Travel Debates is a series in which our editors weigh in on the most contentious issues that arise in-transit, like whether you should ever switch seats on a plane or if you should check your work email while on vacation.
What’s the deal with airplane food? In all the time since Jerry Seinfeld first posed the question—he really did, while hosting SNL in 1992–there has yet to be an answer. The question is a joke in and of itself, a reference to what we all know: that something is not quite right about the food served by most airlines to passengers seated in economy. This is not a problem generally felt by those seated in the classes of business or first, where meals are not only edible but often delicious, even lavish.
For this, our latest debate, the frequent-flying editors of Condé Nast Traveler gathered to dissect the curious case of airplane food: Do you eat it? Do you like it? Which airline has the best in the game? Deputy global editorial director Jesse Ashlock, senior visuals editor Pallavi Kumar, senior editor Megan Spurrell, global associate director of social Mercedes Bleth, associate editor Scott Bay, and editorial assistant Charlie Hobbs all had something to say on the matter—below, find their takes.
Charlie Hobbs: What’s the deal with airplane food? When do you eat it? When do you not?
Megan Spurrell: I’ll bite. I think rule number one is: if you're on a long international flight, you should eat it. Because if you skip it, you're going to be hungry. You're going to regret it later. Two: You should always take the vegetarian option. Do not eat the meat. Vegetarian is usually a cheesy pasta, often ravioli, no matter where you’re going in the world. That seems to be the go-to dish. It is satisfying and like a childhood Stouffer’s lasagna, in a way. It won't offend you.
Mercedes Bleth: I love airplane food. I love it. I look forward to it. I think about it a lot. I love that you only have two options. Everything is so perfectly apportioned on the tray. I eat every single thing that's given to me.
Jesse Ashlock: Is there ever a time when airplane food has done you rotten?
MB: Not that I recall. Something about being on an airplane still feels exciting to me, it feels like travel to me. The food is objectively gross, BUT on an airplane, it fits. It’s perfect.
MS: I think we have to be clear about something. We are talking about economy meals.
JA: I was going to say, because here’s the thing: the food in business is great. It’s one of the many things about business that makes it so hard to go back to economy. But in economy, it’s such a delightful surprise when the food is good. I don’t think I have the enthusiasm that Mercedes has, but there are times when the airline that I’m most loyal to—I’m not going to name names—has pretty good food…
Pallavi Kumar: Come on, you have to!
JA: It’s Delta. It’s a nice surprise, sometimes, when you find you want to eat everything on your plate on an economy flight.
MB: Yeah, I’m a Delta girl.
PK: I will say that the Middle Eastern airlines are really good with economy food, they have a lot of Emirati dishes and it’s quite fresh. Lots of fresh veggies.
MS: Fresh vegetables in the sky?
JA: Fresh vegetables and fish are the really challenging things.
MS: You’re eating fish?
JA: I have eaten fish.
Scott Bay: I don’t think I’ve ever eaten fish on a plane.
CH: Sorry–what type of fish?
JA: White fish.
PK: I’ve definitely had a creamy white fish on a flight.
MS: In economy, where you peel the plastic off?
PK: Oh, no, in business.
JA: My fish was in business, too.
SB: Business has to be considered separately.
MB: I’ve only flown in business once, when I went to Dubai earlier this year, and, yes, the food was delicious. But it didn’t hit the spot for me, because it wasn’t airplane food. It was a very nice meal.
SB: There wasn’t enough plastic for you?
MS: It’s kind of like when you’re on a road trip, and you have an excuse to eat a lot of junk food because that’s what is available.
JA: I don’t know if this conversation extends to food you get in the airport that you can bring on the plane, but everyone has stuff that they look forward to getting in certain airports. I just flew out of New Orleans, and that airport is a joy for the guilty pleasures on offer.
MB: It’s definitely a guilty pleasure sort of thing.
SB: That’s how I feel about it, as well. There’s something about being able to plan out my entire flight because it’s the only time that I’m in control. I know the food will come and I’ll eat it.
MS: You’re in this time and space that is a closed loop; very few things are supposed to happen when you’re on that plane. The food is one little treat that you get, this warm dish brought to you amidst this warm expanse of entertaining yourself.
SB: When breakfast comes on the red-eye, it can be really beautiful. I like when they do breakfast from whatever destination you’re heading to—I remember when I went to Korea and they served us a Korean breakfast.
