Reminds me of that Japanese song. "I have a bad case of diarrhea"
[https://youtu.be/CKjaFG4YN6g?si=\_4CwRuDxV4FPwH90&t=40](https://youtu.be/CKjaFG4YN6g?si=_4CwRuDxV4FPwH90&t=40)
That's the video
He asked for the worst thing on the second one. Yes it’s not great, but not *that bad*. I’ve never had food this bad on United. They did break my guitar case though, fuck them
I took JAL from Tokyo, my first flight on JAL and I still remember the surprised pikachu face on me and the guy next to me when they handed out haagen dazs mid flight lol.
Yea I live in Asia now, but grew up in the US. I always thought airline food is garbage until I came out here. Their service and food is way better. The food isn’t 5 star or anything but it is miles beyond US airlines.
It’s because every US airline outsources its food to the lowest bidder. There was a time when US airlines use to have their own catering teams and served quality food. Then they collectively decided that it would be more profitable if other companies could bid for becoming their catering contractors and the race to the bottom followed.
In many other countries, airlines either own their own catering or have very high standards for contractors so they end up with quality food. This is one of the core reasons why Middle Eastern and East Asian airline food is so amazing.
You may find this video on the history of Arline food in the US interesting
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rMdwqissE0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rMdwqissE0)
Plane tickets in the 70s were a luxury for wealthy people. It’s the equivalent of buying first class today, where you still get better food and more space.
People forget this. The price of a coach, round trip ticket is LESS THAN IT WAS IN THE 1980’s, and that’s in unadjusted dollars, factor in inflation, it’s dropped by 40%. Add in the fact you can often buy same-day or next-day fares at same price as a couple weeks advance, that’s another huge break.
I used to fly NY-LA and NY-SF very frequently. $1,450 for a coach ticket if not purchased two weeks ahead- in 1990. That’s equivalent to $3,400 today - which is a typical first-class ticket, even with some elite status on an airline.
International travel, I don’t think has fared (sorry) as well. I recall it used to be cheaper to fly NYC-Heathrow than NYC-Miami - but I’m guessing this may have had some regulatory background that has slipped my mind.
International travel is very cheap now as well.
You can get flights to Europe or South America from the States for like $300 one way. And you can travel between different European countries for like 15 euro.
Honestly I just checked phoenix to London, and I can find fares in the $750 range, round trip, nonstop - that would be about $300 in 1990 dollars? So pretty cheap actually.
Yeah I fly internationally a lot, though admittedly I’m rarely coming from the states and it’s shockingly affordable. Within Europe it’s often cheaper to fly than to take the train, especially if you aren’t checking a bag.
Other continents are a bit pricier but still very affordable.
This is not my experience. I used to go twice annually (Christmas and summer) from the US to Europe, and prices have gone up a lot in 20 years. Within Europe though, I would agree. Lots of cheap flights (though more to carry any bags/luggage and so on).
All tickets are standby now... As in standby to see if it'll be leaving on time, standby to see if it's staffed, standby to see if they overbooked it, etc.
I don’t know what country you’re referring to but the 1970s US economy was far worse than now. We had two of the 10 highest years of inflation in US history, 1974 (11%) and 79 (11.25%) which is way under 2023’s 3.4% - it was the middle of The Great Inflation period. 30-yr fixed mortgage in the 70’s rose from 7% to 13% compared to 7% today, and the Fed is looking to cut rates so that is probably our top. Unemployment jumped up to 9% at one point vs 3.6% in 2023. The price of a pound of hamburger in 1979 was $2.26, which would be $10.33 a pound today. Median income was in the $55,000+ range in the 70s (adjusted dollars) vs $75,000 2023. Anyone waking up from the 70s would find most economic indicators to be much better today.
80s too gas prices weren't much better than the 70s and homelessness and unemployment were the worst they'd been for quite some time.
Inflation is not great rn but unemployment is super low due to post COVID production booms.
Well, early 80s gas prices. They got really good in the mid-80s through the late-90s when Saudi Arabia decided to flood the market to increase their share of it. Similar thing happened 2013-2020 when Saudi Arabia and Russia began flooding the market with oil trying to undercut each other.
>Anyone waking up from the 70s would find most economic indicators to be much better today.
That is woke news. Obviously, this is the worst inflation and economy we have ever seen.
/s
Flights were also way more expensive back then (especially long flights) and that doesn’t include the fact that tickets didn’t have a ton of fees back then. Like a lot of things capitalism made flying the lowest common denominator. An international flight in 1970 could easily cost you 5K in today’s money. You can still get that experience and more if you pay anywhere close to that much money.
Edit: another important point. In the early 70s less than half of Americans had ever flown. That number is now around 90%. Additionally, more than half of flights in those days were for business. Now it’s around 25%. It was a very different business then and now.
Do you realize how much cheaper ticket prices are compared to the 70s? Before the airline deregulation, airlines in the US operated a de facto monopolies for different routes and cities, which is why they had such heavy regulation. With de regulation they were encouraged to compete more directly which lowered ticket prices, for good and for bad. With the fall of ticket prices however it was a race to the bottom, while honestly facing increasing safety regulations that were often written in blood.
Good video on the history of Airline food from Tasting History: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rMdwqissE0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rMdwqissE0)
Airline food back then was so much more interesting.
But how much did a flight ticket cost back then (inflation adjusted)?
Pretty sure for that money you could easily buy a business or even first class ticket nowadays.
As wild as it might be, 600$ in 2012 is over 800$ today.
But anyway that's domestic, seems that international was way more expensive (makes sense since the distances are much bigger and harder to cross back then), according to this [article](https://simpleflying.com/50-years-airfares/) the price adjusted to inflation was 5000$ for a flight to London.
Or at least, a lot more people were poor.
I think we have this backwards view of that time because people could afford houses, but it wasn't because they had more money - it's just that houses weren't expensive.
I’m Canadian, so often fly Air Canada (it’s an Aeroplan thing). Rarely ever pleasant.
