This is not really anything to be proud of, I suppose, but it was a first for me: I slept through a transcon redeye on United last night, consuming no food or drink onboard.
While this might be trivial to some road warriors, the whole reason I got involved in the frequent flyer game in the first place was because I hated getting no food in economy class while first class passengers received full meals. It was those delectable sandpaper omletes and rubbery steak dinners that I really must credit with making me loyal to United nearly seven years ago.
For years, even when tired on a redeye, I have made it a point to always eat what is offered, believing that I wouldn’t be getting my money’s worth if I skipped the meal. I’ve finally matured a bit from that mindset.
I was still prepared to eat last night—I even ordered a Hindu meal was looking forward to it. But a delicious home-cooked dinner with family just a few hours early left my stomach full and me tired—so tired that I was out almost immediately after rollback and did not awaken until the double chime 10 minutes before landing.
Next time, I will still look forward to eating onboard, but it just got a little easier to pass up on that meal and still feel like I didn’t end up with the short straw. After all, I got 4.5 hours of nearly uninterrupted sleep.
There’s no shame in it! I’ve done that many times. But I know the feeling… I mean if you slept through the meal, you were probably really tired. So you probably woke up, feeling rested, but then you were like, “Hey… i just got screwed!”
At least that’s how I am 🙂
I’m exactly the opposite — I have never consumed ANY food or drink on a transcon redeye (in F or Y) after dozens of flights. I think I’ve noticed the service occurring exactly once.
I agree on the must-get-my-money’s-worth, and that mentality causes me to eat when I’m not necessarily hungry (and drink alcohol when not really necessary) on all flights other than redeyes.
On second thought I did take some orange juice when offered on a redeye right before landing one time.
Redeyes can be a tough call. I’m all about putting that tray table down, but sometimes sleep is the better option. I missed out on a Lufthansa biz dinner back in January (on a 10 hour flight from BLR-FRA) because the flight LEFT at 3:40AM. No way I could put down a multi-course meal service that late. In fact, much like you, I never ever saw a single salt shaker. The flat bed made up for it. Think of it as a brief in-flight diet.