New airline food makes critics eat their words

Give me a break. The airlines can say all they want about their gourmet meals but it is always an entirely different story as you sit there and eat this crap. I am a frequent business traveler with Delta, who recently unrolled their new gourmet meals designed by some chef I have never heard of. It doesn't matter what the food tastes or looks like in their testing labs. There is no such thing as good food on a plane. So just imagine taking that designer food, putting it into storage bins for how knows how long, then over cooking it to death in the heating chamber on a plane. There is just no such thing as good food on a plane. I was recently on a flight to China and I was in first class. Every meal was disgusting. The person sitting next to me and I were laughing at every meal because we were comparing the pictures in the Delta Airlines magazine to what was really on our plates. We couldn't even tell they were supposed to be the same thing, but apparently they were. It was some chicken dish that had the same consistency as leather and pasta that looked like it sat in a refrigerator with the plastic wrap pulled back so it got refrigerator burns on it. They not only looked terrible, they tasted terrible. As usual, I just picked at the gormet meals and then pulled out my zone bars that I always carry in my brief case. I would be so happy with just a plate of cold cuts and some fresh vegetables or a salad. Nothing cooked please. Good food on a plane will never happen until they actually put in functional kitchens and not just re-heating pre-prepared food. I normally pass on the food unless I'm on an international flight. Even after 14 hours on a plane with minimal food, the food still is disgusting and I usually don't eat much of it.

I can see providing a meal for an international flight, but on a flight within the U.S. there is no reason to feed the cattle! If fat America can not go a few hours without a meal, then they had better stuff their pockets and purses before bording. Liquids yes, food no.

Are you kidding? I bring some snacks that can't be mistaken for bombs by the goons at TSA, try to get an overpriced bottle of water from some shop on the concourse, and take care of myself. The last time I forgot to do this, I was reduced to begging for a second bag of mini-pretzels to go with my Diet Coke, and you know, some things just aren't worth it.

Airplanes used to be a pleasurable way to travel. My parents took me everywhere as a kid in the early 70s and we'd look forward to comfortable seats, tasty if not abundant food, gracious service, sometimes a complimentary deck of cards.

Airplanes are now completely disgusting experiences. I get on a plane and try to quickly fall asleep to get past the tension, banality, hostility and tedium of the experience. The food they serve, or don't serve, is equivalent to the contempt they have for the customer.

I agree that the food on US airlines is sadly unappetizing. What puzzles me is what we have on British Air, KLM, Austrian Air, etc. I recently flew Austria Air from O'Hare to Vienna, and we had fresh-tasting hot rolls (seconds, too) real silverware, and the food was not overcooked; plus a complimentary glass of wine, with refills if we liked. I have never had a decent meal with Delta, and the others aren't much better.

The last "good" meal I had on an airline was in 1960 when I flew home from San Antonio, Texas. That was on a Braniff DC-7 and the food was as good as any restaurant could put out.

The last meal I had on an airline flight was delicious! We boiled a rich man from First Class and all shared him.
Eat The Rich :)

The last flight I took was in April. Alaska Air round trip Portland OR/Chicago coach class. Most flights of this length I would not pay the Business or 1st class fare. The only food available was a sandwich or cheese pack for $5. My wife and I had the sandwich which was better than the terminal deli $7.95 deal. Plus, non alcoholic drinks and the package snacks were gratis. The service was efficient and friendly. It would be nice if they offered something a little upscale for an additional price. On the return flight we skipped the food and had a nice dinner at the Portland airport. PDX has some nice restaurants. I usually fly coach so the food is not an issue. You can always pack an individual cooler with your favorite eats and take it as a carry on.

I just flew last week & had to purchase a bag of mixed nuts, a bottle of water and a diet pop.

I have not had an actual meal on an airplane in YEARS!

I love the taste of Oligarch a la Commune avec Barricades, myself. So I would love to know what airline Phil Commander was flying...

Otherwise, you have to be kidding. Airline food? The various US carriers cannot be relied on to do anything other than snarl at the passenger about how they are there to save his/her ass, not to serve those nominally fare paying pax... I do not do anywhere near the amount of long haul flying I used to, and I ended up enslaved to American's FF program, but I recall that the business class trans oceanic food was mainly awful, with the occasional surprise out of CDG back toward the States. (No idea where the catering actually was from.) Nowadays, the longest flight I take is the 4-5 hour ORD>SJU run, which really ought to have a biz class food service that is not artfully arranged dog poo, as it is marginally less time in the air than a JFK>CDG or LHR trip.