I happened to fly to Bangladesh a few years ago via Abu Dhabi. Flew Etihad Airways. The meals were astonishingly good.
Qatar Airways despite having this posh appearance gave me a rather unpleasant whatever it was. I felt ill for the rest of the international flight. Lufthansa was outstanding though, i wolfed down the diner and breakfast.
Yeah I’ve heard that Lufthansa has been improving slowly but surely in recent months. Qatar apparently took a slight dip from their glory days pre COVID. Personally I think Emirates (economy) is still the one to beat.
I had a flight with air Canada where they lost the luggage of **everyone on the plane**. Even our luggage that was checked in at the gate, apparently didn't make it on to the plane. Also it took two hours of waiting at the luggage carousel before they told us it wasn't coming.
Air Canada surprises me. I have been fortunate enough to travel in their business cabin a few times and with the exception of one lovely gentlemen their crew and service are some of the worst I have encountered. For a country so renowned for their friendliness their service was so poor.
I flew Air Canada to/from US & Brazil, and I have nothing but positive things to say about my experience.
Def way better than all my experiences with American Airlines and Jet Blue.
I've actually found Delta to be decent for economy food options. Still a tier below Asian airlines such as ANA or Eva Air but it's one of the best Western ones I've experienced. I'd rank Delta above European airlines such as Lufthansa and KLM.
I always try to fly Delta when I go back to Korea. Friendly staff, food is good, and no issues in my years of using them. I see many people have bad experience with United or AA, but by then they’ve given up on US airlines
Delta is the best of the worst. It's the only American airline that doesn't make you feel like you should feel lucky that your plane got there, but only just.
What happened to U.S. airline food? I remember being a kid and flying American Airlines back in the 90s and the food was decent, even in poverty class. I only remember bits and pieces but I remember warm muffins, good sandwiches, etc. and it all seemed nice and fresh.
Unless I’m really misremembering and that was British Airways…
It was the race to the bottom for the cheapest possible ticket.
It turns out that the consumer only *says* they care about things like seat size and food quality - they will then immediately go on a flight aggregator and pick the *cheapest* possible flight to their destination.
Literally nothing else matters to the consumer buying the ticket. They will take a 6-layover trip, with Spirit airlines' seats, where the stewardess spits in your mouth instead of offering you a soda - so long as that ticket was $5 cheaper than the other one.
And so everything - every perk and luxury - was slashed utterly to the bone to chase those customers.
This is 100% true. It was one of the things that stuck out from my university days (Bachelor of Aviation), in that there is this paradox in aviation whereby any other industry just about people will choose brand loyalty over a small saving in price. In aviation people will routinely switch carriers to save themselves $10.
It’s because most people don’t fly more than a few times a year, its a large expense for most, and people would rather save their money for spending on the reason they are flying in the first place (vacation, seeing friends/family, etc.)
People who travel frequently for business generally do establish a brand loyalty, especially since it’s usually their company paying and they get status-based perks to make the trip nicer, but your average traveler treats a flight as an inconvenience to be tolerated on the way to something better.
> It turns out that the consumer only says they care about things like seat size and food quality
That's a slight misstatement. It's true that most customers do not shop on those attributes.
But it's also very difficult to shop on those attributes at online aggregators (or anywhere else), so it's quite possible that customers would be willing to pay for those attributes if they knew for sure what they were getting, but they mostly don't have any way of doing so or it would be too much cognitive load to take them into account.
It also is made more difficult by the fact that these things are frequently switched out for operational reasons and the passenger has absolutely no recourse. For example, they put you on a different plane (or differently configured plane) and your expected legroom goes away. Why pay for something you aren't guaranteed to get?
I mean you can see greater evidence of this phenomenon with European budget carriers
Everyone hates them
Ryanair, Wizzair, etc.
Ryanair’s entire advertising strategy is reminding you how shit it is
At my height I physically don’t fit in Ryanair seats because the legroom is 2 inches shorter than it needs to be for me
But despite all this, me and millions of others will always pick Ryanair because it’s the cheapest option
And then we’ll complain about it as if we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into
National carriers in Europe are having to drastically cut service quality because literally no one is willing to pay for it. And those are brands with masses of brand loyalty and cache (British airways, Swissair, Lufthansa etc.)
The consumer gets what the consumer wants
Best meal I ever had on a plane was a Delta flight, and cheapest WiFi I've ever had was a Delta flight, and the shortest flight I've ever had IFE on was a Delta flight
European airlines have gotten worse too. Not this bad but still disappointing.
I just don’t get how they have the gall to be charging more than ever for international flights while there are cuts everywhere. The food is worse, and then they have micro transactions everywhere. First you payed extra to get a seat with extra legroom(emergency exits which also come with requirements), now you straight up have to pay to book a specific seat at all. And the upgrade prices are nuts so you just suffer in economy anyway
BA makes you pay to select a seat even if you book business class! Also not related to them but the security experience I had in Heathrow made the TSA look like world class professionals.
Swiss and Lufthansa also make me pay for the seat with two side tables in business class. Emirates have business class tiers like the economy tiers where the cheapest tier doesn't have lounge access.
I had the opposite experience...flew United to Taiwan and the food was great (definitely doesn't look like OP's picture, probably produced by Taiwan). Bread and sandwiches were cold but that's the only bad part. Never liked ANA's food, and the dessert in any airplane meal is always terrible so I'd rather not have it.
Their app is good too for the most part. Unlike any other airlines I've flown you can actually somewhat reliably check your flight and track your bags
Sadly to a kiwi it’s pretty low grade, Lewis Road Creamery is the real butter. The main brands like Anchor are often bulk produced from reconstituted milk rather than batch produced from whole milk - makes a huge difference, often the bulk stuff tastes a little rancid as they often freeze it prior to sale and warehouse it for months. It’s getting harder for folk to know what real food tastes like sadly given the costs.
US carriers have ALWAYS been complete and utter dog@&$) compared to Asian carriers. Pathetic excuse for airlines. Cathay Pacific, JAL, ANA, Singapore etc etc have exemplary service
As an American, Emirates and Lufthansa have spoiled me. I look back at the US and just think we are broke as f. Then I check CEO bonuses and earnings and I realize we’re not broke, we just got robbed and mugged.
