Free airplane meals may be coming back

Once upon a time, airlines fed their passengers. No, not that little baggie of partially-pulverized peanuts. An actual meal. For free. During the flight.

Okay, it’s not like the food was that great. But it saved the stress of standing in line at Subway across from the gate, nervously glancing over your shoulder as boarding progressed and you’d yet to get your Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki, concerned all the overhead space would be gone by the time you run onto the plane. Which is a problem because not only do planes not feed you anymore, they also don’t check your bag for free anymore, so overhead bin space is packed to the gills with everyone’s roller bags.

But the glory days may be coming back. Delta is testing free (free!) meals on transcontinental flights between New York’s JFK Airport and Los Angeles and San Francisco. The airplane said it’s collecting feedback from customers to see what “impact on the in-flight experience” the meals have.

“We are constantly actively listening to our customers and employees, gathering their feedback and testing new products on board to continuously improve the overall experience,” said Allison Ausband, Delta’s senior vice president of in-flight service. “Testing meals on Transcon flights is part of our commitment to be thoughtful about our offerings and make decisions based on customers’ needs.”

Offerings include a “honey maple breakfast sandwich” or “Luvo breakfast medley” on morning flights and a “mesquite-smoked turkey combo with chips and a brownie bite” or a “Luvo Mediterranean whole grain veggie wrap with grapes and a cookie” on afternoon flights.

Amid airline trends of charging for everything from meals to checked bags to picking a seat to even overhead bin space — United announced this week its cheapest fares will only include an item under the seat in front of you — today’s flying experience is far from luxurious. The struggling industry implemented the extra charges amid soaring gas prices and the impact of the recession, reasoning it needed to offset those costs with extra revenue from things that used to be included in the ticket price. But now, with low global oil prices and a projected $29.8 billion profit for airlines in 2017, that argument is harder to make.

Delta, which earned $4.5 billion last year, is testing out the meals on the cross-country flights until Dec. 15 and collecting feedback before it determines if the offerings will be permanent. It’s also not clear that fresh meals will spread to shorter flights.

But the airline is also upgrading free snacks in coach class, replacing its own brand of peanuts and pretzels and replacing them with Snyder’s of Hanover pretzels, Squirrel honey-roasted peanuts and NatureBox yogurt bars. United Airlines and American Airlines both also recently returned free snacks to their flights.

This story was originally published December 8, 2016 at 3:35 PM with the headline "Free airplane meals may be coming back."