Tag Archives for inflight meals.
Staff for the Vice President are reportedly “revolting” over “the inferior quality of lunches on Air Force Two, the vice president’s plane.”
President Biden’s staff on Air Force One receive filet mignon, and the service comes on “gold-rimmed plates, accompanied by cold beers.” In contrast, staff for Kamala Harris receive “soggy sandwiches in brown paper bags – and no booze.” Instead, expect “cold pasta salads and water.” One staffer calls it “horrible slop.”
Before the pandemic United reduced the number of flight attendants working in business class, and started pre-plating their food. But here’s, finally, an explanation for why the food is actually bad.
It’s remarkable how airlines in Europe, the Middle East and Asia can serve amazing meals on short flights, while U.S. airlines serve such lower quality food on flights that are much longer.
But just because you’re flying a European or Asian airline in business class doesn’t mean all of the food is going to be impressive.
A passenger brought an order of “Smoky Ultimate BBQ Ribs” on board their flight. It came with fries and a half ear corn that was served with mayonnaisse and Italian cheese. And he proceeded to eat it in the middle seat on his flight.
With a new business class product – suites with doors – and more business class seats beginning to roll out at American Airlines next year, the airline is working on new meals, business class bedding, and amenity kits. They’re leaning on partner airlines like British Airways to understand how service flow works with more premium customers. And they’re testing a variety of products.
Delta lets passengers choose in advance the option to skip a meal, and save the airline money. Japan Airlines even suggests that doing so is a moral imperative.
This is a trend sweeping the industry, reducing food cost by getting passengers to pre-committing not to eat. United is a part of it too, and they are offering customers more than one choice now to nudge them not to eat. Both of these options that appear when pre-ordering mean the same thing, United can spend less on catering.
Japan Airlines is asking business class customers to skip meals on board, telling them it is the ethical thing to do – which must make a business class passenger choosing to eat unethical.
Delta Air Lines has added an option for business class passengers to “Skip First Meal Service” as part of their pre-selections for on board service. Customers fying long haul in the ‘Delta One’ cabin might choose Trout, non-meat Meatballs, chicken breast or to skip the meal. That is described as having an environmental benefit, to “help[..] reduce food waste.”
The airline’s business class passengers, booking the least expensive business class ‘Z’ fare roundtrips on a route like Detroit to Seoul, are currently spending over $8000 roundtrip. And the airline is asking them to help save money on catering bills.
When Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group started popping up in airports and putting its brand on Delta Air Lines meals I suggested it was trading its name and accepting lower quality. It had a brand to cash out on, but the brand meant less as a result. This is going to be true for any chef who enters an airport or licenses their name to an airline – except for Rick Bayless.
For an airline, branding with a chef’s name can signal their investment in food. For a brand, that it no longer cares about quality.
In September American Airlines unveiled their new business class suites that would go into Boeing 787-9, Boeing 777-300ER and Airbus A321XLR aircraft. These won’t be flying until 2024. But at the same time they bring an elevated business class seat into the market, the airline also plans to introduce new inflight meal service, amenity kits, and bedding as well.
I had heard this project was underway, but a little more detail was shared in an internal employee question and answer session earlier this month, a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
