Article: Let’s Talk About Airline Meals on Overnight Flights…

[AFF Editor]

Canonical URL

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/airline-meals-redeye-flights/

Let’s Talk About Airline Meals on Overnight Flights… is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Let's Talk About Airline Meals on Overnight Flights...

Airlines have to find a balance between offering enough food, at the right times, without blowing their catering budget. On overnight flights, many airlines don't get this right...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[Forg]

The drawn-out meal service at the start & end of a short-ish overnight flight suits me … yes it only leaves 3hrs in which to restlessly sit or lie there wishing I was asleep; but the less time there is to not be sleeping when I wish I was, the better!

 

[muppet]

I prefer sleep to be maximised as much as possible. A quick, quietly served supper for those who want it and then lights out. Plus a similar arrangement for brekkie - cater for those who need brekkie but don’t do the full lights-on choas. Maybe use those stickers on the eye shades so people can be woken for brekkie with minimum lights turned on.

 

[flyingfan]

I’d add that for those of us with status, we might well be full after lounge hopping before the night flight and possibly less inclined to indulge in food onboard.

 

[Tiki]

I'd prefer something light and small enough to put in the seat pocket for later like a muffin, granola bar, chocolate, chips. Anything leaving after 22:00 I won't be hungry and just want to sleep if possible and since I am usually in Y with J seats so hard to come by, I want to recline without disturbing anyone. Then I would like a full breakfast served before landing so I am not hungry while completing formaliies and getting ground transport. Although going forward I will be avoiding red eyes as it's just too hard to sleep and I am not a spring chicken! I will try to do overnight layovers at connection airports and morning flights the next day.

 

[Himeno]

JL36 and JL38 can get a bit annoying at times. Both SIN-HND, one arriving around 6am, the other around 10am. Around 6 hour flights.
I normally refuse the food service after departure, because I try to eat in the lounge at SIN, however some crews can take a long time to get the lights out. Some flights, you might only get 2 hours of lights out before they wake everyone up for breakfast 2 hours out of HND.

 

[luxury-lizard]

This is so frustrating - at midnight all I want is to try and get some sleep but if the crew is serving a meal then lights and noise make it very hard.

The other very frustrating thing is airlines which serve breakfast several hours prior to landing - again even if you wish to skip brekkie, the noise and lights wake you up.

On a slightly different but related topic, I find all airline meals to be very boring and often not at all to my taste - even in J and F - if I want a good meal I go to a restaurant, if I want to get somewhere else I get on an airplane. While I travel a lot I don't post trip reports as it seems that most people are mainly interested in photos of airline meals, menus and lounges.

 

[Austman]

Breakfast in F, J, PE or Y is, in my experience, very, very, ordinary.

I note that prominent food critics even rarely review breakfast in the best restaurants and hotels. The main reason: Breakfast is a pretty standard, ordinary offering.

As I've pointed out to several of the world's most awarded airlines that offer premium pax a luxury meal service in all their advertising but decide to offer a very limited "supper" meal service after a later night take-off (sometimes as early as 10pm): Many of your connecting pax are not on this departure airport's time zone. Me included many times! Let the pax decide, especially in premium classes!

 

[Bjet]

Yeah I agree with Austman's post!

When we have the mid-night (between 11pm and 3am) flight, they only give us snack such as a box of food in the Y class. But breakfast is a pretty standard meal. Not much choice though. It means that there is only one meal the airline can offer for 8 hours flight. Then the airfare should be alot cheaper for the midnight flights. I would not pay more for the mid night flights!

For example
SQ 221 Depart from Singapore (at 8:40pm) to Sydney - SQ offers two main meals - dinner and breakfast. I will fly with it.
SQ 231 Depart from Singapore (at 12:45am) to Sydney - SQ offers one snack and one main breakfast. The airfare should be alot cheaper than SQ221.

 

[aikman]

Sounds like a problem mostly for premium travellers. I think most economy travellers without lounge access would happily accept and indulge in any complimentary meal at whatever time they are offered.

 

[Aeryn]

If I'm in whY or PE i know there will be zero sleep to be had, so I like the meals as its something to do, break up the monotony

If I'm in J and Ive eaten in the lounge before, I will often just have the dessert and then lay down to sleep. An eye shade can block out any ambient light.

That said if a 6-11hr flight and I'm in whY I try to book a day flight.

 

[moa999]

Agreed with those comments for Y.

For the early morning arrivals in J I'll typically say let me sleep and just give me a coffee as close to landing as you can.. I don't care much for airline breakfasts and will have another coffee and food when I get home.

 

[Forg]

When doing a lot of Y long-haul for work, my wife found that if she specified a window-seat and asked the FA not to wake her for the “meal” (which is normally something you force down rather than enjoying anyway - the cheapest $2 TV Dinner is better than Y airline food EXCEPT when they “go cheap” and give you an icecream or a Byron Bay cookie) then she was almost always left alone.

 

[MelbFlyer]

It really depends on how tired I am and also what class I'm in.

My last flight coming back to Australia was in premium economy and departed at 11:45pm.
I felt okay even after a whole day, and had the supper (pretty much a full dinner).

The previous time I returned to Australia, I was in economy and I was dead tired - I passed out almost immediately and skipped the supper service.

If in business though, I think even if I was feeling tired, mentally I'd stay awake and enjoy the meal / supper.