Airport food is expensive, so one man decided to feed his family by ordering Domino’s Pizza to the airport. Their flight was delayed and they “didn’t want to pay airport food prices.” Over 13 million people have watched the video.
- They met the Domino’s driver curbside at the airport
- Then they brought the pizzas through TSA security. Pizza is not a liquid!
- They brought the boxes onto the plane and ate their slices on board.
Credit: Ali Van De Graaff
Credit: Ali Van De Graaff
This is being described as an ‘airport food hack’ but it’s pretty controversial, because it’s pizza.
- Some see it as genius. “why have I never thought of this,” “traveling with kids requires smart decisions.” Concessions have to pay huge rents in the airport. Labor costs are high because you need people who can pass background checks for security and you need to get them to commute out to the airport and park. Then, most of the food is bad because of airport constraints (no storage space, potentially no gas cooking, knives chained to walls, having to bring ingredients through security and because you’re selling to the median traveler who has to be there and chooses you because you exist not because you’re offering good food).
- This is downright rude. Main character syndrome. The smell in the cabin isn’t fair to everyone else. Plus, pizza is greasy and do you really expect to give the used pizza boxes to a flight attendant as they collect trash? Eating it in the terminal is clearly fine but this isn’t what fellow passengers want you bringing on board. Check out this guy who brought a full rack of ribs on board!
No chance is the guy next to me eating a full rack of ribs plus sides on this plane gtf pic.twitter.com/hDD9u6MlPi
— Lanna Tolland (@lannatolland) February 20, 2023
- Skepticism. People are surprised they could bring the food through security. And this is surely a pain for the driver, but not really. They met the driver curbside! They didn’t park, walk into the terminal and then try to find the customer.
There are limits on liquids and gels through security. There shouldn’t be any longer! Peanut butter is viewed as a liquid by TSA because it ‘conforms to the shape of its package’. But pizza is not a liquid.
I guess my question is, if you aren’t limiting yourself to airport food and even if you want pizza it could be from anywhere. Why on earth Domino’s?
A lot of airports have Grab and similar apps that let you order delivery, ‘DoorDash for airports’ because they know passengers go anchor themselves to their gate and won’t spend money as a result unless what they want gets brought to them.
If you’re eating Domino’s anyway, maybe pizza delivery from inside the airport is even easier and not that much more money if it’s an airport that isn’t Phoenix (which doesn’t even have “street pricing” rules). Although pizza in the Miami airport can actually be even worse than Domino’s.
Ordering pizza to the airport, though, isn’t actually that unusual. It’s just usually pilots who are doing it – for the whole plane, during major delays. Here’s a Delta flight that diverted and had pizza delivered by police car. An American flight diverted, the pilot ordered 40 pizzas and ran out to meet the driver. And on this American Eagle diversion, the captain had pizza delivered to the plane.
Here American Airlines chose Pizza Hut as their caterer for the flight. There was a catering issue, so they bought the pizzas from the Pizza Hut in the terminal.
Fourteen years ago I catered an American Airlines Boeing 757 from inside the Seattle airport. It was a charter flight (“oneworld MegaDO”) and our aircraft went mechanical. All of the catering had been offloaded to make room for more alcohol (and because the original plan had been for everyone on the flight to get full business class meals, which took took long on our prior Dallas – Seattle segment). There were packaged snacks for everyone at the at the gate, but with the delay and drinks on the ground we needed food.
We drank the plane dry during the delay and we raided the nearby aircraft. A tug was sent to the edge of the airport to go get more from a liquor store. I went into the terminal in search of food. First class got personal pizzas while I bribed the bagel shop to give us all their sandwiches (which meant staff they’d need to stay late to prep more). The station manager pulled out his airline-issued credit card, so I fortunately didn’t get stuck with the bill.
The scene at the Seattle airport bagel place went something like Woody Allen feeding the revolutionary army in Bananas.
Domino’s Pizza used to promise delivery within 30 minutes. They dropped their guarantee in 1993 because it led drivers to be too aggressive, and they lost a lawsuit to a crash victim. But did you know about the Papa Murphy’s Pizza that delivers by plane? Or that, according to Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture, Nigerians are ordering pizza from London and having it delivered on British Airways?
I see nothing wrong here. T’sa free cuntry! Yeeeeehaw.
I am profoundly unimpressed with the excuses for airport food costs.
If people withheld their money (as they should) they couldn’t justify $1 rent no matter how exclusive the premises or captive the clientele.
Zero sympathy. If it bothers me I’ll order my own damn pizza.
Frankly I would sooner see this entire expropriative economy founder and fail in a mass of shitty excuses than ever pay for another airport meal.
Also, they didn’t used to be that expensive. My and my friends used to go to Dulles for kebabs, when we WEREN’T flying (obviously not through security, but still the airport proper). It was not nearly as excessive as today, but go on and engage in corporate apologia with your BS justifications and excuses.
My brother likes to bring BBQ sandwiches aboard airplanes. He enjoys the fact that the smell makes other passengers hungry.
I’ve ordered pizza and many other food delivery to more than one major league baseball stadium (and this was before Domino’s offered pinpoint delivery). Was great in South Florida because we would leave the pizza on the hood and it stayed hot.