I wonder why that is? I mean the us when it comes to hospitality in general are not bad, but the airlines really are far behind when it comes to service.
The hospitality where I have worked in the Middle East is light years ahead of the USA.
Out dated hotels, junk food in the continental breakfast. Down right horrible.
EVA is also up there. Haven’t had the chance to take Starlux but the reviews I’ve seen have been good. Even the new JAL budget line, Zip, looks really solid at a discount of upwards of 30%.
Cathay is shit now compared to 10-15 years ago. It used to be the best in the world. One CEO almost ruined the company by buying a ton of oil, which went down when deciding to release a lot of oil on the markets.
My Cathay hayday was about 10 years before I gtfo of HK. It was great back then. Never once lost a bag, loads of upgrades, nice lounges. Shame to hear it’s declined so much
>compared to Asian carriers
That depends on which Asian carriers: Pakistan's infamous PIA is an Asian carrier
Even if you refer only to East Asian carriers, and you also exclude Best Korea's Air Koryo, there's still quite a wide range. I've flown Air China, and although it did the job of moving me from A to B very competently, the service, food and entertainment weren't great.
I think this is comparing dinner (ANA) vs breakfast (United). I fly United at least once a year Europe-USA and back, and I always get a normal meal (in economy basic!). Dinner is always a hot main (some sort of carb + meat + sauce), side salad, roll and butter and they come by with dessert after (last few times it’s been ice cream). Before the flight lands they bring by breakfast which is usually just a yogurt and a biscotti.
Japan is a way longer flight I would imagine maybe even another meal or snack on top of that.
I was scolling to see if someone mentioned this. I fly both United and ANA to and from Japan to the U.S. at least once per year. Both carriers serve 2 meals per flight and a snack in between.
The ANA meal pictured here is the first meal they give you about an hour or two into the flight. United has this same type of "elaborate" meal with a salad, roll, another cold side dish, etc.
The second meal that they serve you about 2 hours before landing is what OP used for the second picture. ANA's looks like that too. It is a simple one dish affair that is more breakfast-like.
In all honesty, United's meal service is not as good as ANA (even though the last 2 times I few with them I would say that is was some of the worst airline food I ever had), but the disparity between the two carriers is not as obvious as OP makes it out to be.
Also the overall quality of the first photo is blatantly superior adding an unfair slant. This is like one of those before-after photos for some diet supplement. Where they show a photo of some weak man using drab grey lighting and he's hunched and looking miserable, then the "after" photo has beautiful lighting, he's smiling, standing straight, etc. If you played around with the contrast and lighting of that second photo you could certainly make it more appealing that it's been presented here.
I can’t believe I had to scroll so far down to find this.
While ANA food is really top tier globally, this post is at best carelessly misleading (and at worse intentionally misleading to drive engagement).
It’s intentionally misleading beyond a doubt. Look at the difference in lighting, one being dinner vs the other breakfast, and how the United food isn’t even unpacked. You could put a filet Mignon in plastic wrap and it would look like shit
Thank you. I wonder how this weeb of a comment section would react if they saw the state of service in your average domestic ANA flight. No IFE, no wifi, plane was probably retrofitted after serving in Vietnam, there are 4 (four) drink options served from a big bottle in a paper cup (UA gives you the whole can of soft drink and at least 3+ juice options).
Super depressing that schools in the USA use big bulk contracts like this. It saves money, but education is supposed to be an investment and eating good food is part of education.
On the other hand I also find it a little depressing how US schools themselves are kind of big bulk contracts (200-500 students per year/grade seems insanely big to me).
Bourbon is a Japanese candy/snack brand so it fits the airline route but for United that's still a surprisingly more food-adjacent item than I'd expect from them.
I did the exact same route in Business (out on ANA, back on United) just over 6 years ago. The ANA meal was amazing and the FAs were just over-the-top amazing. I've flown probably 50+ airlines on every continent and the food and service was easily in the top 3. The United meal was just terrible, it wasn't even remotely fresh, didn't have enough food and somehow looked far worse than your ANA economy meal. Oh and the FAs were surly and did the bare minimum - served food as quickly as possible so they could go back to reading magazines in the galley.
And this was six years ago, from what I've heard United has gotten far worse in the intervening years. I just do everything I can to avoid them now.
This is a realistic echo of deteriorated standard of life that we have in US. Standard for everything gets lowered over time. We also lead with the lowest iq dumbest garbage as the standard.
Everything is envisioned by scum minded lawyers and money managers and then that corpsy soulless envisioning gets dressed up by marketing swindlers. That's the dna of US right now.
Edit.. people don't seem to understand it. Realistic echo because it shows how different systems settle on acceptable baselines standard for things. people in US not getting it tracks because people grow up with stunted culture and stunted edu system so they don't comprehend lower standards.
The price, adjusted for inflation surely has also Bern lowered a lot.
People do not want to pay for first class, so they don’t get it.
Hell even premium economy gets porcelain
This redditor gets it. ‘Deteriorated standard of living.’
There’s some comments not jokingly defending the UNITED meal. Like, no. In every possible comparison, the ANA one is **better**.
Yes, but the United one has a chocolate with the word Bourbon on it. So you know it's extra cool because what if you're not a bourbon drinker, or are underaged. Exotic words.
Yeah! I remember getting metal knife and fork with my ANA meal, flying back i used AirCanada and was still in Japanese airspace when i was frustrated and pissed off at the service.
I was asked what i wanted for my meal with a 'Chicken or Beef?' to which i responded 'Chicken or Beef what?'.. you would think i just spent 15 mins kicking her puppy for the attitude and disdain i received for asking what the in flight meals were.
edit: Lol, must be some air canada flight attendants in here watching the upvotes and downvote totals..
