Your Airplane Food May Cost You

by J Paul Webber

Pack your own food if you plan to fly on these airlines – because that inflight sandwich will cost you. Not all airline charges are created equal. In an airspace where it’s basically expected now that airlines will charge customers for “add-ons” like food and baggage, each airline has a different idea of what exactly to charge.

And although some may think “a sandwich is just a sandwich,” the prices that European carriers charge onboard for food can widely vary. The most expensive airline for hungry passengers is Icelandair. Although passengers may end up saving money by booking a cheap flight with the airline, they will pay the most on Icelandair for sandwiches, chips, wine or beer of any European carrier.

Icelandair passengers can expect to pay about $17.60 for a meal onboard, which includes a sandwich ($7.26), chips, a glass of wine and a hot drink. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the small carrier Eurowings is the cheapest for buying a meal. Passengers will pay about $14.40 for an average meal. Passengers flying throughout Europe may want to bear one thing in mind: the price for a beer aboard some German carriers is the same as the price of a bottle of water.

But there are still some European airlines that have maintained free food service onboard their flights. Swiss Air, Australian Airlines, Alitalia, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM and TAP Air Portugal all offer free meal service.

Meanwhile in the U.S –  Delta started back with complimentary meals beginning mid-2017 by rolling them out on select transcontinental routes. All these years though, Hawaiian Airlines has been the only U.S. based airline to continuously offer free meals.

JetBlue offers free snacks and beverages, although the airline charges up to $12 for additional food on longer flights. United and American airlines both offer free snacks (a cookie or a bag of peanuts or pretzels), but will charge about $10 for a sandwich. Southwest does not serve meals onboard, although the airline does offer a free snack service.

“Do not go where the path leads, travel instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”   @wbbrjp

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