I have a friend who suffers from a severe nut allergy, but if I'm honest, I think the nut-allergic crowd ruined it for the rest of us when airlines switched from nuts to goddamn pretzels. Sorry, Dave. Gotta speak my troof. Why not offer passengers a choice?
My father was an airline employee—Northwest—and he sometimes got defensive when people made certain complaints, e.g., that airlines should offer free hotel bookings to people who get bumped, or that airline food is alway terrible. I'll kind of agree with that last thing: airline food is perfectly edible. It's not top-notch, Michelin-star cuisine to be sure, but it's easily adequate for a long flight. In fact, I often find it's a bit too much, even for me: if I'm flying from the States to Korea, for example, there will be several meals and snacks, and I'll often end up skipping some of the snacks (usually in the form of random, bland, unsauced deli sandwiches). The meals are small and simple, but they're just the right amount for someone who's just sitting in a chair for sixteen hours. And if I'm honest, they don't taste bad at all; they're just a little "meh," but if it's a choice between dinner and nothing, I'll pick dinner.
I've treated myself to business-class seats in the past, and now I'm spoiled. You order off a menu, and the food, while not 4-star restaurant quality, is oh so much better than what they serve in coach. That and the comfort of a seat that reclines into a bed is such a luxury on one of those sixteen-hour flights. I doubt I could afford the ticket now with post-COVID pricing.
ReplyDeleteAs the son of an airline employee, I got to fly first class pretty early in life. Trips we took as a family to places like Texas, California, Hawaii, and Korea were all first class, so I kind of took the treatment for granted growing up. But once I was 26, per Northwest's policy, I lost my dad's employee benefits.
ReplyDeleteThat's a problem, too--once you've gone first class, coach is an even bigger nightmare. It's hard to go back to steerage.
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