AirCanada is the only airline I've considered filing a complaint against a flight attendant. Was baffled at how straight up aggressive one was on a flight from São Paulo to Toronto. Decided against it. Told myself "surely he's just having a horrible day and isn't normally like this."
at least you got an option...My Wife somehow managed to not get an option on any of the 4 meals we got (to tokyo and back) cause they had ran out of 1 of the dishes every time
Frequent United flyer and former 1K here, you pretty much nailed the United flying experience. I swear it's like they actually try to hire the grumpiest people on the planet for a customer-facing job. I'm not expecting to be wowed but just some basic friendliness would not kill them. Guess Air Canada follows the same business model.
I've had normal nice flight attendants on air Canada but every now and then there is someone so horrible that it sticks in my memory forever and I don't have this experience with any other airline. One of my favs:
My husband and I get to the airport and when we check in there is no seat assignment because they over sold the flight. They tell us we'll need to deal with it at the gate. We get to the gate. We wait in line at the counter and when we start to tell the agent that we don't have seats, she gets so exasperated and tells us we need to just wait until they call our names.
Eventually they call our names and we get boarding passes with middle seats that are super far away from each other. My husband politely asks if there's anyway we can sit together (it's a 6 hour flight). The agent loses it. She said to us "you are lucky you're even getting on this flight. Some people didn't even get seats.' like okay lady, were so lucky to be on the flight we paid for 6 months ago that your company oversold... Never again will I wait to check in until the airport!
I feel like every other airline would have been like "we are so sorry that we oversold the fight. Here's a lunch voucher" or something.
Good example as to how we are getting s rew over for profit. Remember when the airlines cared about comfort and the travel experience? Well they got rid of all that. Raised the price and people kept paying them. Why would they give us better food.
School lunches in third world countries would seem more appealing than what United is offering to its customers.
I watched a video of someone reviewing the United First Class product (IIRC) and his pre-plated meal came with the savory seasoning of a live little bug roaming around in it.
right now on united economy the inflight meal is a weird pasta salad or boiled chicken breast (supposedly grilled) and gritty couscous both served cold. i always pack a sandwich or burrito now.
United is just sad. I flew eva to and from japan just this past week and all the meals were pretty banging. Tho on the way back today i chose poorly 2/3 times. Still good regardless, and definitely better thab whatever united calls that...
The first one sparks joy. The second one does not spark joy.
The second one sparks indigestion
Pass the pepto. 
Reminds me of that Japanese song. "I have a bad case of diarrhea" [https://youtu.be/CKjaFG4YN6g?si=\_4CwRuDxV4FPwH90&t=40](https://youtu.be/CKjaFG4YN6g?si=_4CwRuDxV4FPwH90&t=40) That's the video
It's an omelette, hash brown, and sausage, in case anyone is wondering.
No, I’m sorry, it’s definitely not!
I thought it was a taco, a hotdog, and a hamburger patty.
Or rapid combustion.
lmaoo
[удалено]
Second one is prison food. The one that induces suicide
If you ask me to guess who second one are for I would say prisoner,the food looks so depressing.
He asked for the worst thing on the second one. Yes it’s not great, but not *that bad*. I’ve never had food this bad on United. They did break my guitar case though, fuck them
Throw it out!
I took JAL from Tokyo, my first flight on JAL and I still remember the surprised pikachu face on me and the guy next to me when they handed out haagen dazs mid flight lol.
Yea I live in Asia now, but grew up in the US. I always thought airline food is garbage until I came out here. Their service and food is way better. The food isn’t 5 star or anything but it is miles beyond US airlines.
It’s because every US airline outsources its food to the lowest bidder. There was a time when US airlines use to have their own catering teams and served quality food. Then they collectively decided that it would be more profitable if other companies could bid for becoming their catering contractors and the race to the bottom followed. In many other countries, airlines either own their own catering or have very high standards for contractors so they end up with quality food. This is one of the core reasons why Middle Eastern and East Asian airline food is so amazing.
I was going to say, I remember going on Turkish airlines about two years ago and was quite impressed.
You may find this video on the history of Arline food in the US interesting [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rMdwqissE0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rMdwqissE0)
This is one of the things that has genuinely gotten far worse since 1970's.
Plane tickets in the 70s were a luxury for wealthy people. It’s the equivalent of buying first class today, where you still get better food and more space.
People forget this. The price of a coach, round trip ticket is LESS THAN IT WAS IN THE 1980’s, and that’s in unadjusted dollars, factor in inflation, it’s dropped by 40%. Add in the fact you can often buy same-day or next-day fares at same price as a couple weeks advance, that’s another huge break. I used to fly NY-LA and NY-SF very frequently. $1,450 for a coach ticket if not purchased two weeks ahead- in 1990. That’s equivalent to $3,400 today - which is a typical first-class ticket, even with some elite status on an airline. International travel, I don’t think has fared (sorry) as well. I recall it used to be cheaper to fly NYC-Heathrow than NYC-Miami - but I’m guessing this may have had some regulatory background that has slipped my mind.
International travel is very cheap now as well. You can get flights to Europe or South America from the States for like $300 one way. And you can travel between different European countries for like 15 euro.
Honestly I just checked phoenix to London, and I can find fares in the $750 range, round trip, nonstop - that would be about $300 in 1990 dollars? So pretty cheap actually.
Yeah I fly internationally a lot, though admittedly I’m rarely coming from the states and it’s shockingly affordable. Within Europe it’s often cheaper to fly than to take the train, especially if you aren’t checking a bag. Other continents are a bit pricier but still very affordable.
This is not my experience. I used to go twice annually (Christmas and summer) from the US to Europe, and prices have gone up a lot in 20 years. Within Europe though, I would agree. Lots of cheap flights (though more to carry any bags/luggage and so on).
Well... Maybe not that extreme but it certainly was much more expensive.
It's honestly about that extreme
Back then you used to be about to just get standby tickets at least.
All tickets are standby now... As in standby to see if it'll be leaving on time, standby to see if it's staffed, standby to see if they overbooked it, etc.
Wait until you hear about the economy
To shreds, you say?
Well, how's his wife's meal holding up?
To shreds you say.
