Jaunted

North Korea Travel / Pyongyang Travel / Food Travel / In-Flight Meals / Air Koryo / Airplane Food / Airline Food / Om Nom Nom / Surprisingly Yummy Airline Meals / → All Tags

Is This the First Digital Image of a North Korean In-Flight Meal?

This is an airline meal. It's not just any airline meal, however; it's a piece of digital imaging and travel history and it was only created this morning.

David Guttenfelder, Chief Photographer in Asia for the AP, is currently in North Korea on assignment and taking advantage of the newly un-banned 3G network to share some Instagrams from daily life, like this seemingly banal image of his in-flight meal on North Korea's state airline, Air Koryo.

We say "seemingly banal," because it's in fact incredibly interesting. For one, has there ever been another digital image like this, instantly shared from an Air Koryo plane, location-tagged to Pyongyang's Airport? The answer is "kind of," as Guttenfelder also posted another of his Air Koryo meals (view the meal & view the plane) 29 weeks ago, but done after the fact and without a geotag.

more ›

In-Flight Meals / Airplane Food / Turkish Airlines / IST / Istanbul Travel / Turkey Travel / Airlines / → All Tags

One Airline Offers Seven Different Vegetarian In-Flight Meals

18. Eighteen. That's how many specialty meal types an international airline offers, on average.

21. Twenty-one. That's how many you'll find in the drop-down meal options when you book on Turkish Airlines. That's quite a feat, considering how complicated it already is for catering to stock an airplane with meals for several classes of service, then to throw special dietary requests into the mix.

We actually ordered a Moslem meal for our recent flight to Istanbul, but come to find out that all standard meals served on Turkish Airlines fall into this category, as the meat is halal and all ingredients are "in accord with Islamic religious beliefs." Next time we're definitely going for a vegetarian meal, because that's where things get crazy. Turkish Airlines has no fewer than seven different vegetarian meals! Check 'em out:

more ›

Airline Strikes / Cathay Pacific / Airline News / Airplane Food / Airplane Hell / Flight Attendants / → All Tags

Cathay Pacific Flight Attendants Threaten No-Smile Strike During Holidays

Here's some news of a looming airline strike just in time to throw a wrench in holiday travel plans. This time it's Cathay Pacific and, instead of reduced flying schedule or cancelled flights, the cabin crew will be cancelling meals and reducing smiles.

Last week, Cathay's flight attendant union asked for a 5% pay increase, but the airline only offered an additional 2% with a 13th month bonus. The union isn't cool with this and voted to withhold meals, drinks and smiles from passengers during the busy holiday season. If it comes down to not serving some food, the union will notify passengers to bring their own food aboard.

more ›

Airline News / In-Flight Meals / LCCs / Ryanair / Airplane Food / Food Travel / → All Tags

Cheap Flights Mean Cheap Eats with Ryanair's New Onboard Menu

Our favorite European LCC we love to hate has revamped one area where they score a few extra bucks in the air. Ryanair is now flying with an upgraded in-flight menu, meaning you may not need to "fast-food up" in the airport before boarding, thus ending the Scent of McDonald's in the cabin.

Should you choose to dine on the refreshed menu, named The Getaway Cafe, you'll find it isn't your typical snack box selection. Finally, something more than a short-stack of Pringles! The menu is chock full of "hot" and kitchen-prepared food, including ham & cheese croissant sandwiches, fresh pastries, chicken nuggets and hot soups—because there are no blankets on-board.

more ›

Airline News / First Class Travel / Business Class Travel / American Airlines / In-Flight Meals / Airplane Food / → All Tags

Tell American Airlines What You Want, What You Really Really Want (to Eat)

After a few weeks of woes for American Airlines, there is some good news coming out of the troubled airline. It's nothing to do with their bankruptcy, but everything to do with FOOD as passengers traveling in First or Business Class will now have the option of pre-ordering their in-flight dining choice.

The idea of pre-ordering food before hopping on the plane is hardly groundbreaking, we know. This news comes as AA is the first US carrier to offer the service to passengers flying domestic routes and paying the big bucks to sit upfront.

more ›

Airplane Food / Jaunted / Travel Tips / Lists / Food Travel / Airlines / → All Tags

14 In-Flight Food Orders from Our Own Frequent Flying Writers

So what if commercial aviation has been serving food and drink up in the air for over 80 years? There's still something so special about going about your day at 38,000' and meal times are definitely a part of this. Here at Jaunted, we've quite the archive of news and reviews of in-flight meals, but what about what we're actually ordering up in the sky?

We polled our frequent-traveling contributors and discovered that, though everyone loves to wet their whistle, even frequent flyers such as ourselves can be pretty picky.

And you: What's your go-to in-flight food & drink order?

more ›

Photo Gallery / Airplane Food / Hong Kong Travel / Cathay Pacific / Economy Class Travel / In-Flight Meals / → All Tags

So, What Does Economy Class Eat on a 16-Hour Flight Anyway?

