Some airlines are beginning to offer meals, at a price. Until they're all on board, get packing.
By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published December 14, 2003
Stop me if you've heard this one before: Airline food is getting better.
Cut the guffaws, and let go of that memory of gray flannel "stewardesses" serving steaks on china with metal cutlery. The new reality is closer to charming stories of a second-class train coach in Italy, in which a family across the aisle sliced up garlicky salami and crusty bread and offered you some. Cold, simple food.
Obviously the knife won't fly through post-9/11 security, but the concept of an in-flight picnic does. For if the food on board improves, it's because you picked it - and paid for it item by item.
If a flight this holiday season is your first in a while, you won't have much airline food to kick around. Cutbacks throughout the industry have virtually eliminated the complimentary meal for coach passengers on flights of two hours or less.
Southwest and its copycat no-frills carriers were the first to switch to soft drinks and munchies a few years back. But when the travel market collapsed two years ago under the weight of terrorism fears and online scavenging for low fares, the big airlines followed suit. That saved the carriers $2 to $4 per ticket in meal service, and it taught smart passengers to eat in the airport, carry aboard takeout from their hotels or pack a lunch.
Today you get a free meal or snack on most U.S. airlines only if you're on a flight of four hours or more, usually flying international or transcontinental, or flying in first class.
And while some airlines still list such options from the standard meal served such as bland, low salt, kosher and Hindu, other carriers have reduced or limited such options to the passengers who paid higher fares.
One exception is Continental, which still serves meals on flights as short as two hours. This is an effort to distinguish the airline from competitors, and Continental can rely on an in-house catering company. Other carriers are bringing back food, but it is offered with a big difference: a price tag.
Within the past year, many carriers began testing the idea, on at least some flights, of selling the food to passengers. Choices typically range from $2 candy bars to sandwiches and salads for $7 to $10, sold from a sort of onboard deli or at the gate before boarding.
Song, Delta's new venture with cheap fares and expensive advertising, pitches its meals with as much trendy copy writing as fresh ingredients. The onboard menu touts an $8 fajita wrap: "Is it old-fashioned roast beef? Or nouveau Mexican? An interesting question to chew. An even more interesting sandwich." Not necessarily. Although it brags of meat from big-name Niman Ranch, you couldn't tell it from the beef sliced at your supermarket deli.
Salads are a reasonable Greek and Asian chicken-orange, and there's a fair-portioned cheese and grape platter for $4. Ads celebrate the food as hip and organic, which is true about Fetzer's Bonterra wines and Stonyfield yogurt - but a strange classification for Kraft Lunchables, Doritos and Mrs. Fields cookies. (Our vintner recommends these with a glass of 2 percent milk.) Still, that is not quite the same old lyric. If you hold the baloney, the new look of onboard air fare is simple, cold and paid for by the customer.
It was an idea that originated with LSG Sky Chefs, the Lufthansa caterer and biggest concessionaire for all the airlines. After the American market declined, Lufthansa pitched the idea of a la carte meals, as were used by low-cost airlines in Europe.
LSG cited passenger surveys that said, surprise, airline food should be improved.
More instructive were findings that passengers would pay, and that what they wanted most was a fresh salad and a good sandwich.
"We can do that," says Steve Mullen of LSG's headquarters in Dallas. He added that the airline caterers have the talent - 600 chefs worldwide for LSG - to make everything from a $2 economy meal in coach to four-course banquets in first class on an international flight.
So LSG's In-Flight Cafe now serves select routes on a half-dozen airlines, including 14 U.S. Airways flights out of Tampa daily.
Food for Song and other airlines is prepared by Gate Gourmet, another large airline caterer. Although he would not reveal the exact economics, at current prices there is more money spent for better ingredients, and the meal requirements are simpler. So the food ought to be better.
Naturally, the particular choices match trends: smoked turkey in wraps or on focaccia, Caesar salad with grilled chicken. Of course there's no plain mayonnaise; every dressing supposedly has cumin, sun-dried tomatoes, basil or chipotle.