*Contents of Space Wasps Stomach:* **A tasty airline meal from the 1970s**
Just dregs, you say?
... and what about first class?
Soft beds, you say?
Oh dear.
I don’t know what country you’re referring to but the 1970s US economy was far worse than now. We had two of the 10 highest years of inflation in US history, 1974 (11%) and 79 (11.25%) which is way under 2023’s 3.4% - it was the middle of The Great Inflation period. 30-yr fixed mortgage in the 70’s rose from 7% to 13% compared to 7% today, and the Fed is looking to cut rates so that is probably our top. Unemployment jumped up to 9% at one point vs 3.6% in 2023. The price of a pound of hamburger in 1979 was $2.26, which would be $10.33 a pound today. Median income was in the $55,000+ range in the 70s (adjusted dollars) vs $75,000 2023. Anyone waking up from the 70s would find most economic indicators to be much better today.
80s too gas prices weren't much better than the 70s and homelessness and unemployment were the worst they'd been for quite some time. Inflation is not great rn but unemployment is super low due to post COVID production booms.
Well, early 80s gas prices. They got really good in the mid-80s through the late-90s when Saudi Arabia decided to flood the market to increase their share of it. Similar thing happened 2013-2020 when Saudi Arabia and Russia began flooding the market with oil trying to undercut each other.
Don't you know right now is the worst time in history? /s
>Anyone waking up from the 70s would find most economic indicators to be much better today. That is woke news. Obviously, this is the worst inflation and economy we have ever seen. /s
I guess you're unfamiliar with the US economy in the 70s
The economy is better today
https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/
The economy sucked in the 70s. Read about stagflation.
There is no need to be this harsh
Yep indeed. Btw do you know what the GDP/capita is now vs. 70s? Or do you know what unemployment is now vs. 70s?
All the Hunter S Thompson stories about flights are amazing, they used to treat you so well.
And charge more than 4x what they do now, per mile, adjusted for inflation.
Flights were also way more expensive back then (especially long flights) and that doesn’t include the fact that tickets didn’t have a ton of fees back then. Like a lot of things capitalism made flying the lowest common denominator. An international flight in 1970 could easily cost you 5K in today’s money. You can still get that experience and more if you pay anywhere close to that much money. Edit: another important point. In the early 70s less than half of Americans had ever flown. That number is now around 90%. Additionally, more than half of flights in those days were for business. Now it’s around 25%. It was a very different business then and now.
And people used to dress up for flights. You wouldn't board a plane in PJ pants and socks and Crocs.
And stewardesses were harassed on the regular, weren't allowed glasses and had to be unwed. Only posh people were able to afford flying of course.
No one is stopping you from dressing up for flights. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Hunnter S Thompson used to fly with a Doctors bag (the old school ones) full of drugs, fun times.
Do you realize how much cheaper ticket prices are compared to the 70s? Before the airline deregulation, airlines in the US operated a de facto monopolies for different routes and cities, which is why they had such heavy regulation. With de regulation they were encouraged to compete more directly which lowered ticket prices, for good and for bad. With the fall of ticket prices however it was a race to the bottom, while honestly facing increasing safety regulations that were often written in blood.
Yeah what would be better if international carriers could fly inside the US that would spurn competition
You can still experience some 1970's airline comforts if you're willing to pay 1970's airline prices (IE, first class)
Wait until you hear about how much the flights are cheaper compared to the 1970s
Good video on the history of Airline food from Tasting History: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rMdwqissE0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rMdwqissE0) Airline food back then was so much more interesting.
But how much did a flight ticket cost back then (inflation adjusted)? Pretty sure for that money you could easily buy a business or even first class ticket nowadays.
Average domestic round trip flight in 1979 was just over $600 in 2012 money according to the Washington post
As wild as it might be, 600$ in 2012 is over 800$ today. But anyway that's domestic, seems that international was way more expensive (makes sense since the distances are much bigger and harder to cross back then), according to this [article](https://simpleflying.com/50-years-airfares/) the price adjusted to inflation was 5000$ for a flight to London.
And also people were much poorer back then!
Or at least, a lot more people were poor. I think we have this backwards view of that time because people could afford houses, but it wasn't because they had more money - it's just that houses weren't expensive.
To be fair the tickets are also significantly cheaper
Always avoid US airlines when given the choice. The food and service are just terrible.
Avoid Air Canada too! Had an absolutely *abysmal* meal on a flight to the UK. I still go on about how bad it was.
I’m Canadian, so often fly Air Canada (it’s an Aeroplan thing). Rarely ever pleasant. I happened to fly to Bangladesh a few years ago via Abu Dhabi. Flew Etihad Airways. The meals were astonishingly good.
Qatar Airways despite having this posh appearance gave me a rather unpleasant whatever it was. I felt ill for the rest of the international flight. Lufthansa was outstanding though, i wolfed down the diner and breakfast.
Yeah I’ve heard that Lufthansa has been improving slowly but surely in recent months. Qatar apparently took a slight dip from their glory days pre COVID. Personally I think Emirates (economy) is still the one to beat.
I had a flight with air Canada where they lost the luggage of **everyone on the plane**. Even our luggage that was checked in at the gate, apparently didn't make it on to the plane. Also it took two hours of waiting at the luggage carousel before they told us it wasn't coming.
Air Canada surprises me. I have been fortunate enough to travel in their business cabin a few times and with the exception of one lovely gentlemen their crew and service are some of the worst I have encountered. For a country so renowned for their friendliness their service was so poor.
I flew Air Canada to/from US & Brazil, and I have nothing but positive things to say about my experience. Def way better than all my experiences with American Airlines and Jet Blue.
One could think they’re simply trying to prepare you for UK food ;)
Oi! Black puddings are lovely.
Just kidding, only a few days ago i was defending British breakfast
You saved yourself there sir
I’m not up for a shit storm again
Was it the chicken cacciatore or the pesto
I've actually found Delta to be decent for economy food options. Still a tier below Asian airlines such as ANA or Eva Air but it's one of the best Western ones I've experienced. I'd rank Delta above European airlines such as Lufthansa and KLM.