Hey kids want dominoes. Fine. TSA wants a slice? Fine. Airport thinks I’m cheating them out of couple bucks? Bite me. New Rules.
The Main Character Syndrome is a terrible excuse….and if you haven’t discovered already life isn’t fair. It’s no different than if someone brought their own smelly food onboard. It’s part of life.
I think that that was a great idea followed by great execution. If I want food at the airport, I either bring my own or buy something there. I can also carry food onto the airplane. If there is a water fountain after TSA, I can have a bottle of water from the tap. Other people make their own decisions.
“Believe it or not, this doesn’t just happen in Alaska. According to Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture Nigerians are ordering pizza from London and having it delivered on British Airways.”
I guess the Nigerians have extra money to burn after scamming people or it is paid by defrauding the US Government thru learing centers, bogus day cares, or home health care visits. I wonder if the Somali’s take a cut besides the politicians?
@Michael Mainello — If you could hold back your bias for a moment, you’d realize Nigeria has a lot of oil and Lagos is a massive city (15+ million).
@1990 – Thanks for the geography lesson and your lack of a sense of humor. Have you been scammed by a Nigerian prince?
If you were ever on a TACA flight in the nineties from San Salvador or Guatemala, the smell of Pollo Camparo was overwhelming. There were so many people flying back to the states with it, that the chain started franchising here.
If they can serve those weird hot pocket pizza things as an economy “snack” on every international flight (the recent Jeb Brooks TATL video provided a funny comparison of those snack boxes), not sure what the problem is with a pizza.
Bananas is a terrific movie, although I will note that they don’t actually pay for the food they ordered…
If you order Domino’s Pizza after a delayed flight at DTW, here’s a slice of trivia. Did you know that Thomas Monaghan created Domino’s World Headquarters and Domino’s Farms near Ann Arbor, at the intersection of US-23 and M-14, about 20 miles from DTW? Domino’s Farms has a public petting farm with 70-100 animals, including bison (sometimes called buffalo), goats, sheep, horses, llamas, and pigs. If you land at DTW and visit Domino’s Farms, you can pet animals that could eventually become pizza toppings—so, at Domino’s Farms, you might literally get to pet your pepperoni.
I don’t see why this is exceptional. If I know I’ll need a meal on a plane, I’ll bring it with me to the airport. I’ll buy a meal at an airport only if all 3 are true: I need to use up foreign cash that won’t likely be used on a future trip, the food is interesting, and the prices are reasonable.
Also, people can deal with whatever the food smells like. I hate the smell of coffee, and yet I endure it.
The airlines and airport concessionaires made this bound to happen. Price something out of common sense, and people will vote with their wallets. Just like when I brought my own candy into movie theaters as a kid. I applaud this family.
Really if you have to go through the hassle of carrying a pizza through TSA to save $20 maybe you should not be flying and staying home to save money. Not to mention the pizza falling off or getting crushed on the screening belt. Then you will really waste money by being forced to repurchase airport food.
@Michael Mainello — I didn’t even mention geography, so thanks for reminding me to. Yes, West Africa is less visited by Westerners (except, well, you know… a few centuries back). However, it has a lot of people, resources, rich culture, and potential. Quite ‘entrepreneurial’ indeed.
@Michael Mainello — Unrelated, but I wanted to mention, STOU, actually great ideas to outlaw insider trading in Congress and actually reduce the cost prescription drugs. Like, those are win-wins. Everything else was fear-mongering and scapegoating nonsense, but those two, not bad.
“Why on earth Domino’s?”
Maybe because he had a gift card.
Desperate for a story lol
When will an airline start Lagos-Houston?
A friend’s parent used to get cooked pasta flown down to DC from some restaurant in NYC. It was coming on passenger flights, so someone was having it clear the passenger security screening checkpoint.
@GUWonder — Currently, I think only Delta flies LOS-ATL, and United flies LOS-IAD.
Domino’s pizza is delicious. GTFO you’re going to be condescending about people’s pizza preference.
I commend the family for having their pizza delivered. As travelers, how many times have we ordered overpriced airport food and when we get it, the food is BAD and barely edible.?? All the food delivery services represent new competition to airport restaurants.
One time I was tent camping in a County Park and had pizza delivered to my specific tent site!
It was delicious and my companions enjoyed it.
In a more cash-heavy world I’d actually expect to see occasional flaps where someone buys a pizza, brings it on board a TCON/midcon flight with no meal service in Y, and then gets yelled at by an FA for selling slices (and undermining the airline’s BoB model because folks will pay $5 for a slice of reasonably-warm pizza instead of a packet of crisps).
I applaud this move and anyone whining about it is one of those simps for authority incapable of independent thought.
Been on a flight in Asia where the flight attendants confiscated and deplaned a ripe durian that a passenger bought and had brought aboard to eat.
Mmm… durian. I can understand because not everyone can deal with durian.
Daddy is Hot,
But people do this all the time with the pizzas you can buy at ORD, not realizing the pizza in the terminal is not Gino’s or Lou’s. They bring that smelly food on the plane too. And McDonald’s and KFC, etc. So either airlines have to ban the smelly food or we all suck it up.
Domino’s for ALL!