As the idea evolves and expands, passengers on all carriers may see lower prices (LSG is working on a $5 box snack) and eventually may have the ability to pay with a credit card.
Now, all travelers who want to eat on board have a choice of strategies. It may be easy to beat the typical $8 price, but you must factor in how much time you have, how far in advance you plan and how far you want to carry the food, a calculus already known to parents of young children. Here are some tips:
PACK A BROWN BAG AT HOME. For the greatest choice and the cheapest cost, do it yourself. Why gripe that no one serves macrobiotic meals or low-carb snacks? You can put any food in your carryon that fits in a plastic food-storage bag, from slices of leftover steak to granola.
Put the premium on foods that are compact, nutrient-dense, taste good cold and ideally are spill proof. Nuts, hard-boiled eggs, protein bars, rice cakes, apples, bananas and yogurt (double bagged to be safe) are smart choices.
Supermarket sushi and ready-to-eat packs of cheese and crackers or tuna salad that are designed for school or work lunches can serve as store-bought, in-flight meals.
Don't forget condiments and utensils you saved from takeout meals. And napkins and towelettes. Your parents, and your kids, will be proud.
ON THE WAY TO THE AIRPORT. Leave enough time to pick up your favorite takeout food. You will get a bigger selection and lower prices than at the airport, but remember you've got to juggle the food and your luggage from baggage check-in all the way into the plane.
Be aware that while Chili's and Carrabba's pack plenty of food to go, their packing may not as compact or as secure as you need. Take a plastic grocery bag to be extra secure. Another caution: It's best to call in your order if you'll be in a hurry.
Sandwiches are the best bet, from your favorite sub shop, supermarket or deli if it's on the way to the airport.
A pressed Cuban sandwich just might fit in a suit pocket. Greek salads and Caesar salads can be good, but make sure the package fits in your carryon and that the dressing doesn't leak.
Last chance stop: Convenience stores typically stock prewrapped sandwiches and sometimes salads.
AT TAMPA INTERNATIONAL: After you check your luggage, you have less to carry - and the choice to buy food or to eat before or after going through security.
Concessionaires on both sides of the gate are eager to fill the gaps in airline food with grab-and-go or takeout. A server at TIA's Casa Bacardi airside lounge said a sandwich to go would take four minutes to prepare; a test order later lived up to the promise.
The landside terminal has the greatest variety, from 99-cent items at Burger King and Taco Bell to full meals at the Wharf and TGI Friday's (for carryout, go directly to the bar).
Best landside deal is the Wall Street Deli, tucked in a far corner of the terminal; $5.99 sandwiches are made fresh and are generous enough to feed two.
If you don't want to juggle lunch or dinner through security lines and X-ray machines, wait until you get to your gate, but note that the menu offerings differ at each TIA airside. As for drinks, airlines still provide free soft drinks, coffee and tea.
Airside A is the one perfumed with Cinnabon, Pizza Hut, Nathan's and Taste of Tampa, another source of Cuban sandwiches. Best buy may be a 99-cent bag of cinnamon sticks with icing on the side for dipping - or skipping.
The most limited offerings are at Airside D, but it does have the same yogurt, bottled water, Starbucks muffins and 99-cent apples and bananas as the other airsides. And passengers can get a grilled sandwich to go. Smartest choice for health and economy is probably a $4.27 chef's salad.
Airside E is flashier, with a gelato stand, 13-ounce sandwiches ($7.48) at Starbucks, and stuffed flatbread sandwiches. Casa Bacardi ships a lot of Cuban sandwiches onto the planes. Best bet is a $6.49 sandwich of grilled zucchini and squash.
Airside F has a Chili's with express service, a flatbread station and shelves of big, ready-made sandwiches, plus the Starbucks sandwiches. It also has what may be the best deal anywhere at TIA in Chick-fil-A: a char-grilled chicken sandwich for $2.69, $1.29 fries and 99-cent brownies.
ON BOARD. If you aren't hungry enough to eat soon after wheels-up, there may well be someone selling food on this flight or the next. So pack cash instead of lunch.
Or just maybe that family from the Italian train will be on your flight and will still be happy to share.
