I Guess a Business Ticket...

...allows you to hijack a plane!

I am not sure how many of you actually remember this, but AA and United decided not to provide real cutlery anymore (you know, real, as in made of metal) in their flights after 9/11 as part of their new 'security measures'. Really? Was that decision made for our own security? Or was it for their pockets security? Wasn't it just the perfect excuse for Airlines to cut costs?

In fact, AA provides real cutlery in some of their flights at least in the BOS-CDG (Boston-Paris) Business Class seats (as in the picture at the top).

So, how does it work? By paying more, you can have access to real metal cutlery, therefore you are allow to be a security risk? Ok, if you look at them in the picture you can see that they are small and very inoffensive looking, so I guess you would probably have a really hard time trying to threaten anyone with them...but, if Business Class can cut their meat with metal, why coach can't? Do terrorists only fly coach? (sigh)

It seems to me that 9/11 was the perfect excuse to downgrade and that the decision really had little to do with security. Nevertheless one of the good things that the internet has done for the general public is that we, as the consumers, we can know more, research more and fight back.

So for example if you travel a lot by plane and you are sick and tired of the food that you are served (or how it is served) now you can know beforehand what meals are normally served in each airline, what their "special" meals are (if you are vegan or diabetic or...) and you can compare notes, and make more informed decisions, using Airlinesmeals.net. You can also send them the picture of the meal you got in your flight, so it will be published and will help more people know what to choose and what to avoid if they are picky with meals or they are planning long trips.

The site is not really new but they are going through a redesign phase that will hopefully make it more user friendly.... because I must confess that it is not the most easy site to navigate, even when it is worth taking a look.

BTW, what took me there? Their good collection of airline's old print ads! (couple of them, below).


Out of curiosity... what was the worst thing you were served in an airplane ever? In my case it was a weird dehydrated algae that I got many (many) years ago flying in Japan Airlines. It has been almost 20 years, but I still remember the taste.... Not my cup of tea, for sure!