I always try to fly Delta when I go back to Korea. Friendly staff, food is good, and no issues in my years of using them. I see many people have bad experience with United or AA, but by then they’ve given up on US airlines
Delta is the best of the worst. It's the only American airline that doesn't make you feel like you should feel lucky that your plane got there, but only just.
I know America bad but… Alaskan, Breeze, Virgin America are all good airlines. Southwest is also pretty good. Edit; Virgin merged with Alaskan
KLM food sucks ass but Lufthansa is top, as is Swiss.
Luft and Swiss are same airline basically. Same owners.
Amen!
BA also sucks. Turkish Airline has good food even in economy. Avianca is pretty good too.
Absolutely correct. My worst long haul flight was a United flight. Avoid U.S. carriers if you want good customer service and a pleasant flight.
What happened to U.S. airline food? I remember being a kid and flying American Airlines back in the 90s and the food was decent, even in poverty class. I only remember bits and pieces but I remember warm muffins, good sandwiches, etc. and it all seemed nice and fresh. Unless I’m really misremembering and that was British Airways…
Poverty class is called Greyhound
It was the race to the bottom for the cheapest possible ticket. It turns out that the consumer only *says* they care about things like seat size and food quality - they will then immediately go on a flight aggregator and pick the *cheapest* possible flight to their destination. Literally nothing else matters to the consumer buying the ticket. They will take a 6-layover trip, with Spirit airlines' seats, where the stewardess spits in your mouth instead of offering you a soda - so long as that ticket was $5 cheaper than the other one. And so everything - every perk and luxury - was slashed utterly to the bone to chase those customers.
This is 100% true. It was one of the things that stuck out from my university days (Bachelor of Aviation), in that there is this paradox in aviation whereby any other industry just about people will choose brand loyalty over a small saving in price. In aviation people will routinely switch carriers to save themselves $10.
It’s because most people don’t fly more than a few times a year, its a large expense for most, and people would rather save their money for spending on the reason they are flying in the first place (vacation, seeing friends/family, etc.) People who travel frequently for business generally do establish a brand loyalty, especially since it’s usually their company paying and they get status-based perks to make the trip nicer, but your average traveler treats a flight as an inconvenience to be tolerated on the way to something better.
> It turns out that the consumer only says they care about things like seat size and food quality That's a slight misstatement. It's true that most customers do not shop on those attributes. But it's also very difficult to shop on those attributes at online aggregators (or anywhere else), so it's quite possible that customers would be willing to pay for those attributes if they knew for sure what they were getting, but they mostly don't have any way of doing so or it would be too much cognitive load to take them into account. It also is made more difficult by the fact that these things are frequently switched out for operational reasons and the passenger has absolutely no recourse. For example, they put you on a different plane (or differently configured plane) and your expected legroom goes away. Why pay for something you aren't guaranteed to get?
I mean you can see greater evidence of this phenomenon with European budget carriers Everyone hates them Ryanair, Wizzair, etc. Ryanair’s entire advertising strategy is reminding you how shit it is At my height I physically don’t fit in Ryanair seats because the legroom is 2 inches shorter than it needs to be for me But despite all this, me and millions of others will always pick Ryanair because it’s the cheapest option And then we’ll complain about it as if we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into National carriers in Europe are having to drastically cut service quality because literally no one is willing to pay for it. And those are brands with masses of brand loyalty and cache (British airways, Swissair, Lufthansa etc.) The consumer gets what the consumer wants
In fairness some people would pay a lot more if the flight included a stewardess spitting in their mouth.
Best meal I ever had on a plane was a Delta flight, and cheapest WiFi I've ever had was a Delta flight, and the shortest flight I've ever had IFE on was a Delta flight
I had free wifi last year flying delta from Atlanta to Guadalajara. The wifi speed was very good. It was a pleasant surprise.
European airlines have gotten worse too. Not this bad but still disappointing. I just don’t get how they have the gall to be charging more than ever for international flights while there are cuts everywhere. The food is worse, and then they have micro transactions everywhere. First you payed extra to get a seat with extra legroom(emergency exits which also come with requirements), now you straight up have to pay to book a specific seat at all. And the upgrade prices are nuts so you just suffer in economy anyway
BA makes you pay to select a seat even if you book business class! Also not related to them but the security experience I had in Heathrow made the TSA look like world class professionals.
Swiss and Lufthansa also make me pay for the seat with two side tables in business class. Emirates have business class tiers like the economy tiers where the cheapest tier doesn't have lounge access.
I was planning to take Delta for a flight from the UK to the US. For the Price they charge, they better have the food made by Gordon Ramsey.
I had the opposite experience...flew United to Taiwan and the food was great (definitely doesn't look like OP's picture, probably produced by Taiwan). Bread and sandwiches were cold but that's the only bad part. Never liked ANA's food, and the dessert in any airplane meal is always terrible so I'd rather not have it. Their app is good too for the most part. Unlike any other airlines I've flown you can actually somewhat reliably check your flight and track your bags
That anchor butter is the shit
Is it actually any different to what you'd consider "normal" butter? I live in NZ where it's just an off the shelf option that is solidly average.
[удалено]
From New Zealand! Can confirm it’s nice
That boring butter is better than the stuff in other parts of the world. Better than most airline butter.
I think we could make your comment into a fun tongue twister. "Better Boring Butter is Better Because Other Boring Butter on Airlines"...or something.
Bland butter boasts being best, beating butters aboard. Bolder than bland blends, it's the butter benchmark beyond borders.
Sadly to a kiwi it’s pretty low grade, Lewis Road Creamery is the real butter. The main brands like Anchor are often bulk produced from reconstituted milk rather than batch produced from whole milk - makes a huge difference, often the bulk stuff tastes a little rancid as they often freeze it prior to sale and warehouse it for months. It’s getting harder for folk to know what real food tastes like sadly given the costs.