We make no bones about the fact that the 16-hour Cathay Pacific CX 831 nonstop stretch from New York-JFK to Hong Kong International happens to be one of the our favorite flights. While the thought of a 16-hour flight may faze most people, we've done it enough now to embrace the in-flight time and—gasp—even enjoy the foil-wrapped meals that appear every several hours.

We've shown you our steak from Cathay's Biz Class and even the boxed chocolates from Cathay's Premium Economy, but trust that we mostly fly in Economy on this route and, so, can just as ably share what the whole back of the plane is chewing on.

more ›

Flight Reviews / American Airlines / American Eagle / First Class Travel / In-Flight Meals / Airplane Food / Airplanes / CRJ / → All Tags

First Class Onboard an American Eagle Regional Jet: 'Not Too Shabby'

More and more, airlines have decided to pull larger planes off short routes and put smaller, more efficient planes on. The reason is to make sure they can be filled with happy passengers, thus making the airline more money. American Airlines' regional baby, American Eagle has thus been called in for more and more routes within their network. Usually these little planes are Canadair Regional Jets (CRJ), and don't offer much in the ways of service since they are usually all economy.

Rewind to about two years ago when some of these little birds were outfitted with a cushy First Class cabin and service usually reserved only for mainline aircraft.

We finally had a chance to experience it when we booked a trip in First from Salt Lake City to Chicago. Like we said—a small plane on a big route. Our initial impressions of CRJ First Class: not too shabby, even with a few little hiccups.

more ›

In-Flight Cocktails / Airplane Food / In-Flight Meals / Booze Travel / Drinking Travel. British Airways / Airline News / Airlines / → All Tags

Boozin' on British Airways: A Few Fun Facts

Fun fact: Lufthansa is the world's largest purchaser of caviar, buying over 10 tons every year.

Another fun fact: British Airways was once the world's largest purchaser of champagne, with BA passengers drinking down a minimum of 90,000 cases every year.

Now that the trend is turning towards appreciation of in-flight wines and considering how much the UK loves their booze, we wondered: are there are any British Airways routes that do not serve alcohol?

more ›

Booze Travel / Delta / Airlines / Airline News / Drinking Travel / In-Flight Meals / Food Travel / In-Flight Cocktails / Airplane Food / → All Tags

The Latest News from Delta Will Nurse That Cinco de Mayo Hangover

It’s been quite some time since we heard about Delta and their partnership with Avión Tequila, but it sounds like all must be going well as the spirit is headed toward the in-flight beverage cart.

The two companies are hooking up to offer some tasty drinks aboard plenty of Delta flights, and the new beverages made their debut over the weekend. If you flew between JFK and LAX, you may have just been part of a little Cinco de Mayo celebration as flight attendants also passed out some complimentary chips and salsa.

If you’re flying this week however, you'll miss out as it sounds like the planes won’t be loaded up with the new drinks and mixers until later this month. Delta is promising that that the tequila and margaritas will be available on plenty of flights heading around North America, the Caribbean, and Central America for the summer months. We hope they stick around into the fall as well, because we’re pretty sure margaritas are equally tasty no matter what the calendar says.

more ›

Booze Travel / In-Flight Cocktails / In-Flight Meals / Airplane Food / Business Class Travel / Airline News / Virgin Atlantic / London Travel / JFK / LHR / Airbus / A330 / Upper Class / → All Tags

Virgin Atlantic's Revamped Upper Class Bar is Crystal-Covered and Pretty Kinky

Look at the image above. Now scroll down and look at the image at the very bottom. Now glance back and forth and we dare you to tell us that the new, improved onboard Upper Class bars on Virgin Atlantic aren't crazy awesomer. Yeah, we said "awesomer." Things like this call for words like that.

Let's handle all this goodness bit by bit: yes, Virgin Atlantic has a bar onboard each of their planes. They're only for Upper Class passengers, however, but all the drinks are complimentary and a bartender will shake that Vesper Martini no problem. Yes, the revampment of Upper Class means the bar has been overhauled and now it looks like something torn from a Starship Enterprise-themed kink club or Tron's cut scenes, and we're more than cool with that.

Oh, and there will be Swarovski crystals. *cue the Marvin Gaye*

more ›

Airline News / In-Flight Meals / Airplane Food / Dessert Travel / Frontier / Midwest Airlines / → All Tags

Breaking: Frontier Airlines Lost Its Cookies!

This day had to come eventually. Frontier Airlines is doing away with handing out free oven-baked cookies on flights, starting at the end of this month.

Of course this sucks. Who doesn't love free stuff on flights when such things are quickly going extinct? Frontier served nearly 700,000 cookies every month! We feel for the flight attendants, who'll likely spend the next many months politely informing flyers of the change, when they ask where their free cookie went. Though this is sad news, Frontier has recently done a few positive things to balance it out, like the lowering of fees and the addition of Fat Tire beer to the onboard drinking menu.

So how do Frontier frequent flyers feels about this? We asked Jill Smith, domestic jetsetter, for her thoughts on this breaking news:

more ›