Airlines Colluded to Ensure Onboard Food Would Be Awful

[taion]

I'm not sure why this piece mentions deregulation. The drinks limit was in 1956, while the sandwich spat was in 1958 – but deregulation wasn't until 1978, two decades later!

The collusion in question seems to only relate to regulation, which prohibited the airlines from competing on price. The incentives obviously don't work out the same with deregulation!

[masto]

It was kind of a weirdly written intro, but I think it was meant to set up "here are some examples of how ridiculous things were before deregulation".

[1vuio0pswjnm7]

It mentions deregulation because it is challenging a purported assumption that the only airline regulations before 1978 were those set by government.

Arguably it was the government regulation against competing on price that led to the industry regulations on food service. Airlines tried to compete on other bases so food service was much better than what it is today.

[j7ake]

This is obvious for anyone who took an airlines outside of USA eg Singapore air, Emirates, Cathay and ate real food with real cutlery and got a tub of hagendaz ice cream for dessert.

[wodenokoto]

Emirates?

Are we talking business or economy? Because emirates hasn’t served nice food on economy for years.

[yowzadave]

Interesting to hear that they serve a good American ice cream!

[chii]

good airline food but at a higher ticket price is not what consumers actually choose to buy. They'd rather suffer and get a discount on the ticket. They merely complain about that suffering.

[tracker1]

Didn't agree so much. I generally avoid air travel, when I have to, sometimes I'll bite the bullet for first class. I'll fly Delta over the cut rate carriers.

I'm not a luxury car guy... But have bought a few Buick cars along the way.

So I'll pay a premium for comfort and quality in general to a point. Not everyone does every time, but there should definitely be the option.

[anigbrowl]

Thanks for telling me what I want, I guess? there I was, being led astray by what I thought were my own preferences.

[ern]

Maybe that was the case pre-pandemic, but I shelled out for Business Class on a long-haul international flight, and it was worth it, and I'm not the only one: https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/travel/pointy-end-shake-...

Maybe we'll return to looking for lower costs, but an aging and wealthier world might prize comfort more than it did in the past.

[addicted]

Your answer is the only correct answer. The original article might have been correct for half a century ago but has nothing to do with today where food is universally bad on airplanes across the world with the only possible exception being airlines like Emirates whose business model is not to run an airline but to get people to fly to their host country.

[jevoten]

Charge $100 more for a ticket to get a slightly better sandwich, then claim the consumer chose the worse sandwich.

[SuperNinKenDo]

The fact that airlines chose this to compete on suggests they in fact believed that this was something that consumers at least value to a higher degree than some other amenities. Which suggests they would probably have price sensitivity to it at some level.

[stephenr]

Isn't the point that food in economy class is often worse than it needs to be for the cost, and food in first class is not good enough to justify the massively increased ticket price?

[jordanb]

Airline upgrades is a market for lemons. Even if you, say, buy an upgraded seat you may get sat next to a big guy or a rowdy child and then your seat sucks. Instead you have to pay much more (sometimes multiple times a main-cabin ticket) for the cabins up front and even then you might have to set next to a drunk businessman.

If you complain you will get told there's nothing that can be done. Even if you get sat in a seat soiled with vomit or poop[1][2]. And of course you may get bumped from your flight, potentially violently[3] or have it delayed, rerouted or cancelled.

So it's a market for lemons, you buy the cheapest ticket you can since the experience is likely to suck no matter what you do, and you try to endure it.

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2023/09/05/air-canada-... [2] https://www.newsweek.com/delta-passenger-forced-sit-seat-cov... [3] https://qz.com/954791/everything-that-went-wrong-in-uniteds-...

[TillE]

I've flown long distance economy a lot, and business class a few times, and I just wish airlines would serve sandwiches instead of elaborate, mediocre meals. It would probably be better, and it would definitely be easier to eat in a cramped economy seat.

[a_random_canuck]

I’m living in Asia and when I need to fly I’ll just buy a meal at 7-Eleven or Family Mart to bring on the flight. It’s amazing how these convenience stores can make good quality food so cheap but the airlines somehow can’t provide.

Business class is rarely worth it, it’s not priced for mere mortals. Most people have a corporation buying their tickets, or are using air miles to reduce the price, or they are 1%ers, etc.

[makeitdouble]

Sandwiches can also be awful subpar meals though. I fully trust airlines to ruin them thoroughly the same way they did with the other meals.

I'd take tasteless warmed potato puree over tasteless soggy yet chewy triangle sandwich.

[dzhiurgis]

Who doesn't love applying frozen butter on a cold bun using plastic knife in an area sized 20x30cm..?

[mysterydip]

Dating myself, but I flew TWA back in the day and we got a complete bag lunch with sandwich and a few other things, complimentary. It's been downhill since then, but maybe that extra cost is why they're not around anymore?

