JAL and Food: A Winning Combination

    One of the best aspect of our travel with JAL this summer was, surprisingly, the food. Airline food has long been the butt of too many jokes stateside and not entirely undeservingly so. Most meals served by most airlines are edible at best and I cannot imagine anyone getting enthusiastic over them. On short flights, many airlines only offer a snack and a drink at most, so whether or not the food is good rarely becomes a problem. Pre-packaged dry snack mix is hard to mess up too badly.

See that water bottle? It comes in handy.

    Since we were leaving out of Narita on a 12 hour flight, just snacks were not going to be enough to satisfy our needs. Where other international flights may serve one to two drinks with snacks and one meal (maybe 2) in a 12 hour flight, JAL provides two large meals as well as multiple drinks and snacks. Another great thing is that the meals you are usually served come with a small bottle of water in addition to your beverage of choice. This little bottle isn't a whole lot of drink but it is perfect for tucking into your seat-back pouch for when you get parched later between other drink services.

AIRmos! Burgers in the air!

    On the way out of Japan, my daughter and I were highly amused to see the AIRmos packaging and contents. At first, I misread the title as Airmo's, something belonging to an airmo, whatever that may be. It turns out this is Air- Mos, as in Mos Burger, a prominent burger chain in Japan. The pamphlet includes instructions to take out your separately packaged bun, patty, and lettuce, sandwiching them together with the contents of a pouch of teriyaki and mayonaisse. I chose to neglect the sauce but still enjoyed the burger far more that I ever expected to enjoy any hamburger served on an airplane. My daughter chose to eat only the meat patty, until we hit a small amount of turbulence and she dropped her half-eaten meat slice between the seat and the fuselage. I did retrieve it moments later, but it was then an inedible disappointment. Still, she could eat the buns, and with the half of a hamburger patty, I believe this was the most she has eaten of any meal served on an airplane.

My kid enjoying her AIRmos in separate pieces.



My not-entirely-aesthetically-pleasing-but-still-tasty meal.

    Other meals served on our JAL flight were less aesthetically pleasing but delectable enough, though I will admit to keeping things light and never being able to finish anything that was served aside from the burger tray, and then only if you don't count the sauce against me. Still, i made a point of trying all the dishes I was given, which is something I don't usually do with airline food.

    On our way back to Narita, on another 12 hour flight with JAL, my husband and daughter slept through meal time, which makes sense given how exhausting our 30 hour journey home was going to be and how comfortable we were in our bulk-head seats. Where I have seen other airlines simply skip the sleeping passengers, leaving the drowsy to awaken hungry and remain so, the JAL staff would never be so rude. They taped little notes to the arm rests of both my husband's and daughter's seats, asking them to press the call button for food when they wanted it. In addition to making sure my husband and daughter didn't starve on the plane, this put me at ease as well as I had been anxious over the decision to let them sleep through a meal, electing to leave them as they were mostly because both parties are stubborn and not great at transitioning to eating or really anything other than going back to sleep when they are awoken.

    Last but not least, my daughter's favorite part of the plane trip was her special present for being a good girl-- a waterproof JAL pokketto (detachable pocket) for her school uniform, allowing her to show off her jet-setting status in style.

This post is supported by Japan Airlines (JAL), one of City-Cost's Supporters helping City-Cost bloggers to enjoy life in Japan and engage in new experiences.