Why is the crew meal like that: the honest explanation from someone who asked the caterers
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#1 Every crew room in the world has the crew meal complaint and I got tired of it and actually asked, over the years, the catering managers at three airlines and a caterer at one. Here is what I learned, which will not make the meal better but might make the complaining more informed.
Why it is different from the passenger meal
Because it is a different meal, made to a different specification, at a different cost. Crew meals are catered as a separate line item with a set budget per meal that is lower than economy. That is not a secret and it is not a conspiracy. It is a line in a contract.
Why the captain and the first officer get different meals
Safety. Two different meals in the flight deck so that if one is bad, one pilot is fine. That rule is real and old and correct. The crew do not get the same rule because there are more of us and the risk is spread.
Why it is always chicken or the pasta
Because chicken and pasta survive the reheat cycle. A crew meal is cooked, chilled, loaded, chilled, reheated in an oven that is either too hot or not hot enough by a crew member who has four minutes. The dishes that survive that are the dishes you get. Beef gets tough. Fish gets sad. Chicken and pasta persist.
Why the vegetarian one is sometimes better
Because vegetables and lentils survive reheating and because the caterer often makes fewer of them with more attention. The crew who know order the vegetarian.
Why it improved at one airline and not at others
The airline where it improved had a crew council that made it a formal item and the catering manager was invited to a crew meeting. That is the whole story. The meal is a contract line and contracts change when someone with a role asks.
What actually helps
Bring your own hot sauce. Ask for the vegetarian. Eat the fruit first, while it is cold. Do not eat the bread roll, it is a structural element, not food. And be nice to the caterer's loaders on the ramp, because they decide whether your galley gets the good trolley.
Complain below, but informed.
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#2 The vegetarian is the secret and now you have told everyone. Emirates crew meals are better than most and the vegetarian one is still the one to get.
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#3 Ryanair: there is no crew meal, there is the trolley at cost. So this thread is a fantasy to me. I read it like a menu.
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#4 JAL, and the crew meal is genuinely good, which I did not appreciate until I flew with a European carrier's crew on a jumpseat and saw theirs. The chicken and pasta rule holds everywhere else though.
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#5 BA, and the bread roll being a structural element is the funniest and truest thing on this forum this week.
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#7 Delta, and the hot sauce rule is universal across all crew, all airlines, all cultures. The little bottle in the bag is the flag of our people.
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#8 Lufthansa, and I confirm the crew council story. Ours changed the meal after a year of formal complaints and it went from bad to fine, which in crew meal terms is a revolution.