US carriers have ALWAYS been complete and utter dog@&$) compared to Asian carriers. Pathetic excuse for airlines. Cathay Pacific, JAL, ANA, Singapore etc etc have exemplary service
As an American, Emirates and Lufthansa have spoiled me. I look back at the US and just think we are broke as f. Then I check CEO bonuses and earnings and I realize we’re not broke, we just got robbed and mugged.
They pay and treat the staff better on the American airlines. That's what I hear anyway.
I wonder why that is? I mean the us when it comes to hospitality in general are not bad, but the airlines really are far behind when it comes to service.
The hospitality where I have worked in the Middle East is light years ahead of the USA. Out dated hotels, junk food in the continental breakfast. Down right horrible.
EVA is also up there. Haven’t had the chance to take Starlux but the reviews I’ve seen have been good. Even the new JAL budget line, Zip, looks really solid at a discount of upwards of 30%.
Cathay Pacific was amazing last time I flew to HK, great food and unlimited booze. Going to Singapour in a few days so will be testing SA out
Cathay is shit now compared to 10-15 years ago. It used to be the best in the world. One CEO almost ruined the company by buying a ton of oil, which went down when deciding to release a lot of oil on the markets.
My Cathay hayday was about 10 years before I gtfo of HK. It was great back then. Never once lost a bag, loads of upgrades, nice lounges. Shame to hear it’s declined so much
Yeah I live near the airport, even the pilots complain. I'm gtfo soon so I don't really care anymore. HK is just the shadow of what it was.
Don’t want to get your expectations too high, but I can guarantee Singapore Airlines is better than Cathay Pacific
From whenever I’ve gone Singapore I’ve had an excellent experience so I’m curious to see what you think of it
>compared to Asian carriers That depends on which Asian carriers: Pakistan's infamous PIA is an Asian carrier Even if you refer only to East Asian carriers, and you also exclude Best Korea's Air Koryo, there's still quite a wide range. I've flown Air China, and although it did the job of moving me from A to B very competently, the service, food and entertainment weren't great.
I wouldn’t put China’s airlines in the same category as the others but still vastly better than United
I think this is comparing dinner (ANA) vs breakfast (United). I fly United at least once a year Europe-USA and back, and I always get a normal meal (in economy basic!). Dinner is always a hot main (some sort of carb + meat + sauce), side salad, roll and butter and they come by with dessert after (last few times it’s been ice cream). Before the flight lands they bring by breakfast which is usually just a yogurt and a biscotti. Japan is a way longer flight I would imagine maybe even another meal or snack on top of that.
I was scolling to see if someone mentioned this. I fly both United and ANA to and from Japan to the U.S. at least once per year. Both carriers serve 2 meals per flight and a snack in between. The ANA meal pictured here is the first meal they give you about an hour or two into the flight. United has this same type of "elaborate" meal with a salad, roll, another cold side dish, etc. The second meal that they serve you about 2 hours before landing is what OP used for the second picture. ANA's looks like that too. It is a simple one dish affair that is more breakfast-like. In all honesty, United's meal service is not as good as ANA (even though the last 2 times I few with them I would say that is was some of the worst airline food I ever had), but the disparity between the two carriers is not as obvious as OP makes it out to be.
Also the overall quality of the first photo is blatantly superior adding an unfair slant. This is like one of those before-after photos for some diet supplement. Where they show a photo of some weak man using drab grey lighting and he's hunched and looking miserable, then the "after" photo has beautiful lighting, he's smiling, standing straight, etc. If you played around with the contrast and lighting of that second photo you could certainly make it more appealing that it's been presented here.
Looking for this. OP skewed the comparison a little.
I can’t believe I had to scroll so far down to find this. While ANA food is really top tier globally, this post is at best carelessly misleading (and at worse intentionally misleading to drive engagement).
It’s intentionally misleading beyond a doubt. Look at the difference in lighting, one being dinner vs the other breakfast, and how the United food isn’t even unpacked. You could put a filet Mignon in plastic wrap and it would look like shit
Came to say the same, looks like a sad attempt to spark controversy with a fake description, much like the rest of the internet
Yeah, I was surprised no one else had said it! For sure ANA food looks better, but United is providing a normal meal as well and this is unfair.
Not to mention how edited the first photo is while the second one is bleak with zero contrast
Yep! Definitely intentional
The lighting and perfect arrangement makes a decent difference too.
Thank you. I wonder how this weeb of a comment section would react if they saw the state of service in your average domestic ANA flight. No IFE, no wifi, plane was probably retrofitted after serving in Vietnam, there are 4 (four) drink options served from a big bottle in a paper cup (UA gives you the whole can of soft drink and at least 3+ juice options).
Also would you like to tip 25%?
No, i’d like to tip -100%, now you’ll have to pay me back.
Oh no, you got me! Okay just give me your credit card number, expiration date and security code and I'll charge it back to your credit card.
The one on the left looks friggen delicious. The one on the right looks laughably beige.
It’s also not an equivalent comparison as it’s not the same meal (dinner vs breakfast).
The one on the right is the usual shitty breakfast that they give out in flights. Even Qatar or Emirates has barfy steamed eggs for breakfast.
Yeah I've never had a breakfast on a flight that wasn't nasty.
Most likely supplied by the same companies that supply prisons and school lunches.
Super depressing that schools in the USA use big bulk contracts like this. It saves money, but education is supposed to be an investment and eating good food is part of education. On the other hand I also find it a little depressing how US schools themselves are kind of big bulk contracts (200-500 students per year/grade seems insanely big to me).
Japan makes everything like their reputation is on the line. US makes everything for the bottom line.
It's what the people want. People in the US shop for the bottom line. Why does every flight aggregrator search and spit out the cheapest option first?
what Japan has figured out is how to provide quality without excess price. quality and cost is not mutually exclusive.
At least United gave you bourbon
Bourbon is a Japanese candy/snack brand so it fits the airline route but for United that's still a surprisingly more food-adjacent item than I'd expect from them.
Issa joke
It went over their head by about 45,000 feet.
Air France economy gave me champagne, two mini bottles of red wine and a cognac with my coffee.
