In Flight Meals - Do you eat them?

[Quickstatus]

What happens to hot meals that don't get eaten?

 

[anat0l]

What happens to hot meals that don't get eaten?

Disposed at the target port, I guess.

Unless a route is double catered (i.e. catered at the original port for both the outbound and inbound-return journeys).

I assume the reasons the food can't be reused as such is due to the same reasons that restaurants / bakeries / etc. can't just give food away and must dispose of it, plus the additional risks associated with customs, quarantine, etc., even though in theory (or practice) there may be nothing wrong with the food.

 

[Quickstatus]

I wonder what the % of discard is?

 

[G00r]

Thank you to all those who say 'no' to a meal, because I often enjoy a second one (dunno what it is about airline food, the foiled sealed mystery box I guess).

And as for the off-topic customs search, try showing up with no luggage what so ever (last year UA bumped me off my flight but sent my luggage ahead of me {i volunteered for $} and this year I just dumped everything in BKK). Then you're guaranteed 20 questions by customs and AFP

 

[Denali]

....try showing up with no luggage what so ever ....

Last month my husband didn't tick the do you know whats in your bag question because, well I pack our bags and technically he didn't have bags because I claim them as mine (because I pack them) although legally his name is on the bag checkin tag.

Customs: Sir. Can you tell me why you don't know whats in your bags?
Husband: Mate. Ive been married almost 15yrs, I don't question her anymore. She tells me where and when we are going and I just leave her to pack the bags the way she wants. Its safer that way.

Not every day you make the customs guys laugh.

 

[seanpodge]

I pretty much eat anything offered to me. It's all part of the experience and usually the food (even in Y) is pretty decent, I think. That said, my brother refuses to eat any food on a plane. :shock:

Agree

I loath the full meal service airlines usually do after, say a 11pm departure (noise etc when trying to sleep).

I was on SQ218 last week which departed at 1:00 AM and they still had a meal service after take off, which I thought was really strange. Surely just about everyone on that flight would want to sleep as soon as they got their seat belts on? Maybe offer a light snack (e.g. sandwich, bowl of noodles) but a full dinner is pretty overboard, I think. Save it for breakfast.

 

[ish]

I usually eat the meal (when I can, special meal and all the issues that go with that). Sometimes though if I have a lot of work to do on the flight I choose not to have the meal because I don't want to wait forever for the tray to be cleared away and the laptop to come back out....

 

[ozkid]

I always set my watch to the destination port, and the meals are timed for that (as much as possible). So sometimes that means I tell the FA I would skip the service, but do you mind setting some food aside when I wake up - I do get some funny looks but most of the time I get an understanding nod.
But also I'd rate QF business class food pretty highly - hats off to the pony tailed chef. I didn't like the CX business offering for dinner HKG-JFK last month for example, it was overdone and not that tasty

 

[scaredeycat]

I eat about 50% of the meals offered to me and politely decline the rest. Long haul I prefer a decent meal in the lounge; the last thing I need to disturb precious sleep is reflux provoked by overheating in flight. I find some trip reports quite disgusting when they describe in quasi-coughographic detail travellers debauching themselves in Bacchanalian feasts. No wonder the world is full of hypertensive diabetics with sleep apnoea and coronary artery disease.

 

[harvyk]

Even if I've had something to eat in the lounge before flying I'll still have the meal when on the plane. Especially if it's a flight which I know the meal schedule quite well, I'll adjust the amount I eat in the lounge to suit what I need to keep me going until the meal service on the plane.

The way I figure it is when on the ground I have a choice of activities to do, from sitting at the window with a G&T in hand (and rarely although it does happen, my laptop out busy trying to get the last few moments of work in) to walking around the DF stores figuring that I'm about to have 14 hours of sitting still so it's a good chance to stretch the legs.

Personally I've tried to work on planes, and it doesn't work. Unless you have a tiny laptop Y is no place to work, and even in J I find it hard to concentrate, plus the lack of internet access (yes I realise this is a problem which is been slowly solved) is also a problem in my line of work.

