Science Explains Why Airline Food Tastes So Bad

Bad airline food is nothing new. It's one of the favorite complaints among passengers, along with cramped seats and full-body cavity searches from the TSA.

But maybe the airlines aren't totally at fault. And maybe the food service companies they buy their food from isn't at totally at fault either.

Science finally has an explanation. No, they didn't figure out what that mystery meat is. This is actually quite interesting and something I'd never even considered.

According to this article on Fox News' website, the altitude plays a major factor in how your food tastes at 35,000 feet.

“Your ability to taste food and wine decreases thirty-percent at altitude,” says Talling-Smith. Howard Hillman’s The New Kitchen Science (Mariner Books) confirms that flying decreases not just taste bud sensitivity but sense of smell.

 “Cabin pressure,” writes Hillman, “decreases the volatility of the odorant molecules,” meaning there’s not a whole lot of aromas at altitude. (Ever notice that it gets stinky when you start de-planing?) Further, the cabin’s ultra-dry atmosphere “dehydrates the entire body” and also “impairs the passenger’s olfactory sensory mechanism,” i.e. ability to smell.

The article goes on to explain that drinking diuretics like coffee and alcohol can amplify the problem even further.

If you were to taste the food on the ground, it might not be all that bad.

At least one airline, British Airways, is trying to "pump up" the flavor of their onboard meals with more herbs and spices to try and make the food a little better when served to passengers.

So the next time you fly and are choking down a piece of rubbery chicken, don't blame the airline. Blame the altitude.

Frontier Airlines Upgrades Their Inflight Entertainment Offerings

Frontier Airlines will be upgrading their inflight amenities, according to a press release published yesterday on their website.

Most of the changes involve offering more programming to their inflight entertainment line-up. Of course, there's a cost to passengers. The airline will be charging from $3.99 to $7.99, determined by the length of your flight.

The press release outlines their changes:

“We constantly hear from our customers how much they appreciate the option of our DIRECTV® service onboard our Airbus fleet and we are happy to provide an even better product at a better price,” said Dan Krause, Frontier’s vice president of marketing and customer experience. “The bundled pricing for both 24 channels of DIRECTV and movie service provides a greater value to our customers and we believe the variable pricing based on length of travel will allow even more customers to enjoy this service on their next Frontier flight.”

Further:

The new bundled product will be included in all Classic and Classic Plus tickets, as well as for Frontier’s EarlyReturns® Ascent and Summit members. Customers purchasing Classic and Classic Plus fares – which are only available at FrontierAirlines.com – and flying on Airbus aircraft will now get access to movies as well the 24 channels of DIRECTV, further increasing the value of these fares, which also include two checked bags, lower fees, and access to better seating.

I'm usually not one to take advantage of the inflight entertainment when I fly. Most of the time I either work, read or sleep. The biggest exception is when I listen to the "in the cockpit" channel on the headphones. But with Frontier's lineup of DIRECTV entertainment, it'd be hard to pass up, especially on flights longer than 3 hours.

Photo Credit: redlegsfan21 via Creative Commons

United Airlines Ends Pre-Boarding For Families

In what appears to be another blow to traveling families, United Airlines decided to end pre-boarding for families - even those with infants and toddlers.

The reasoning is, according to this CNN article, is that United wants to streamline the boarding process by reducing the number of boarding groups.

Bad move. Back in December 2010, my wife and I took our infant son to visit our family in Idaho. We were flying United. I asked the ticket agent at the gate if we'd have a chance to pre-board. She snapped at me to wait for my boarding group to be called.

So we waited. When we finally boarded, infant son in tow, we found our seats. Because we had a 4-month old with us. It took us a while to get settled. The line behind us backed up considerably. No one complained, as I'm sure they understood (at least, I hope they did). Maybe they were distracted by a cute baby.

The unintended consequence of United's decision to eliminate pre-boarding for families with small children will be longer wait times and "traffic" jams as passengers wait for these families to get settled. And if it's around the holidays, where a lot of families are traveling, it'll take forever to get the plane boarded.

I used to love to fly United. They were a good airline. Over the last decade or so they have gone downhill. They offer little legroom and employees aren't as friendly as they used to be.

Because I live in Chicago, there's no shortage of more family-friendly airlines to choose from. United will no longer be an option.

Airlines Charging Extra For Seats Together

Just when you think airlines couldn't nickel and dime passenger any more, they find yet another way. This time, airlines want to reserve window and aisle seats for those who pay extra. This means that families, friends and anyone else who wants to sit together might be sitting in different parts of the plane.

And now that the summer travel season is here, it might be impossible to find two seats together (unless you pay that damned fee). Depending on your flights, destination, how many travelers your with - that extra fee can easily top $100.

