There Is The Denver Omelette...

Then There Is The "Traveling Omelette"

   We've all heard of the popular Denver omelette... Well, at my airline we have the "Traveling Omelette." I kid you not. And after reading this post, you may want to think twice about eating that first class meal. It's a story that will make anyone at the US Department of Health and Human Services cringe.
    Because so many airlines now are trying to cut costs and find a cheap way to do things, they have come up with a clever idea of transporting food from city to city, sometimes for hours, or even days, only to be served to unsuspecting passengers.
    It works like this: Some of the cities where aircraft overnight, either do not have catering kitchens, or  the airlines are too cheap to contract out with a caterer there. So, the airlines board meals at a major hub for several legs of that aircraft's trip. The next morning, for example,  a meal is scheduled to be served on the first flight out that particular city.  With no catering kitchen being used there, guess what? Old meals boarded from the previous day are served to passengers.
    It's no wonder, after serving those first class omelettes or whatever else is on the menu, I've seen passengers dart to the lavatory. After several  flushes, they emerge from the commode  looking a little queasy, a horrible smell lingering behind them.
   In defense of the airlines, the meals and other perishable items -- for example milk, coffee creamers, orange juice -- are taken off the aircraft at night and supposedly placed in refrigerated containers until the next morning. Or at least that's what flight attendants are told. Never mind those meals had been traveling on board airplanes for several hours the day before.
    I worked a flight recently where the next morning, I found milk, creamers and white wine left in a galley drawer. All of it warm, obviously not refrigerated at all. I chose not to serve it. 
    The idea is enough to make anyone's stomach cower.
    It's this whole concept that crew members are savvy to. Sometimes their crew meals suffer the same traveling fate from one leg of the trip, to the next. That's why we bring our own food from home or fork out our live savings to buy snacks the next morning from airport concession stands.
    So the next time you're flying first class, or get that free upgrade, and the flight attendant asks you if you will be having breakfast, think twice about it. It may have traveled across country before it finally made it to your tray table. And by no means does this only pertain to breakfasts. I've seen lunches and dinners traveling around for hours, from flight to flight, only to be served, as well.
    Bon appetit!