AIRLINES Customers are fed up with new meal policies

On more and more airlines, there is no such thing as a free lunch.
By JANE ENGLE
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Figuring out what and even whether you'll be fed on a flight is becoming almost impossible because the rules are complicated -- and constantly shifting. Even airlines have trouble keeping up.
Carol Scrivner of San Gabriel, Calif., found herself on the losing side in the airline food fights in June when she and her husband, Joe Parker, flew Alaska Airlines from Ontario, Calif., to Seattle.
They didn't pack a meal for their 21/2-hour, 12:29 p.m. flight because their ticket documents listed "lunch." "Lunch" turned out to be a tiny cup of vanilla ice cream, Scrivner said.
When she complained to a flight attendant, "he said, 'We don't do that anymore,' snickered and walked away." A delayed departure stretched the couple's on-board stay to 31/2 hours.
When Scrivner's story was told to Alaska Airlines spokesman Sam Sperry, he said the airline's policy since late last year had been to serve snacks, not meals, in coach on flights that are expected to last 11/2 to three hours and occur during mealtimes. But the company hadn't updated its reservation system to reflect that policy.
"This is our fault," Sperry said. "It was clearly a mistake."
In a flurry of industry changes, some trends have emerged: Free food and special meals are disappearing. It won't be long before coach fliers in the United States will have to carry a lunchbox or cash to get what they want to eat on board -- or to get anything at all.
US Airways
That's the situation at US Airways, which ended free meals in coach on domestic flights more than a year ago. You can buy In-Flight Cafe food on most flights of 700 miles or longer, said spokeswoman Amy Kudwa. A snack box costs $5, breakfast $7, lunch or dinner $10. Cash only.
Outsourcing the meals saves the airline money, Kudwa said, although predicting demand isn't easy. As of a few months ago, about 30 percent of passengers bought meals, but the rate varied widely by such factors as flight length and whether the flight was at mealtime.
"Some flights you sell out; on some you have food left over," she said. As a result, there's no guarantee you'll get a chance to buy food even where the program is offered, especially if you're sitting in the last row.
US Airways, which once served 16 types of special meals, such as vegan and gluten-free, no longer offers them in coach, and it's putting a halt to them in first class, too, ending all special meals on domestic flights.
"We realize this does represent an inconvenience to customers with specific dietary needs," Kudwa said. But she said special meals were "very seldom used."
"The cost of supplying this service and the demand from customers don't match," she said.
Widespread practice
US Airways has gone further than some competitors in shrinking free food service. But the practice is widespread as cash-hungry major airlines, squeezed in the vise of high fuel costs and the low fares they must charge to compete against low-cost carriers, hunt for savings.
"What's going on here is survival of the fittest," Alaska's Sperry said. "It's down to blood and guts."