But according to this article on the Huffington Post, some travelers kinda like the idea:

Frequent business travelers used to get stuck with middle seats even though their last-minute fares were two or three times higher than the average. Now, airlines are setting aside more window and aisle seats for their most frequent fliers at no extra cost.
 "The customers that are more loyal, who fly more often, we want to make sure they have the best travel experience," says Eduardo Marcos, American Airline's manager of merchandising strategy.

This I can understand. Business travelers are the bread-and-butter passengers for the airline industry. They fly often and pay higher fares than the summer traveler. Frequent fliers should get the better seats, they certainly deserve it.

However, I think airlines can find a better way than charging extra. For families (like mine) it can get very expensive, very fast to fly somewhere. The last thing we need is to pay just to sit together.

Maybe we'll stay home this year.

Are Checked Bag Fees Backfiring On Airlines?

Checked bag fees seem to be the bane of the traveler's existence. Passengers are forced to pay these fees, which can be upwards of $50, on top of already high airfares.

According to the Transportation Department, revenue from those fees went down to 3.36 billion from 3.4 billion. Yes, it's still a lot of money, but it signals that passengers are finally starting to pack lighter, instead of carrying their entire lives with them on the plane.

"We'll damage your bag at no extra charge."

I have mixed feelings about checked bag fees. On the one hand, I understand that airlines need to make money, and this is a good way to make a quick buck. On the other hand, I think that the 'law of unintended consequences' is at play here.

Charging passengers to check their bags means passengers will bring more onto the plane with them. I've seen countless people trying to shove overstuffed suitcases into the overhead bin. On full flights, the last few passengers to board will sometimes have to have their suitcase checked because there's no more room.

There's really no win-win with baggage fees. There gets to be a point when airlines start nickel-and-diming passengers (most will say they already do).

Photo Credit: Masaru Kamikura Used under the Creative Commons license.

Virgin Atlantic To Allow Inflight Cell Phone Use

Virgin Atlantic has decided to allow inflight cell phone use on some flights. The airline will slowly roll out the service. At first, the service will only work with British O2 and Vodaphone providers. And only 6 cell phones will be able to make calls at any given time.

This is a highly heated issue. Allowing cell phone use inflight is either a blessing to those who want to stay connected, or the ultimate hell for those (like me) who relish the time in the air with no one yapping on their phone.

Further, this surely cause tension in the cabin. People will be easily annoyed at those talking on their phones. And those who want to talk might have to wait if 6 others are already on calls. Add in the fact they are in a very confined space at 30,000+ feet in the air, and you have a perfect storm brewing.

Like many others, my personal view is to keep cell phones banned on all flights. People have gone without using their phones for this long, I'm sure they can continue to deal with it. According to this LA Times article, a 2005 survey found that 63% of passengers oppose inflight cell phone use.

Further, most flight crews are against it too, especially flight attendants because they'll have to play referee  when tensions rise in the cabin over someone chatting away and annoying the rest of us.

It should be noted that Virgin Atlantic is not the only airline to allow cell phones. The LA Times says that Emirates Airlines and Malaysia Airlines have been offering cell service for a few years now.

Photo Credit: eisenbahner Used with permission from Creative Commons.

How Safe Are Regional Carriers?

As much as I love flying I'm still concerned about safety. I know that flying is the safest way to travel. But I still say a little prayer before my flight pushes back from the gate.

That said, one of my favorite columns in USA Today is 'Ask The Captain.' Readers submit their questions about all-things-airlines and a retired pilot answers.

This week's question deals with the safety of regional carriers:

Captain Cox, in your opinion, how would you compare the safety standards between regional airlines and mainline (legacy) airlines? Is it true that regional pilots are less experienced, underpaid, and less rested? Do regional airlines cut corners on safety because of financial issues?

Here's part of the answer:

The standards for regional and large international airlines are set by the FAA and are the same. All airlines have to meet or exceed the Federal Aviation Regulations that pertain to airlines, Part 121.

Some regional pilots have less experience than most of the large airline pilots, however, there are some very experienced pilots flying for regional airlines.

The entire answer is worth a read, so be sure to check it out.

Use Your Airline Miles To Redeem Free Ebooks

Over at my other blog, Brad's Reader, I talk a lot about ebooks and other technology related to reading, writing and publishing. I just posted an article about how Diesel eBooks is partnering with Koinz Media so customers can use their airline miles to redeem free ebooks.

Here's a reprint of that post:


This will be a tough dilemma for readers who love to travel. You can now redeem those hard-earned airline miles for ebooks. Diesel eBooks has partnered up with Koinz Media, a rewards points company, will now let people choose ebooks.

In a statement, Koinz Media said:

"eBooks are available instantly to reward members that redeem their credit card reward points or airline miles at their loyalty portal. Diesel provides a vast selection across all the leading eBook readers and we are thrilled to be bringing this selection to our partner banks, airlines and hotel programs" Anu Shukla, CEO of Koinz Media Inc.

