I don’t fly Alaska Airlines often, maybe just a couple of trips per year. I’m much more active in their Mileage Plan program than with the airline. But every time I fly Alaska I’m struck by the quality of their food. I received a complimentary upgrade on a Seattle – Austin flight a few days ago thanks to my American AAdvantage status, and the breakfast I was served was pretty good.
Alaska Airlines Breakfast
In contrast, there are some decent meals on United, actually, though few and far between and not varied often enough. I didn’t mind the Denver-specific meatloaf meal a few days prior. And there are American Airlines meals you can at least eat, like the enchilada. But Alaska’s food is kind of… good.
United Denver Hub Special
It struck me that breakfast on an Alaska Airlines midcon from Seattle to Austin was actually better than breakfast in Amreican Airlines Flagship First Class from Los Angeles to Sydney.
American Airlines long haul first class breakfast
I’ve had a pretty good burger on Alaska.
Alaska Burger
While the United Airlines burger is actually disgusting.
United Burger
At $5.30 per passenger systemwide, Alaska is spending more than JetBlue (which offers ‘Mint’ on some flights and operates transatlantic, but lacks a first class cabin on most planes) but less than United, American and Delta which have robust long haul networks while Alaska does not. It isn’t just the investment, though food spend certainly matters.
My first thought was that the culinary focus was a holdover from the Virgin America acquisition. Virgin America used to have the best domestic meal service by far. And I don’t remember Alaska food being a differentiator 15 years ago. But I think somethng happened at Alaska between 2010 and 2016 at Alaska. They did a regional chef branding deal and other partnerships (Tillamook cheese, Chateau Ste. Michelle wines). They introduced pre-order meals (they were behind American with this). Historically they’d offered craft beers – free on regional Horizon flights! – for many years, but a food focus took shape a couple years before acquiring Virgin America. That deal just accelerated the focus.
Incidentally, here’s what each airline spends per passenger on food.
| Airline (system entity) | “Passenger Food Expense” $ Millions | System enplanements, millions | Food spend / passenger | |||
| United | 1450 | 181 | 8 | |||
| American | 1650 | 220 | 7.5 | |||
| Delta | 1250 | 190 | 6.6 | |||
| Alaska † | 244 | 46 | 5.3 | |||
| JetBlue | 185 | 44 | 4.2 | |||
| Southwest | 95 | 160 | 0.6 |
These figures come from Bureau of Transportation Statistics data, Air Carrier Financial Reports (Form 41 Schedule P‑6) line 51, 2023 data. Enplanement data comes from form T-100, 2023 data.
It’s not surprising that United spends the most on food – their network skews most heavily towards long haul international so they’re feeding more passengers. However it’s quite striking that Delta spends so little considering their larger international footprint than American’s. Still, when you compare actual meal service this should not surprise. Delta’s food is uniquely unimpressive.
I’m curious, though, to hear from anyone that knows about the specific catering decisions Alaska Airlines has been making – what exactly is the difference here that’s driving better inflight food versus their competitors? I wrote about how they were so much better than competitors back in 2019, so this isn’t a recent change. What’s going on here?
I had the crab cakes on Delta MIA to MSP that were excellent.
LOL, if it’s a food post, a $ to a doughnut, it’s @Gary.
That shoulder bacon in the first pic looks good though 🙂
I believe it is more a West Coast thing. Focusing on good, healthy foods. More so than any other part of the country. It makes sense that this culture has permeated the airline.
Those AM flights from JFK to SFO on Virgin America had the best breakfast.
Hit or miss
They all suck but sometimes you get lucky and it isn’t vile
The fools can’t keep it simple and focus on quailty.The recipes are too busy and have to many nasty spices odd flavors and low quality ingredients
Especially as they try and shave every penny off their catering bill
25 years ago onboard catering was actually good on United and American in premium cabins
Today most of it is absolute slop
Sad
@ Gary — Maybe it is the leg room and friendly employees that make it seem better. Delta on the other hand has horrific F leg room, good service, and cabins filled with passengers that think they are better than everyone else. Alaska is simply vastly superior to Delta. United is better than Delta, but not as excellent as Alaska. American, well, is usually better than Spirit?
Why does Delta spend less:
– They don’t provide meals after a certain hour on business class. United does at any hour.
– They serve a blob of food in economy on flights to Europe, but at least you get to play “is it rice or mashed potatoes, and is there chicken in there?”
@Gene. You wrote, “United is better than Delta, but not as excellent as Alaska. American, well, is usually better than Spirit?” Here is a fun fact for WFTW readers. Spirit Airlines is usually better than Air Koryo.
