Buzz

I have a fairly straightforward question concerning airline food. First, I’m not a demanding diner and the food is generally (not always) fine with me, but I can’t help notice how much of it goes to waste because apparently the average traveler doesn’t find it’s all that good. I have read repeatedly of how expensive it (supposedly) is for airlines to provide meals. I also understand that it is impossible to please every palette and that someone will always find something to whine about.<BR><BR>I have a modest proposal to do away with “hot” meals entirely. Instead why not contact a local SUBWAY, Mr. GOODCENTS, PRET’A’MANGER, whatever, and have them bring on a variety of fresh sandwiches. Ham and cheese, roast beef, chicken, and all-veggie, for instance. The condiments could be provided separately along with a beverage and a bag of chips/crisps.<BR><BR>I’ve mentioned this to a few folks who thought it was a very good idea. If one couldn’t finish the whole sandwich they could re-wrap it for a snack later. Surely this would be much less of a hassle for the in-flight crew. Now I realize that by posting this on Fodor’s I’m going to be bombarded with nay-sayers and skeptics, but that’s fine. If I get any good input pro or con I will forward it along when I suggest my idea to a few major airlines.<BR><BR>One of my friends did say, “Well, a sandwich just isn’t a meal,” but another countered with, “Neither is a plate of glop that you can’t finish.”<BR>

Ophelia

Sounds great to me! My last flight the "steak" smelled exactly like the Alpo I feed to my dog, the potato tasted like the steak smelled, the gravy was the consitancy of Jello. Believe it or not, I'm not usually a picky eater, but in the end I ate only the green beans and a buttered roll. What a waste, and I was hungry for the rest of the trip.<BR><BR>I'd take a fresh sandwich and a bag of Lay's anytime.

fiona

BA already does deli sandwiches on some flights. They are so much better than the usuaul meals! You can also eat when you want.

Jayelle

Some airlines do now serve a sandwich, chips, a cookie, and maybe a piece of fruit as the meal in coach. I also prefer this to most of the hot meals served in coach class.

TriedBUTfailed

Some airlines tried this. Some let you grab a bag lunch on your way on board. Some had famous brand hot sandwiches, calzones, wraps, etc. We must be desperate, though, if we're saying that fast food by the likes of Subway is good food.

Patrick

American was doing it for a while on domestic flights. You'd pick up your "Bistro Bag" as you left the terminal to the loading platform. I thought it was great, and sure beat the poor attempts at hot meals -- but everybody around me seemed to do nothing but complain about how "cheap" AA had become. Did that mean those people actually preferred the stuff like pureed lasagna or mystery meat surprise? Or did they just like to gripe?

elvira

I'm thinking that the hot meals are more economical - like tv dinners, a whole bunch are made up and frozen for use whenever - they probably keep forever. Sandwiches, on the other hand, become pretty yucky after a day in a refrigerator, so they probably have to be made up ad hoc.<BR><BR>Why not, with each airline ticket on flights with meal service, be given a coupon for $5 or $10? If you want meal service, check the box "hot meal (maybe with two choices listed?)" or "sandwich (again, with two choices)" and turn it in within 24 hours of the flight; if not, then check the box "credit only" and use it toward the next ticket purchase? Heck, let me save 'em, and turn in 10 for $100 off my next flight! The airlines would have an exact count, guaranteed everyone would eat the food (they "paid" for it, didn't they? Who'd waste "the money"?), and those who hate airline food could bring aboard their own food and get something for the effort. <BR><BR>Just PLEASE keep the free drinks coming.

brownie

Actually I've noticed that airline food on the south-east asian airlines have improved quite a bit.<BR><BR>I think the best has been Malaysia Airlines.. it was not only edible, but enjoyable and I've flown them a few times. I will find out about Singapore Airlines next week when I fly europe-australia.<BR><BR>So far Malaysian Airlines and Thai Airways has been good. <BR><BR>And while flying Basel-Copenhagen on crossair ... there must plenty of goodies like chocolate and ice-cream (ahh.. those haagen-dass) to keep me going.

Susan

Being in the food service business let me suggest why the proposal above about people "ordering" their meal wouldn't work. Say Delta in Atlanta for example has a contract to provide 6,000 meals per day at a contracted price of $1.50 each (just a really wild guess). Do you think the food provider would be interested in letting them keep that price if instead they would get a daily or even weekly re-accounting of 2,000 meals of one kind, 2,000 or another, and cancelling 2,000 from the usual order? I would suspect the provider would instead double their price per meal at least as it would now be impossible to place orders and make advance preparations.

Nancy

This is the best idea yet. Using fresh sandwiches from Subway or the like would be so much better. I swear the food is getting worse on airlines. Glop is a great description. Even if the airlines added $2.00 to get a decent sandwich (not the snack sandwiches which are dry and awful) it would be worth it. I'm planning to get more organized before flights to pick up a fresh sandwich to take aboard or carry on homemade. The airline food is really disgusting.

jon

Buzz: <BR>Surely not your intention (or perhaps it is??????) but your title is evoking<BR>Jonathan Swift's essay "A Modest Proposal". If you're not familiar with it, perhaps you should look it up, because it makes for an odd title for a discussion of airline food...

rand

It sounds like a good idea, but you know it would end up tasting like a sandwich bought from a gas station on an interstate.

Ruth

Jon - your comment about Swift's "A Modest Proposal" was EXACTLY what went through my head when I read the title.....

Kavey

Personally I like the idea of cheaper fares and take my own food - I do it on shorter journeys like Easyjet and prefer it.<BR><BR>But I think that as soon as airlines started giving a voucher out, they'd just move towards not giving anything at all, with some excuse, "We are discounting the price of the ticket by $5" - yeah right, and prices would be the same or higher with no food and no voucher.<BR><BR>I recall when EasyJet were new, and I was happily travelling on them, and about to book another flight for a work trip.<BR><BR>The flight was &pound;50 and the nearest competitor was over &pound;200 I kid you not. And someone asked why I would want to travel on such a no frills airline, no food no seat allocations etc.<BR><BR>I had to point out that I didn’t really have SUCH a strong preference for seat allocation that I’d pay &pound;150 for it and if I wanted to I could get a &pound;50 luxury food hamper from Harrods or anywhere and still be &pound;100 better off.<BR><BR>I am happy to travel on an airline that doesn’t provide (as long as they allow me to carry on a small coolbag) but only if this is reflected in prices when compared with other airlines still offering the food.<BR><BR>Kavey

lori

Having just returned from Spain yesterday via Delta, I do have a gripe here about the food. We were given a sandwich, if you could call it that. It had a piece of salami, and a piece of dried cheese. No mustard, no mayo, no tomato, no lettuce. It was gross! I asked where the cappichino chocolate was that was listed on the dessert menu. Alas! I was flipped a 1" chocolate square. Needless to say, when we landed at JFK, I got off the plane to get food. (Thank you Chilli's!) When we boarded out next flight segment, the flight attendant said, "I wish you people didn't bring all that food on board, we can't take your trash". I quietly, (and this is not me) said, "Well, you took all the uneated food from our last leg and threw it out, I'm sure there won't be as much as on the last flight". She smiled and said she wouldn't be taking our trash. Guess where I put it????

Art

The last few trips I've taken I've been fortunate enough to be able to upgrade to business/first class. Although the food does not compare to a nice restaurant, it was quite good. This was on KLM, Olympic and American. If the airlines changed, I believe that it would be to have the passengers pick up a brown bag or not to offer food at all due to their contract with the caterers as spelled out above. I have had the misfortune to have had a few domestic brown bag lunches and they were awful.