15 ms·

Once they have sold you the ticket though they are free to extort you e.g. on meals. Sure you could BYO for the 14 hr flight but ... yuk!

mikeash 10y ago
I've not seen such a long flight where meals are paid. Once you reach that timescale, food becomes non-optional. I have had 14 hour flights where the food was so bad that it wasn't even worth getting it for free, so it can still go wrong that way.
- ohwello 10y ago
  Norwegian Air does not serve free food on transcontinental flights. Fine by me, I'm comfortable surviving 12 hours without eating hot food, in fact I do it almost every day.
  - jacobush 10y ago
    I guess you are Norwegian. Smörgåslunch?
  - wott 10y ago
    Not getting Norwegian food is a service.
- arghimonmobile 10y ago
  Melbourne to Singapore recently was 7+h with no included food, only dubious snacks Easyjet-style. And in contradiction to another comment here, the email confirming my booking explicitly stated that no outside food and drink was allowed on-board. It's anyone's guess how,well that's enforced, but on first evaluation, if that's not extortion, I don't know what is.
  - mikeash 10y ago
    Seven hours with no included food would be OK in my view. I'd start to draw the line around 10 hours. Really, as long as they're up-front about it (both the fact that there's no free food, and what they sell and the prices), I'd be OK regardless. However, banning outside food and drink is ridiculous. I'd get right on ignoring that, and if they were somehow able to enforce it, I'd stop traveling with them.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- monksy 10y ago
  The 5 hour flight of Charlotte to Aurba (US Airways) was a pay for lunch deal. Shame for an international flight.
  - jeffwilcox 10y ago
    Many airlines do not consider Central America or Caribbean to be actual international flights from North America. You can usually tell in whether they offer a true business class cabin or just a first class cabin like other domestic flights. :/
eh78ssxv2f 10y ago
I do not understand this. Do other means of transport provide free food? I have traveled cross-country in Greyhound. Never got free food. What is that about airline travel that people want cheap, and still want luxury?
- diogenescynic 10y ago
  Greyhounds usually at least stop for food. Airplanes cannot.
  - hyperbovine 10y ago
    Greyhound takes 8 hours to go from LA to San Francisco. What choice do they have?
    - maneesh 10y ago
      I've been on 13-hour transatlantic flights. They've never once stopped so I could get lunch.
- SixSigma 10y ago
  The irony is airlines included free food to get people on board.
- vertex-four 10y ago
  Weirdly, the low-cost long-distance bus service in the UK has an option for food, drink, more reliably available wifi and better seating at not much more in cost if you're clever about it, in the form of Megabus/Citylink Gold. Its higher-cost competitor, National Express, stops at service stations on certain routes and provides vouchers for the cafes/restaurants there. (They also often make stops at large bus stations for upwards of quarter of an hour, allowing people to get food from surrounding shops.) And at times, you can get first class on the trains at less additional cost than the wifi would cost - with comfier seating, free wifi, multiple meals, and free alcohol. I have a suspicion the issue isn't really the lack of service, it's that either you get nickle and dimed or the next step up is an order of magnitude higher in price.
snrplfth 10y ago
So instead of bundling into your ticket price the cost of food you may not want or like, they allow people who bring their own to save money, and only charge those who consume that particular good. Apparently this is "extortion", somehow? Nonsense.
- saiya-jin 10y ago
  liquids are, since you cannot bring anything through security checkin. and if you don't drink a single drop on that 14h flight, well you are an exception
  - snrplfth 10y ago
    Then buy a drink and pack your own food. In any case, it's hardly the airlines' fault that liquids can't come through security. I just do not see what is so bad about unbundling food from ticket price.
    - fornever 10y ago
      If everyone would start bringing their own food that would lead to a huge mess of transporting, storing, unpacking, preparing and disposing of food in all sorts of random ways at various times throughout the flight by the hundreds of hungry sleep deprived passengers. Airports would be even less efficient going through security, vendors trying to sell food to go and people congregating to buy things. There's really enough general unbundling of comfort and efficiency at airports already. I would definitely pay more if even more things was standardized and included for everyone on the flight (like luggage, security, airport seating).
      - JoeAltmaier 10y ago
        Or, people could suck it up and not eat for an hour or two. Sure on longer flights a meal is welcome, but even missing a meal should not be a terrible burden.
        10y ago

mikeash 10y ago

I've not seen such a long flight where meals are paid. Once you reach that timescale, food becomes non-optional. I have had 14 hour flights where the food was so bad that it wasn't even worth getting it for free, so it can still go wrong that way.