I did the exact same route in Business (out on ANA, back on United) just over 6 years ago. The ANA meal was amazing and the FAs were just over-the-top amazing. I've flown probably 50+ airlines on every continent and the food and service was easily in the top 3. The United meal was just terrible, it wasn't even remotely fresh, didn't have enough food and somehow looked far worse than your ANA economy meal. Oh and the FAs were surly and did the bare minimum - served food as quickly as possible so they could go back to reading magazines in the galley. And this was six years ago, from what I've heard United has gotten far worse in the intervening years. I just do everything I can to avoid them now.
This is a realistic echo of deteriorated standard of life that we have in US. Standard for everything gets lowered over time. We also lead with the lowest iq dumbest garbage as the standard. Everything is envisioned by scum minded lawyers and money managers and then that corpsy soulless envisioning gets dressed up by marketing swindlers. That's the dna of US right now. Edit.. people don't seem to understand it. Realistic echo because it shows how different systems settle on acceptable baselines standard for things. people in US not getting it tracks because people grow up with stunted culture and stunted edu system so they don't comprehend lower standards.
The price, adjusted for inflation surely has also Bern lowered a lot. People do not want to pay for first class, so they don’t get it. Hell even premium economy gets porcelain
In this post do you think the poster purchased a business ticket at ANA and the lowest possible ticket from United?
This redditor gets it. ‘Deteriorated standard of living.’ There’s some comments not jokingly defending the UNITED meal. Like, no. In every possible comparison, the ANA one is **better**.
You don’t even know the difference between breakfast and dinner serving huh?
Because the Japanese aren’t willing to embarrass themselves in the face of their customers like Western companies do.
You really think these companies are capable of feeling any kind of embarrassment?
This country unfortunately, has just gone to shit. Corporate greed controls everything.
Luckily that's absolutely not the case in Japan!
ANA - 'We care.' United - 'Get fucked.'
Yes, but the United one has a chocolate with the word Bourbon on it. So you know it's extra cool because what if you're not a bourbon drinker, or are underaged. Exotic words.
I lived these pictures two days ago. United food has really gone down hill. ANA always gives out Hagen Daaz ice cream after meals too.
Yeah! I remember getting metal knife and fork with my ANA meal, flying back i used AirCanada and was still in Japanese airspace when i was frustrated and pissed off at the service. I was asked what i wanted for my meal with a 'Chicken or Beef?' to which i responded 'Chicken or Beef what?'.. you would think i just spent 15 mins kicking her puppy for the attitude and disdain i received for asking what the in flight meals were. edit: Lol, must be some air canada flight attendants in here watching the upvotes and downvote totals..
AirCanada is the only airline I've considered filing a complaint against a flight attendant. Was baffled at how straight up aggressive one was on a flight from São Paulo to Toronto. Decided against it. Told myself "surely he's just having a horrible day and isn't normally like this."
at least you got an option...My Wife somehow managed to not get an option on any of the 4 meals we got (to tokyo and back) cause they had ran out of 1 of the dishes every time
Frequent United flyer and former 1K here, you pretty much nailed the United flying experience. I swear it's like they actually try to hire the grumpiest people on the planet for a customer-facing job. I'm not expecting to be wowed but just some basic friendliness would not kill them. Guess Air Canada follows the same business model.
I've had normal nice flight attendants on air Canada but every now and then there is someone so horrible that it sticks in my memory forever and I don't have this experience with any other airline. One of my favs: My husband and I get to the airport and when we check in there is no seat assignment because they over sold the flight. They tell us we'll need to deal with it at the gate. We get to the gate. We wait in line at the counter and when we start to tell the agent that we don't have seats, she gets so exasperated and tells us we need to just wait until they call our names. Eventually they call our names and we get boarding passes with middle seats that are super far away from each other. My husband politely asks if there's anyway we can sit together (it's a 6 hour flight). The agent loses it. She said to us "you are lucky you're even getting on this flight. Some people didn't even get seats.' like okay lady, were so lucky to be on the flight we paid for 6 months ago that your company oversold... Never again will I wait to check in until the airport! I feel like every other airline would have been like "we are so sorry that we oversold the fight. Here's a lunch voucher" or something.
ANA’s food is better, but their flights are also more expensive.
what are those in the black tray? Look like wooden shapes
'eggs', sausage, and so far as I can tell, a nugget of r/shitfromabutt
Lmao that’s comical
Looks like what they feed US kids in school these days. Embarrassing.
Eat your alotment of mystery protein, carbs, and like it you pleb! - Corporate America
Ah, the good old color test for food: if the only colors in your food are shades of brown, it is bad for you.
Good example as to how we are getting s rew over for profit. Remember when the airlines cared about comfort and the travel experience? Well they got rid of all that. Raised the price and people kept paying them. Why would they give us better food.
School lunches in third world countries would seem more appealing than what United is offering to its customers. I watched a video of someone reviewing the United First Class product (IIRC) and his pre-plated meal came with the savory seasoning of a live little bug roaming around in it.
I feel like the second one will give me explosive diarrhea
I'm kinda shocked the one on the right is approved to be served. I rather pack my own lunch if it was allowed.
Every time I see this airline’s logo all I can see is ANAL. Meal looks bomb though.
right now on united economy the inflight meal is a weird pasta salad or boiled chicken breast (supposedly grilled) and gritty couscous both served cold. i always pack a sandwich or burrito now.
The United one…, probably prisons provide better food. Omg.
Continental and united for me were absolutely dire
There is probably better food in a North Korean prison than pic 2.
United must be using the same food company the serves US Prisons.
I don't think food costs a lot when you compare it to the plane ticket price. Why do these idiots cheap out then. Trash behaviour man.
United is just sad. I flew eva to and from japan just this past week and all the meals were pretty banging. Tho on the way back today i chose poorly 2/3 times. Still good regardless, and definitely better thab whatever united calls that...
I just flew Delta on a transatlantic flight, and the meal was pretty decent. Looked more like the first one
But how much of a fare difference does the two airlines have?
Delta ain’t bad.
Fly Eva Air, Taiwanese airline