are frozen and kept cold by dry ice until they are ready to be heated on board via convection oven, to minimize any opportunities for spoilage.