When traveling I try and do all my prep work for the trip well before I even get near an airport. The way I figure it is if I'm still doing prep work by the time I get to the airport, I've failed. (Personal opinion which is suitable for my job, but not all)

 

[Jos888]

I tend to eat most of what's offered, it helps pass the time. But last week on a flight from Hobart to Melbourne in Y we were given a snack of some awful tasting biscuits and caramelized onion dip. Could not eat this and didn't need it either. On a just over one hour flight is it even necessary to have anything? I would say most of those snacks would have been thrown out.

 

[harvyk]

On a just over one hour flight is it even necessary to have anything?

Yes... I still remember when proper meals where offered on all flights, regardless of length.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

On a just over one hour flight is it even necessary to have anything? I would say most of those snacks would have been thrown out.

Perhaps that is their strategy? Enhance the snack service to such a degree that people wonder the purpose, then they can remove them 'following passenger demand'.

 

[harvyk]

Perhaps that is their strategy? Enhance the snack service to such a degree that people wonder the purpose, then they can remove them 'following passenger demand'.

Like because I think you could be right on their strategy, not because I like the strategy.

 

[Katie]

I normally eat on almost all flights. Occasionally haven't eaten or eaten much when I'm on a domestic connection to SYD before an intl departure, as I'd rather eat in the FLounge.

However, my Little Miss is not keen on eating in flights, or if she is, not often at defined meal times. Mr Katie flew LAX-BNE with her last year, and she was asleep before takeoff, or shortly thereafter. She managed to sleep for quite some time, 10 or so hours, and he reported to me afterwards that the FAs were practially beside themselves in trying to ensure that she ate. As she's unpredictable in these situations, and it's pretty much impossible to force food into an 8yo, I travel with snacks for her (shapes, fruit poles, individual cereal boxes, etc) if she gets hungry at an inopportune time.

 

[ausfox]

I accepted a boxed meal in Y on QF465 last night. Chicken on potato salad. I ate the 3 small slices of braised chicken on the top of the onion flavoured par cooked potato salad and closed the box. If this is the best Neil Perry can do he needs to go back to TAFE and revise cooking palatable food 101.

 

[hossein_au]

I accepted a boxed meal in Y on QF465 last night. Chicken on potato salad. I ate the 3 small slices of braised chicken on the top of the onion flavoured par cooked potato salad and closed the box. If this is the best Neil Perry can do he needs to go back to TAFE and revise cooking palatable food 101.

Note that they are all "Neil Perry Inspired" dishes. This is politician talk for "we looked at some photos in Neil Perry's cookbook and then felt inspired to cook whatever..."

 

[harvyk]

Note that they are all "Neil Perry Inspired" dishes. This is politician talk for "we looked at some photos in Neil Perry's cookbook and then felt inspired to cook whatever..."

I thought it was Neil Perry came in, said "you know what, this probably won't taste too bad" and then handed the recipe over to the catering company whom will then turn out 10,000 of those dishes.

The reality is they will put as much love and attention as someone who is boiling spuds for 10,000 dinners can actually put into it.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Note that they are all "Neil Perry Inspired" dishes. This is politician talk for "we looked at some photos in Neil Perry's cookbook and then felt inspired to cook whatever..."

So this begs the question... if people actually sent NP pictures of their inflight meals, which he supposedly puts his name to, would he either (a) fix it up or (b) continue to take his fee from QF and leave things as they are? If it's (b) he loses even more respect.

There really is no excuse for some of the meals that go out from QF catering. IIRC I read somewhere NP randomly takes flights to check the meals... but given his name must be on the manifest, I suspect the batch for his flight is somewhat better prepared?

 

[harvyk]

So this begs the question... if people actually sent NP pictures of their inflight meals, which he supposedly puts his name to, would he either (a) fix it up or (b) continue to take his fee from QF and leave things as they are? If it's (b) he loses even more respect.

There really is no excuse for some of the meals that go out from QF catering. IIRC I read somewhere NP randomly takes flights to check the meals... but given his name must be on the manifest, I suspect the batch for his flight is somewhat better prepared?

I've just legally changed my name to Neil Perry , the thought of perfect grub on every flight I take is pretty appealing.