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Friday, August 12, 2011

Am I TOO Cheap? Airplane Food and Icelandic Wisdom

The above question sometimes worries me. I am frugal by upbringing (frugal parents), necessity (many years in school), and marriage (frugal husband--yay!). My frugal habits are so--well--habitual that it never would occur to me to buy food on an airplane. Do you indulge in such things?

To and from France, we flew Icelandic. The flight attendants wore snazzy outfits, the fleece blankies were cozy, the water bottles were stylish. BUT--even on a 3 hour leg and a 5 hour leg--no free food was served, except to first class and to all kids. (I thought long international flights served meals???)

I still have the brochure for MATUR & DRYKKUR: sandwich for 5 euros, cookie for 2 euros, pasta salad for 10 euros. Almost everyone bought food, as far as I could tell. That includes the family with a kid across the aisle. The kid rejected his free sandwich and ate only the free snacks. The parents tossed the sandwich and purchased two sandwiches for themselves. Am I the only one who thinks that is weird?

Anyway, Mr FS and I munched on food we brought from home. The Icelandic snacks looked good though!

Interestingly, the airport in Iceland offered free postcards with Icelandic sayings. I took the one with the frugal message: Everything is hay in hard times.

Do you buy food on the plane?



6 comments:

Susan B said...

I never buy airplane food unless absolutely desperate. It's overpriced and usually horrible. I will sometimes buy something at the airport (still overpriced, but less horrible) to carry on with me, like a salad. I usually carry some of my Trader Joe's single-serving bags of almonds along.

Shelley said...

We have, twice, rather than suffer hunger. It was not good value, but you knew that already. I've not had good luck with food from home on planes, but I would welcome ideas. I see Une Femme does bags of almonds, but that doesn't sound like a meal to me. What did you take that worked for you?

Gauss said...

I never buy food on the plane and these days I rarely buy food in the airport, too. I'd rather pick up a good, fresh sandwich from the local deli or make some sort of pasta salad.

SewingLibrarian said...

I haven't flown in a long time, but when Mother and I flew People Express back in the Dark Ages from Columbus, Ohio to London, we packed a lunch from home. Hard-boiled eggs figured in, as I recall, but I can't remember what else we took. Coming home was more difficult, and I think we bought the food on the plane. I read somewhere that Julia Child ALWAYS traveled with her own food. I'm sure that was for aesthetic reasons as much as frugal ones.

Duchesse said...

I pack when I can, but break down and buy drinks and cookies. I believe anything consumed in the air has no calories. When I fly, I think I am quite likely to die, so what's a few dollars? So far this has not happened, but why not go out happy?

Anonymous said...

Usually when I'm traveling the food is reimbursable, and an overpriced sandwich is still less than a fancy sit-down meal.

But when I get hungry bad bad things happen, so it is better for me to get the almost healthy American Airlines snack pack than to go hungry, get cranky, and buy something ridiculous when I get off the plane. I try to carry food with me but sometimes I run out!

Sometimes I will eat free things that are bad for me and sometimes I will eschew them and purchase something that doesn't spike my insulin.