Another Testimonial on Why Flying These Days Deserves a Boo and a Hiss

Tuomo writes: To be fair, we have a friend who works as a flight attendant on US Air and who was on our recent flight to the east coast. It was a red eye flight, so needless to say, without him, it would have been quite uneventful and otherwise dreary as red eye flights go.

We understand that airlines are struggling with soaring fuel costs, and as a result, the paying customer gets to bear the brunt and deal with the nickling and diming of every aspect of the flying experience, such as pay US$15 for every checked in luggage...

However what we experienced on our way back goes beyond any sympathy. As my brother pointed it out quite approriately, we don't fly to get a good meal. Therefore if you want a meal, bring one on board on your own or pay for one provided by the airline - or their caterer - at least in North America.

Before our flight boarded, there were announcements that US Air had started charging for freshments (US$ 2 for a can of soda, which I think is quite preposterous when I pay CA$ 1.25 on campus, and even that is expensive) and that meal and snack boxes were available on the flight. Fair enough: a meal box for US$7 sounded like a deal.

By the time the flight attendants made it to row 15 where we were sitting, we were told that they were all out of the meal boxes. In fact, there had been only three (3!) for sale, meaning that they were all sold out by the time the attendants had made it to the second row of economy class. Basically, this means that the caterer (NOT US Air!) has calculated that an A319, that seats over a 100 passengers, has on average only three passengers on board interested in a meal. This means technically that the 12 passengers sitting on the first two rows of economy class are in first class; the rest of us is just chopped liver. As a result, a lot of grumbling was heard...

We settled for a snack box, which, in a not very untypical North American fashion, contained mainly sweet rather than savoury items with the exception of a small can of chicken salad. After 12 years in North America, I still have an issue with snacks mostly entailing something sweet, so here I'll just throw my hands in the air and deal with it :-)

Let me also point it out that this was a 5+ hour long flight! Admittedly, one could (and clearly should) have stocked up prior to departure, but where oh where does one find such a meal for 7 dollars at airports these days?!