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

[MEL_Traveller]

This is a good question. My assumption is that they're stored super-duper deep-frozen on the ground, to avoid the melting which might otherwise occur between the warehouse & the aircraft ... and I guess if a galley freezer set to -4 is full of rock-solid deep-frozen ice creams then it takes longer than a long-haul flight for their temp to come up to -4?

I thought they used dry ice for this?

For, say eastern Australia originating flights to SE Asia, probably a quick supper before a 5-6am landing, as the only meal, is probably a reasonable option. Most of the flight will have originated in that time zone or maybe -30-60 mins or +2 hrs.

If we take the SQ flight arriving into MEL at that time (~6am), it departs SIN at 720pm. It connects with flights from all over Europe that have departed the previous evening and land in the late afternoon into SIN between 5 and 6pm.

 

[dajop]

If we take the SQ flight arriving into MEL at that time (~6am), it departs SIN at 720pm. It connects with flights from all over Europe that have departed the previous evening and land in the late afternoon into SIN between 5 and 6pm.

Yes, but I did use the specific wording “ Eastern Australia originating flight to SE Asia…•. I would expect that no one on those flights has left Europe the previous evening.!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yes, but I did use the specific wording “ Eastern Australia originating flight to SE Asia…•. I would expect that no one on those flights has left Europe the previous evening.!

Oh! sorry, got the flight the wrong way around! My bad.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Given the discussion about how long meals take on overnight sector, I was curious to see what QF75 would be like.

Pushback: 2031
Wheels up: 2040
Service commenced for row 1: 2222

So depending what you take as the starting time… pushing 2 hours.

I was keen to get to sleep, so it felt glacial.

 

[elanshin]

Recently took the SQ 231 service which departs SIN at 00:45 ( 03:45 AEDT). They offered a "Sleeper Service" for J. Basically you get to choose whether you want a meal after takeoff or a breakfast (or nothing at all). So the menu is a bit interesting with breakfast elements and dinner elements. Most people I saw opt for Breakfast (and to be woken up for it), but they did service the few who stayed up - mainly in very dim lighting.

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.

6-11 hr is a very different approach.

At 6-8 hour what you mentioned is usually true. You're not getting more than 2-3 at best. But when its 10-11 hours you can actually get a solid 5-6 hours if you're someone that can sleep in Y.

That changes the equation a lot. If you can get a service in turn off the lights and still have 6 hr before you turn the lights back on, thats when its fine to do the service.

Why are ice creams served on planes always rock hard? Do they have to set their freezers at -100°?

It's more to do with not being able to bring the icecream back up to temperature a bit more. If you take icecream out of your freezer, it's usually rock hard too. But if you let it sit at room temperature exposed for a little bit, it'll melt enough. It's also "safer" to give someone rock solid ice cream than runny ice cream (if you mess up bringing it back up to serving temperature).

 

[dajop]

Recently took the SQ 231 service which departs SIN at 00:45 ( 03:45 AEDT). They offered a "Sleeper Service" for J.

Yes , this has been the case for at least 20 years, and is the same for services to MEL (01:45 and 21:50 departures, but not the 19:20) , BNE (00:55, but not the 21:35), and PER (00:25). Also in the other direction to SIN from MEL (00:35), BNE (23: 25) and PER (01:15).

Interesting that SQ 227 to MEL @ 21:50 gets the sleeper service, but SQ 235 to BNE, which leaves 15 mins earlier doesn't. Probably because of cost cutting , but also MEL has an earlier flight which gets the full service for passengers originating in Europe (LHR, FRA, CDG)., whilst BNE doesn't. When the earlier flight didn't exist SQ227 used to get the full service, not the sleeper service.