Excellent @ Alaska?#?# compared to Delta?
You mean their dried out nasty entrees and melted ice cream for dessert?
Hate to see Delta lol
wondering, does Alaska dare serve that big chunk of pork on flights to non-‘Southern’ destinations??? Not that I’d complain, you understand … still kinda asleep when I first looked, wondered who made the sausages on the side.
I flew first class on Alaska from San Diego to Newark in April. I was surprised at the quality of the food. I was American Executive Platinum for 10+ years but gave up chasing miles with them at the beginning of 2025. This year I’ve flown United, Delta, and a number of international airlines (but don’t want to compare that to domestic). My preference for food was Alaska.
just a point of order.
you quote system enplanements but no stage length adjustment.
AS operates the longest average domestic stage length among US airlines. Of course, they have to provide more food than AA and DL and even B6 which have large numbers of flights that are less than 3 hours heavily concentrated in the eastern US.
and let’s keep in mind that AS does not have seatback AVOD or free WiFi, something DL already has and UA is moving toward which will further force AS to spend on what it does provide which is food.
They have always had good food but a little perspective is helpful.
and most Americans don’t eat breakfasts that are that heavy
If I recall correctly, Virgin America did not even have ovens on their aircraft, so, I don’t understand how their food could have been better.
@ Tim — In determining DLs inferiority, have you adjusted for all of UAs new JFK gates?
@Nathan V – Virgin America lacked ovens in the rear galley, Airbus convection ovens and a bun warmer in the forward galley…
I think AS caters with a regional/local West Coast mentality, even on the transcons that I regularly take on them… I only eat their food on 5+ hour flights so can only speak to that… but for me the food is typically fresh and simple, as you’d expect with a West Coast perspective. They cater with Sky Chefs and Gate Gourmet. Much of their food with F and few other exceptions, requires pre-order and it’s a much smaller operation than others, which probably helps.
I find the people at Alaska are far more engaged with what they do because they hire well and empower them to do their job. Just yesterday I was speaking to an agent who was doing an add collect so my flight to LA would be eligible for an instant upgrade and she kept telling me how much she enjoyed her job. This was no put on. Once we’d finished the re-ticketing we chatted for another 10 minutes. At another airlines she’d probably get reprimanded for wasting time but Alaska recognizes that having a relationship with the customer and using every interaction to reinforce that, is an essential part of their competitive advantage. In this case they turned a mundane chore into a pleasant human to human experience and I’ve found this to be the case with most of their employees and that’s a smart way to run a service business.
While I have no specific knowledge take sourcing local I’d bet that Alaska is getting excellent pricing on those purchases because the suppliers are looking to grow and showcasing their products is a very cost effective way to do it. Rather than pay for marketing they pick up incremental business they (believe) they wouldn’t have gotten anyway.
Smart, highly focused people, working as teams outperform because they are tightly connected to suppliers and customers and can innovate to do more with less. Alaska manages people better so they get better people and these people not only perform better because of that but because Alaska management makes them feel worthwhile.
This isn’t magic. It’s just good people doing their jobs we’ll because they enjoy them and feel appreciated.
PDT,
half of AS’ flights are to/from the west coast. THAT is their network.
and they still fly longer haul domestic flights than any other US airline – and don’t have AVOD or WiFi so fall back to the airline industry historical use of using food as in-flight diversion.
and Gene,
let’s not turn another thread into the full scale denial of reality that UA’s strategic failures and DL’s 15 year strategy of growing NYC has paid off with DL taking a commanding lead of the NYC market based on the latest Port Authority data.
UA isn’t even talking about a full takeover of B6 and if any big 3 carrier has a chance of successfully arguing it should be able to acquire, it would be AA, which is half the size of DL; AA and B6 are about the same size as DL in NYC.
When UA falls to less than 50% share of EWR, then they might begin to have a case for a full-on acquisition of B6.
and the DL-UA competitive slugfest does have implications for AS on the west coast. UA put AS into a pretty small box as a result of the Virgin America acquisition while DL appears set to do the same thing with the Hawaiian acquisition.
winning a food war is the least of AS’ strategic needs right now
@Tim Dunn — Where’s @MaxPower and @JL now? I thought, for sure, those United fanboys would rush to defend their own. Hmm. Waiting…
A few years ago I flew on Alaska from LAX to DCA. I had their bbq pulled pork, and it was really good. The best airline food I ever had was a steak on Midwest airlines. It was restaurant quality.
Still incredibly amusing to see the SAME people droning on in every article. Incredibly predictable! Is their no end to their self appointed expertise?