News and notes from around the interweb:
- My first reaction to this photo of a United Airlines meal was to shrug and say ‘of course, it’s economy’ but the truth is that it does not have to be this way. It wasn’t always this way. It wasn’t always this way on United. And an airline isn’t premium when they do this – most of their passengers are flying coach!
The correct reaction to this photo of ‘sausage and peppers pasta’ is to ask, “was it taken before or after you ate it?”
While meals in coach have long the stuff of late night comic monologues, in the late 90s United had a celebrity chef partnership for meals in economy! Dishes included Heartland Sunday Braised Beef; Zesty Herb Lasagna; Minty Tortellini Alfredo With Ham; and Orange Grove Chicken.
United Airlines Coach Meal Recipes Were Given Away Onboard In a Cookbook, 1997 - In 1977 ANZ Crashed in Antarctica Killing 257 I did not know about this – a DC‐10 regular scheduled sightseeing flight over Antarctica crasheed into an active volcano
- I’m really excited for the new American Airlines Flagship Lounge in Philadelphia. It’s opening this month, and it should be the nicest one – by a lot – since it’s in the new lounge aesthetic (Washington National E Concourse, Newark, Denver) rather than the 2017-era ‘modern hospital lighting’. I hadn’t seen these renderings before, but they’re clearly old, since they’re in the old motif.
I’ll probably fly to Philly to see the lounge, since I also haven’t been to the Chase lounge there yet and it’s supposed to be their nicest one.
Philadelphia Flagship And A-West Admirals Club Entrance, Credit: American Airlines - We all need a massage sitting in the back of a 737…
- The next time the hotel shuttle takes too long to show up I’m going to wonder if this is what happened to it.
- Horrible: Qantas Worker in Coma And Fighting For Her Life After JetBridge Fall at Sydney Airport
UAL food truly sucks. Sad because I used to enjoy it in the early mid nineties.
What’s sadder is that it isn’t any better than what AA or Delta offers.
I think I understand the constraints on coach meals. It must hit a price point. It needs to be recreated easily in a variety of corporate kitchens. It must be “easy enough” to prep and serve on the plane. It needs the appropriate shelf life. And, hopefully, customers will enjoy it. I might be naive in thinking even I could design meals within those constraints. Still, I think the ultimate solution involves more frequent cold meals. Despite the aura of hot meals, I’d be happy with a properly made cold meal over the low-quality reheated things we often see. Plus, you are starting from scratch; you can observe what other airlines do. My last lunch on a 1 hour AF flight is an example of “more (but not much) than adequate.
@cairns — Wrong again. While UA and most AA food is indeed often ‘not great,’ Delta (and jetBlue Mint) are actually decent. I won’t knock UA or AA whenever they have the ice cream sundaes though, because those remain truly delicious and delightful. More of that, please. Fully-loaded, of course.