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How's the Food Up There?
The Travel Critic· September 13, 2000

My stomach still churns at the thought of the ham-and-cheese sandwich I ate on a recent flight between Atlanta and Baltimore.

The meat was embalmed in a generous layer of mayonnaise. The too-salty potato crisps soaked in a puddle of oil. The soggy lettuce was limp and flavorless. A man named Willie served it with all the enthusiasm of a baggage handler loading a heavy trunk onto a conveyor belt.

And that was before I boarded the flight.

I ordered this second-rate dinner at Hartsfield International Airport a few minutes prior to takeoff. The price of such unprincely fare? A princely $7.48.

Perhaps I should have considered the airline's alternative, a turkey sandwich with bottled water doled out to passengers in a deli bag as they boarded, but I was dubious. Like most other air travelers, I swallowed all of those stories about the awful state of in-flight grub, hook, line and sinker.

I should have taken the plane fare. Airline food industry executives insist their offerings are tasty, nutritious and better than the stuff inside the airport.

"There's a great deal of effort being made to improve airline meals on several fronts," says Bill Slay, a spokesman for LSG Sky Chefs, the nation's largest airline caterer.

Two years ago I gleefully reported that passengers in the know were shunning air fare for takeout that they brought on board. When I boarded the recent Atlanta-Baltimore flight, I assumed that I could find better food before I entered the plane.

I'm in good company. "Airline food has become so inconsistent that I have seen people bring their own lunch on board," says Stephen Frickx, an Oak Park, Illinois, financial manager. "Some are bought at the airport and some even made a sandwich at home and brought it along. If I could save some money by bringing my own meal on board, I would."

Maybe we should take a look - or a whiff - at some of the meals heading aloft these days.

United Airlines in August spiced up its bland economy-class meals with selections including ginger chicken with garlic rice, beef with hoisin sauce, chicken cacciatore, ricotta Florentine stuffed shells and beef brisket with two mushroom sauce and tricolor manicotti.

"United is not too bad lately,"admits Harold Hauser, a Niles, Illinois, computer instructor. "The food is actually edible - when they choose to serve meals."

Cooking is getting an upgrade, insists Slay. "Airlines are not only enhancing the food, but using well-known chefs to create and endorse the food," he says. "And they're also being more conscientious of the health quality of the food."

Indeed, times have been worse for the airborne gourmand, if spending for food is any indication of meal quality. The United States airline industry spent about $2.7 billion on in-flight meals last year, according to the Air Transport Association, a trade group for the major airlines. That's about 3.2 percent of carriers' total operating expenses. The percentage has fluctuated from a high of 3.9 percent in 1992 to a low of 2.8 percent in 1981.

It's difficult to gauge what our response has been to this quiet upgrade to the plane fare, because the U.S. Department of Transportation's customer-complaint categories don't include a specific slot for airline meals. Some grievances can fall under "customer service," while others might fall under the amorphous "other" category. Either way, it's hard to determine if passengers are complaining more or less about their chicken and beef entrees.

Note, however, that some flight crews are reported to be cracking down on carry-on meals brought on board by passengers who would rather not eat what the carrier wants to feed them. I've flown on TWA when employees banned food that didn't originate from their galleys. My contacts at United also tell me that some employees have forbidden carry-on food.

That suggests to some passengers that sky-high food is still hard to keep down if carriers are allowing their customers no other options.

"Food?" quips Tiffani Rak, a Bozeman, Montana, consultant. "What food? I didn't know the airlines still served food."

Lana Vrabel, a Chicago, Illinois, publicist, agrees. "Airline food? What's that? You mean, you've found an airline with real food?" she says. "I haven't been on an airline lately that serves any kind of meal at all."

Count Ed Geisler among the dyspeptic skeptics, too. "If flying economy, as I sometimes do on short trips, I either eat before boarding or afterward," he says. "I am not able to eat economy hot meals and really do not want the snacks."

Passengers may know what's best, says health advocate John Banzhaf, a professor of public-interest law at George Washington University. He points to numerous studies, including one by the online health site eFit.com, that suggest it's healthier to consume a McDonald's Big Mac, french fries and a strawberry sundae than to eat most airline dinners.

"The airlines may be making the meals better," he concedes, "but they're also making them fattier and saltier."

Bob Rosar, the corporate executive chef for airline caterer Gate Gourmet, dismisses those complaints. His company serves about 350,000 airline meals a day, making it the second-largest airline food company in the world. Gripes about air fare are "so cliched," he gripes.

"We're seeing a real increase in the quality of the food. Ten years ago, airlines were still serving a lot of 'mystery' food full of starch, fats and covered in gravy," he says. "Now we hardly see a chicken breast with skin anymore. Airlines are much more health conscious than they've ever been."

I also remain a doubter, but I'm willing to give this nouveau cuisine a try. It sounds more palatable than my dinner with Willie.

I can only hope it tastes better, too.

How to avoid a bad in-flight meal

Bring your own chow. But be discreet - some flight crews frown on bringing takeout with you.

Ask for a special meal, and do it at least 24 hours in advance. They're usually tastier and healthier.

Forgot to plan? If you didn't remember to ask for a special meal, wait until meal service ends. There are often unclaimed special meals available.

Sit at the front. First class gets the best food, but sit at the front of steerage for the best choice.

Don't do anything. If this trend holds, plane fare may actually become palatable again.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator and author of A Bridge to Nowhere: A Year in the Florida Keys. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.