Domestic Thai flight from Chiang Mai to Koh Samui, a hot meal served to a full A320 economy class cabin on a flight that was 50 minutes from wheels up to touchdown. THAT is customer service. US carriers take note - as Open Skies takes off, so to speak, expect more of us to use foreign flag carriers for whatever domestic flying we can. And stop with the safety crapola, you service your planes in the same pestilential 'emerging' countries they do. Face facts, your product is broken because you thought that people were/are stupid that we cannot add all the gnat-fees and subtract all the missing amenities to the 'competitively low fares' you tout. Some people shop Target for a reason, it ain't all about price.

Shortly you airlines will need or demand govenment help. This time, it comes with a price tag, namely, that you improve service, make rational use of airports instead of scheduling 90 departures at a time when you KNOW the airport can only handle 60, and stop paying astronomical salaries to executives who proceed to ride the airline down into the ground. Oh, yes, by the way: resort to Chapter 11 as a means of bargaining with labor will result in the complete loss of my business. Start under-promising and over-delivering for a change: it's a proven winner of a strategy.

The last time I went flying it was business class on Delta, Air France and Korean Airlines (ATL-CDG-HKG- ICN-NRT-CDG-ATL). The food on Delta was pretty good. It wasn't the greatest.

Air France was a whole lot better, except for the "Asian noodle snack" offered later on, which was Cup O'Noodles. The good parts of the Air France meals were the fact that the foie gras was really good, along with the entrees. One of the best things was the Szechuan chocolate tort I had for a dinner dessert on one flight.

The bibimbap offered on KAL was fantastic, as you were able to make it as spicy as you wanted (it was so good that I ordered it on each of the 2 flight legs on KAL).

As I don't drink, I cannot comment on the alcoholic beverages offered.

What about Midwest Air? Anyone fly with them lately? Haven't flown them in a while but they used to have great food and the baked onboard chocolate chip cookies. Went to Alaska on Alaska Airlines last summer and had a great big hamburger. Wasn't the best I ever had but it was very good. Big and warm.

...I can't honestly remember the last meal I had on a domestic flight (including Tampa to San Fran, Tampa to NYC, Atlanta to LAX)...I think it was around 1984.
Now for FOREIGN airlines - COPA (from Miami to Panama City, Panama) what a great meal of roast chicken, crisp vegetables, warm fresh bread and dessert and wine - and this was COACH. From Panama to Buenos Aires we dined on Pork Loin, green beans and chocolate cake. An hour before landing we had a breakfast of scrabbled eggs with ham and cheese. On the way back we had pancakes and bacon, fresh coffee...OH and then there were the snacks....
A week ago, I flew from Atlanta to Rochester NY in BUSINESS class (notice how "First Class" has disappeared from a lot of the airlines?) I was served ONE vodka Tonic and TWO Milano cookies...

A few weeks ago I flew coach from Boston to LAX on American Airlines. It was a morning flight so we were offered a 'fruit cup for $5 or a blah blah for $8.' I didn't even listen to their offerings however I did get a complimentary can of Spicy Bloody Marry mix and even an old lime! I looked over to someone who bought the fruit and it was that syrupy peel the lid back and slurp fruit cup. Simply an ugly thing to see at 8am.

I refuse to EAT anything the airlines serve. It's bad gas station grub or worse. I think the last thing I ate on a plane was a ham and cheese sandwich in 1995 going to Helsinki. It was our of pure desperation and a carnal need to eat SOMETHING on the 12 hour flight. The chicken cordon blue they were serving for dinner looked about as appetizing as a dirty diaper.

The last time I had a good meal was on SAS from JFK to Copenhagen. That was a long time ago. Nowadays they don't ever serve meals and charge 5.00 for a sandwich of dubious content. I take my own snacks from now on.

my last free meal on a plane was on hawaiian airlines and it was nasty! really small portion too. it tasted like one of those 99 cent frozen meals. maybe it was one. but the meal before that was on a singapore airlines flight to japan. dinner and b-fast were both good. it's hard to find a us airline i like. what's with charging for everything? even those "wings" they used to give kids are for sale now.

The absolute worst meal I ever had on a plane was last week on an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Madrid. The chicken (and everything else on the plate) was inedible. I cannot possible understand how the US airliners think that it is acceptable not feed you on a cross country flight from San Francisco to New York that you have paid around 800 dollars for, and yet on a 45 minute flight from Vienna to Frankfurt on Vienna Air that I paid around $70.00 for I was given a hot meal and complimentary wine in coach. Domestic airliners need to wake up and realise that as soon as customers can choose to fly international airliners within the US their revenues are going to crash.

Recently flew on American Airlines and was served a Hamburger. I blogged about it and even took a picture of what they served.