Just getting through the TSA security mess....usually gets me peppy and negative. The idiot questions asked by the scanning my passport usually bother me. The pricing of any food or drink at the airport bother me. The uncomfortable seating arrangements and knee room bother me. The delays which occur in good weather or bad weather. I even get negative about the walking distance between leaving plane A at gate 6 in terminal one.....and trying to cross over to gate 12 in terminal two....in twenty-two minutes and just barely making it before they close the door (an often-repeating Atlanta and Philly issue).
Then I come to the food onboard planes today. Since August of 1977 (when the Air Force sent me on my first trip to basic training) to today....I can truthfully say that I've only had two decent meals or dinners in that entire time frame. The other two-hundred dinners were all crap.
The Air Force put me on a cargo plane one day, and rather than the traditional cheap meats or ham sandwich box.....they put in four big pieces of deep-fried chicken, from the local chow-hall operation. It was some of the best chicken I've had in my life, and sipping a Coke as refreshment.....I still regard that dinner as one of the better ones.
The other one was a two-hour flight from Luxembourg City to Paris.....where Lux Air pulled out a box with five-star deli sandwich, a couple of great cookies, and some fantastic pudding. An extra fatty situation? Oh yeah. But it was actually worth eating.
The problem with the whole airline food situation is that it has to be done for roughly $3, fit onto a tray, be heatable, and meet some basic nutritional guidelines. Once you add all of these up.....it's impossible to come to a decent conclusion.
I get around this problem today....mostly by eating a dinner or lunch prior to getting onboard. I've given up. Yeah, I admit it......you can't get on the plane and have any expectations of a decent plate of airline food. I've even gotten to bringing my own cookies with me.
Would it make any difference if suddenly some airline offered a mini Pizza Hut pizza with their travel deal? I'm not sure. Would it drive me to fly a certain airline, if I knew they all offered Domino's pizza slices? Maybe. I'd probably sit there and debate the cost of the ticket, and just how much it'd mean in value.
Are we improving any with these airline dinners? No. I can truthfully say after thirty-odd years of travel.....there's absolutely zero improvement. That's the strange thing. We have perhaps....peaked, and cannot get any better. That....in some ways....ought to worry you.
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