ohwello 10y ago
Norwegian Air does not serve free food on transcontinental flights. Fine by me, I'm comfortable surviving 12 hours without eating hot food, in fact I do it almost every day.
- jacobush 10y ago
  I guess you are Norwegian. Smörgåslunch?
- wott 10y ago
  Not getting Norwegian food is a service.
arghimonmobile 10y ago
Melbourne to Singapore recently was 7+h with no included food, only dubious snacks Easyjet-style. And in contradiction to another comment here, the email confirming my booking explicitly stated that no outside food and drink was allowed on-board. It's anyone's guess how,well that's enforced, but on first evaluation, if that's not extortion, I don't know what is.
- mikeash 10y ago
  Seven hours with no included food would be OK in my view. I'd start to draw the line around 10 hours. Really, as long as they're up-front about it (both the fact that there's no free food, and what they sell and the prices), I'd be OK regardless. However, banning outside food and drink is ridiculous. I'd get right on ignoring that, and if they were somehow able to enforce it, I'd stop traveling with them.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
monksy 10y ago
The 5 hour flight of Charlotte to Aurba (US Airways) was a pay for lunch deal. Shame for an international flight.
- jeffwilcox 10y ago
  Many airlines do not consider Central America or Caribbean to be actual international flights from North America. You can usually tell in whether they offer a true business class cabin or just a first class cabin like other domestic flights. :/

eh78ssxv2f 10y ago

I do not understand this. Do other means of transport provide free food? I have traveled cross-country in Greyhound. Never got free food. What is that about airline travel that people want cheap, and still want luxury?

diogenescynic 10y ago
Greyhounds usually at least stop for food. Airplanes cannot.
- hyperbovine 10y ago
  Greyhound takes 8 hours to go from LA to San Francisco. What choice do they have?
  - maneesh 10y ago
    I've been on 13-hour transatlantic flights. They've never once stopped so I could get lunch.
SixSigma 10y ago
The irony is airlines included free food to get people on board.
vertex-four 10y ago
Weirdly, the low-cost long-distance bus service in the UK has an option for food, drink, more reliably available wifi and better seating at not much more in cost if you're clever about it, in the form of Megabus/Citylink Gold. Its higher-cost competitor, National Express, stops at service stations on certain routes and provides vouchers for the cafes/restaurants there. (They also often make stops at large bus stations for upwards of quarter of an hour, allowing people to get food from surrounding shops.) And at times, you can get first class on the trains at less additional cost than the wifi would cost - with comfier seating, free wifi, multiple meals, and free alcohol. I have a suspicion the issue isn't really the lack of service, it's that either you get nickle and dimed or the next step up is an order of magnitude higher in price.

snrplfth 10y ago

So instead of bundling into your ticket price the cost of food you may not want or like, they allow people who bring their own to save money, and only charge those who consume that particular good. Apparently this is "extortion", somehow? Nonsense.

saiya-jin 10y ago
liquids are, since you cannot bring anything through security checkin. and if you don't drink a single drop on that 14h flight, well you are an exception
- snrplfth 10y ago
  Then buy a drink and pack your own food. In any case, it's hardly the airlines' fault that liquids can't come through security. I just do not see what is so bad about unbundling food from ticket price.
  - fornever 10y ago
    If everyone would start bringing their own food that would lead to a huge mess of transporting, storing, unpacking, preparing and disposing of food in all sorts of random ways at various times throughout the flight by the hundreds of hungry sleep deprived passengers. Airports would be even less efficient going through security, vendors trying to sell food to go and people congregating to buy things. There's really enough general unbundling of comfort and efficiency at airports already. I would definitely pay more if even more things was standardized and included for everyone on the flight (like luggage, security, airport seating).
    - JoeAltmaier 10y ago
      Or, people could suck it up and not eat for an hour or two. Sure on longer flights a meal is welcome, but even missing a meal should not be a terrible burden.
      - 10y ago