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Home » Meal of the Week » What Does Airline Meal Service Look Like During COVID-19 Crisis?
Meal of the WeekUnited Airlines

What Does Airline Meal Service Look Like During COVID-19 Crisis?

Matthew Klint Posted onApril 4, 2020November 14, 2023 6 Comments

Each week, my Meal of the Week  feature examines an airline meal from my travels over the years. This may be a meal from earlier in the week or it may be a meal served over a decade ago.

U.S. airlines have dramatically scaled back meal service in both economy and premium cabins during the COVID-19 crisis. What does meal service look like on the few flights that still have it?

Delta, American, Alaska, and United have dramatically scaled back food and drink onboard during the COVID-19 crisis. American only serves meal on flights over 2,200 miles and only to passengers in first or business class. On domestic flights, passengers in economy class cannot even buy food. On Delta, real meals are only served on longhaul international flights…even transcontinental flights receive no meal service in first class, just a packaged snack. On United, meals are only offered in business class on premium transcontinental flights (Newark – Los Angeles/San Francisco, Boston – San Francisco). Alaska has also eliminated all meal service onboard in both economy and first class.

Mark, a reader of this blog, shared of his experience on United earlier this week from Los Angels to Newark. This is one of three domestic routes which United is still serving meals on in the front cabin. He was offered dinner on a redeye flight. Everything was delivered on one tray and included:

  • Packaged nuts
  • Packaged bread
  • Salad with dressing
  • Main course (wrapped in foil)
  • Packaged cookie

He ordered kale lasagna but was actually served mushroom ravioli. When a flight attendant noticed the error, he brought him over the lasagna as well. Talk about a carb bomb!

food on a tray in a plane

a group of bags of nuts and snacks

a roll in a plastic bag

a bowl of salad with a white label

a package with a label on it

a plate of food on a table

food on a plate

food on a tray with a plate of food

a plate of food on a table

food in the back of a seat

a plate of food on a table

a plate of food on a table

a plate of food on a table

Normally, this route would included hot mixed nuts, an appetizer, salad, main course, and dessert trolley with choice of ice cream sundae, petit fours, fruit, and cheese.

Mark also just emailed me a couple breakfast pictures from his return flight. He said the choices were egg white with spinach and kale (United loves kale, it seems…) or French Toast. He ordered the French Toast, eating only the French Toast and not the sausage or “fake” syrup. Yogurt and a “cold, hard” croissant were served, but no fruit. Everything was served on one dish. No coffee or tea was offered (he asked).

food in a tray with foil and a roll of paper

a plate of food on a tray

CONCLUSION

American Airlines has maintained more meal service than Alaska, Delta, or United, but the bottom line is this: you’re essentially on your own when it comes to airline meals. Especially if you are traveling in economy class, bring a snack.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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6 Comments

  1. Chris@Oak Reply
    April 4, 2020 at 2:42 pm

    What beverage choices are left?
    Are flight crews getting any meals?

    I’m also curious about the situation with F&B outlets in concourses.

    • Matthew Reply
      April 4, 2020 at 11:46 pm

      Flight crews still get meals…and coffee.

      For passengers, beer in cans, wine in bottles, soda/juice in cans, water in bottles only.

      No alcohol in economy class.

      No ice. No glasses.

  2. B Reply
    April 4, 2020 at 8:14 pm

    Guess that’s only for premium transcons as my flight ( on refurbished 772 with Polaris hard product ) last week from SFO-IAD only gave snack box as options in United First

    • B Reply
      April 4, 2020 at 8:15 pm

      Correction this was 3/29 the day they were starting the snack boxes with the exception of premium transcons

  3. Ziyu Lu Reply
    May 14, 2020 at 9:35 pm

    US carriers never served much in economy class on domestic flights to begin with. I don’t see much difference today.

  4. SuperFlyBoy Reply
    December 16, 2020 at 2:38 pm

    Was any champagne served on board? And if so, which one?

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