Crew Meals: The Love/Hate Relationship

Posted in A Day in the Life of a Flight Attendant | 12 comments

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Pilot Crew Meal

At my previous airline, the pilots were the only crew members to receive meals. It was written into their contract that any flight over 3.5 hours a hot or cold meal would be provided. Of course, before giving the meal boxes to the pilots or heating up their meal (which was the worst! We had to cook THEIR meals and we couldn’t eat anything!)  we would raid their meal for items we wanted such as cookies, chocolate, snacks, etc. Sometimes, though rare, the pilot would even offer us the whole meal if they weren’t hungry.

Apparently, the flight attendant’s gave up provided meals for a $1 pay raise at the time their contract was renegotiated in 1999. I’d rather the crew meal. We could be on duty up to 14.5 hours a day, without a break to get off the plane and buy food.  I couldn’t afford to eat on my $16/hr starting pay (and that was WITH a $1 paid raise) for a mainline carrier, it barely paid the bills! However, it helped me to create my “FA4Day” Diet, but that’s another blog or another day.

Now, at my current airline we have crew meals. We fly primarily transcontinental and sometimes the flight times are well over 7 hours depending on your city pairings. My airline sells a wide variety of fresh food items and we’re permitted to select one option as a crew meal after we pass the 2 hour mark during flight. In addition, first class is boarded with 2 extra hot meals per flight. This is done to ensure those passengers not seated in the first row of first class still have shot at their preferred meal selection. However, this leaves 2 extra hot meals per flight to be consumed as crew meals. Some pilots expect to receive the hot meals, but not on my planes. I offer them to the FAs working the main cabin first, since they work the hardest out of the 5 of us.

Though its nice to know I have a meal when I’m hungry, I don’t always eat them.

Granted, after a while the same choices on every flight gets old. Part of you doesn’t want to eat it just because your sick of the selection. There is only so many turkey wraps you can eat in 4 days. Nutritiously, I try to stay away from the on board meals. Though the food is good (and my airline has won awards, they are really good!) eating the same items day in and out cannot be good for my body. I almost wish we had nutritional information on our products. It might make me feel better about eating them.

Alternatively, one of the options currently in first class is Eggplant Rollitini. I’m a sucker for Eggplant and always pray that it becomes one of the leftover choices. If it does, I always eat it. I know what you’re thinking “you’re worried about calories in the turkey wrap but your eating something loaded with cheese;” and all I can say to that is… yes. I guess I’m just more conscious of the food I’m eating now. I like to try and stay fit and ensure my uniform fits well. I don’t want to become a C/D queen (a flight attendant whose arse hits the C and D passengers while walking down the aisle.)

The aspect I didn’t expect crew meals to help was my wallet. I am higher paid now then I was at the mainline carrier, so I can afford to eat and pay bills. However, having the crew meals is also a savior for those lulls between paychecks or for when I’ve spent my mad money and don’t want to spend $15 for a cheese burger. As it is, I’m expected to spend $8 on a 4 day tipping van drivers for doing the job their supposed to do (but, I’ve already covered that [See: Tipping Your Flight Attendant]). You don’t realize how much money you can save on a 4 day by eating crew meals and not eating out. For that, I’m very thankful, and so is my savings account.

So in conclusion, though they may be higher in calories and sodium than I would like and not the most nutritious meals; they are free, taste good, and satisfy my hunger. Additionally, I am grateful to be provided a crew meal as it helps to make my per diem payments go a little bit further and I believe all airlines should provide a crew meal to flight crew working a flight over 3.5 hours.

Does your airline offer crew meals? If so, do you eat them? If no, do you want them?

Book cheap flights to alicante from london  and enjoy a comfortable flight. When even the crew gets to enjoy tasty meals, you know that the passengers are well cared for.

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