[cityzen]

Read an article about this a few years back that was title Vile High Club. Loved it so much I grabbed the domain.

It may have been this article: https://skift.com/2012/11/18/fda-finds-airlines-outside-cate...

[h2odragon]

good name. goes with all sorts of possibilities. feature jenkum and mad dog 20/20 and airline food and it all fits together thematically.

[mattl]

you have vilehigh.club?

[verdverm]

I recall how much better the experience of flying British Airways was, notably the food and drinks. Too bad it was only once

[jordanb]

BA used to have the 777s with 9-across seating. That was the best way to cross the atlantic in the main cabin of any airline.

[gosub100]

I've heard it as a general rule when flying internationally to always choose the foreign carriers over a US one.

[eftychis]

Anecdotal story/take: The Aegean Airlines (Europe) business seat has much, much better food in a 20-minute flight than the comparable business 5-7-hour flight in the U.S. (And for a lower price, but I'm not sure that is important to the point.)

But the article does take a weird take. Also not sure how collusion is claimed here. I guess CAB counts as a forcing mechanism, but I am not sure one can argue collusion when it is the result of regulation. Was the regulation in bad faith?

[mcphage]

> in a 20-minute flight than the comparable business 5-7-hour flight in the U.S. (And for a lower price, but I'm not sure that is important to the point.)

Well, it does cost considerably more to fly an airplane for 5-7 hours than it does to fly an airplane for 20 minutes.

[DaveExeter]

If anyone is longing for the pre-deregulation days of aviation, ticket prices were a lot higher back then.

My grandmother was telling me about her honeymoon in Europe in the 1960s. Inflation-adjusted, the tickets were $3000 each!

Flying back then was better for smokers. They used to have smoking sections on planes. Grandpa loved his Chesterfields.

[listenallyall]

It's actually not awful, and besides, without an oven or grill or fryer, how good could it possibly be?

[debian3]

Check out some youtube video on Emirates or Singapore airlines on their suite experience on the A380. You will see how great the food can be before you go take your shower and go to sleep in your full size bed.

[dzhiurgis]

Sandwich press, pie heater or anything that a gas station or convenience store can serve can be trivially done onboard.

[dboreham]

Uh. It's nothing like as bad as it was 20-30 years ago.

[dan-robertson]

The article is about the ’70s.

[jacurtis]

Thanks, I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking this.

Airline food used to be AWFUL. Like you would honestly not even bother unless you were on a very long flight and needed it. My experience is that the last 10 years or so, most airlines have decent food. It is nothing to get excited about or to look forward to, but compared to how bad it used to be it is now quite good. I would rate a lot of the food I've had on flights as fair to average. Compare that to "i'll only eat it if this flight spans two mealtimes" of the 80s-90s and here we are.

Singapore Airlines is actually quite good (even in coach). ANA is also good. If you fly on a US Carrier, just know its all the same provider regardless of airline. Their food is meh: perfectly edible, but not good. Pasta dishes usually reheat quite well, so that's often the safe bet when choosing a meal option.

Trust us guys. If you think food now is bad... you don't know what they COULD be serving you.

[Dalewyn]

Granted I generally fly business class on Delta and ANA (because long hauls in economy is miserable), I find the food is great given the context. YMMV.

[theideaofcoffee]

Same, meals in Delta One on both transatlantic and North<->South America routes are actually something I look forward to on my trips—those short ribs are scrumptious! Domestic first can be hit or miss, mostly miss because I miss lunch time flights (haha), but they too also been mostly acceptable.

If I anticipate something not great, I’ll stow away some shake shack.

[jjulius]

I came here to say the same thing (well, about Delta's domestic coach service). I will fuck with Delta's chicken salad sandwich all day long and am always disappointed if they're out before I can order one.

[shmerl]

> The airline industry body declared that sandwiches had to be “cold… simple… unadorned… inexpensive”

Lol, it reminds be Robert Sheckley's "A Ticket To Tranai", where they were looking for innovative ideas how to make robots worse on purpose.

[renewiltord]

It's pretty decent, to be honest, but I usually bring snacks if I'm not flying out of Hawaii (which does not permit that).

[mauvehaus]

Years back, I read the life hack of requesting a Halal meal. I can confirm that on the one flight that I both got fed and received the same, the food seemed superior to the non-Halal options.

The other life hack is, of course, to bring your own food. I can confirm that I've gotten the stink-eye a couple times for pulling out my own food while everyone else was suffering whatever was rejected by the inmates at the state penitentiary.

Frankly, if you're flying out of Italy, and are eating airline food, you're flat-out doing it wrong.

[dzhiurgis]

I gave my partner stink eye for trying to bring hard boiled eggs onboard ("Kids love them and we had leftover ones I didn't wanna leave")...

[ourmandave]

"My clients were concerned about how obese Americans were getting and this was their misguided answer, your Honor."

~ Some Defense Counselor