MB: That special treat that really kicks off the trip.
JA: When we flew [redacted] to Korea, it had some of the worst airplane food I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. I will say, I’m sure you all have these rituals, and I always order tomato juice.
MS: No vodka?
JA: No, and it pisses me off when they only have Bloody Mary mix. Tomato juice should be on every plane.
PK: Ginger ale, too.
[everyone agrees]
MS: How did ginger ale proliferate in this way? By the way—there’s no real ginger in most of these ginger ales.
JA: It’s the bubbles.
SB: So has anyone ever been on a long flight where they ran out of food towards the back of the plane?
CH: I’ve seen them run out of the better meal option, but never all of the food.
SB: I was on a [redacted] flight. I don't even remember the food. But I remember my partner and I were next to a woman who was traveling with her friends from Australia, and they had been traveling for 30 hours or so. We had a nonstop from London to Salt Lake City, and we were hungry. But we got the last two meals on the flight. And then this woman that had been traveling for 30 odd hours had no food. Ethical issue here: What do we do? It's not our fault. We ended up giving her one and then we shared one. But then all her friends got no food. And all they did was give them free alcohol. And little bags of chips.
[gasps]
MS: David Jeffries was on a flight once on [redacted] where the entire plane got food poisoning, together, in the air over the Atlantic.
JA: Can I share, just as a little aside, another thing about my flight back from New Orleans? The crew had a bucket of crawfish in the back, and they had gloves, and they were just eating.
PK: I would do that!
MS: I would want in.
PK: Anything for crawfish.
CH: When you fly domestic, do you eat before and after rather than onboard?
JA: I feel like airports are getting better and better in terms of food offerings, the new terminal at LaGuardia is beautiful, so yes I tend to hang out in the terminal and get something to eat. An early morning flight always calls for a Shake Shack breakfast sandwich.
MS: It’s also something to do—you can get a drink, you need to kill time, the food is better.
CH: Even you, Mercedes, can agree that most plane meals have universal qualities that make it bad. If we were to distill airplane food down to its base elements, what is wrong? We’re talking texture, color, flavor…
MS: We’re talking that it’s been steaming against hot plastic for who knows how long, the essence of plastic is integrated into the food on some level. And it is when you do your first cut into it, no matter what it looks like on top, that you discover what’s really swimming in the sauce. That’s what is wrong to me.
MB: The only thing that has ever tasted really bad to me is when they try to do a pizza pocket…
MS: A pizza pocket?!
JA: Like a hot pocket, a fake calzone.
MB: A fake calzone! There we go. It’s horrible.
JA: Flavor can be very bad, but the number one thing is the mushiness and the limpness and the sense that you’re being poisoned.
MS: The weak food that it is, and you’re trying to cut it with a little plastic knife—it’s so frail!
JA: And you’re arranging your waste as you go.
PK: Rock hard dinner rolls.
CH: If we imagine a standard meal in front of us, what’s on it?
MB: Some creamy chicken thing.
PK: There’s always a creamy chicken thing.
JA: With scalloped potatoes, and maybe some peas.
MS: [laughs] Your face as you said “peas”.
SB: A little salad with one dice of tomato.
JA: With a ranch-y dressing.
MS: Or they try to do a raspberry vinaigrette.
JA: A little fruit cup with grapes.
PK: Rock hard dinner rolls, again.
MS: When the dinner rolls are soft, you just put enough butter on it to where you can see your own teeth marks, and it’s going to taste good. I’ve noticed that the butter on flights is often from the destination, so if you’re flying to Europe you might get a nice partnership going.
JA: The butter on Aer Lingus is amazing.
PK: Air France, too.
MS: I fly a lot of KLM and they have some nice Dutch dairy products.
JA: With the meal that we were just constructing, that’s where you’re eating the bare minimum that you have to survive the flight and then you let them take it away. Unless you’re Mercedes.
CH: Is there something that you always bring on the flight to supplement this good eating?
MB: Chex Mix, always.
PK: I like to get a big Toblerone for a long flight.
JA: Sparkling water is always good to bring on a flight, and so is Tums or whatever your antacid of choice is. You never know what could happen with this food—you might all get food poisoning.
CH: I think that’s a perfect note to end on.