For someone like me who loves to travel, it will be hard to decide whether I want free travel or free ebooks. Of course, I don't travel all that much so I'll be paying for both in the foreseeable future.

American Airlines Regrets Selling Lifetime AAir Passes

It's the dream of airline enthusiasts like myself to have unlimited air travel. Well, American Airlines made such dreams come true back in the 80s, but it came with a hefty price tag: $350,000.

The AAirpass allowed the lucky few who could afford it to fly with virtually no limits. Now American is regretting that decision because of AAirpass holders like Jacques Vroom. He estimates he has flown around 40 million miles. And American estimates he's costing the airlines millions in revenue each year.

American alleged that he sold his companion tickets to people he didn't even know, to destinations all around the world. Vroom maintained that he wasn't selling the seats, rather, they were paying for his business services (he worked as a direct-marketing consultant).

Vroom even used the massive amount of miles he earned to give to AIDs patients so they could visit their families.

American has sued Vroom, who has countersued American. The airline alleges fraud while Vroom maintains he did nothing wrong and the terms of his AAirpass said nothing about selling seats.

My little post here hasn't done this story justice. You can read the interesting and lengthy write-up in the LA Times.

Where's The "Spirit" In Spirit Airlines?

The story about Jerry Meekins, 76, of Clearwater, Florida has been making waves on the internet these last few days. Meekins suffers from esophageal cancer and was unable to use his $197 ticket on Spirit Airlines because he is too sick to fly.

When he tried to get a refund from Spirit Airlines, they simply responded with a big: "No."

Spirit Airlines is a no-frills, nickel-and-dime you carrier that advertises extremely low fares. The catch is that they charge you for just about everything, from carry-ons to snacks to a $10 reservation booking fee. I think they even charge you a fee for every fee you pay.

"We have a $50 safe landing fee"

Seriously though, when contacted about Jerry Meekins' case, Spirit issued the following reply:

"Our reservations are non-refundable, which means we don't do refunds and we are not going to issue Mr. Meekins a refund. We offer our customers affordable travel insurance to cover a variety of unexpected circumstances that may arise and many of our customers choose to take advantage of this option. We receive many requests for refunds every day for similar situations. It wouldn't be fair to bend policy for one and not all. We will not make customers who follow the rules pay for those who don't. It's just not fair."

What's really not fair is that an airline can't spare to refund $197 to a man with terminal cancer.

I've worked for many customer-service oriented companies in my day. Each has their own rules about dealing with customer refunds. I understand that. Sometimes though, the rules need to be bent a little to help someone out.

I hope Spirit Airlines comes to their senses and gives Meekins a break.

Photo Credit: Alaskan Dude. Used under the Creative Commons License.

American Airlines Expands AAdvantage Program

If you're a member of American Airlines' AAdvantage program, your award booking options just got a little better.

According to this American Airlines press release, they are partnering up with British Airways and Hawaiian Airlines.

The release says:

American Airlines AAdvantage® members can now book award travel via AA.com on British Airways, a oneworld® alliance member and joint business partner, and on Hawaiian Airlines, an AAdvantage participating airline. These expanded options offer customers a more convenient way to book one-way, round-trip and multi-city award travel on one or a combination of participating airlines on AA.com.

In addition to Hawaiian Airlines and British Airways, you can also book award travel on Alaska Airlines as well, all from the convenience of the AA.com website.

On November 29, 2011 AMR Corp (American's parent company) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Earlier this year US Airways hinted that they might be interested in a takeover. As of this writing, the merger is still on the table, but there have been no formal plans released.

Photo Credit: Flickr user BriYYZ. Used under Creative Commons License.

Airline Photograph of the Week

Photo of two 747-800s. Air France is coming in for a landing and United is waiting to depart on August 25, 2007.

On the few occasions I've flown on a 747, it has never ceased to amaze me how big they are. Yeah, yeah, they are now dwarfed by the A380, but the 747 has been around for a while and I consider it a classic.

Boeing began development of the 747 back in the 1960s. On January 15, 1970 the first flight, a Pan Am 747 Clipper (Clipper Victor), departed Dulles International Airport. First Lady Pat Nixon performed the christening ceremony.

Photo Credit: Flickr user Ack Ook. Used under Creative Commons license.

Welcome To The Airline Man Blog

Thank you for visiting. The mission of this blog is very basic: Give you news, reviews and flying tips to make your travel more enjoyable. I'll also mix in some of my classic commentary in there as well.

There's a lot of other people who love flying as much as I do, or even more. If that's you, I hope to create a community of avid flyers that can talk all-things-airlines.

I've been following the airline industry for almost 20 years. I still love flying, despite the hassle of security and the airlines' love of taking away valuable leg room (This is always an issue with me because I'm a tall guy).

Thanks again for visiting. I'm going to plunge right into the world of airlines, so stay tuned and enjoy the ride.