Continental to Discontinue Free Inflight Food

to One more airline chops one more service -- but there is a bright side

Continental Airlines announced that it is going to discontinue serving "free" food in economy class on most domestic flights, including both the United States and Canada, some destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean. What free food? I've flown Continental between Denver and Newark, Denver and Houston and Houston and assorted south-of-the border destinations. If there was free food  back in steerage, I don't recall getting any -- at least nothing more than perhaps some pretzels.
Of course, the airline will be happy to sell passengers what it describes as "a variety of high quality, healthy food choices." Factor that into flights on routes in the US and Canada, and to Mexico and the Caribbean. the food-for-purchase program will apply to what it calls "leisure destinations" such as Cancun and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, but passengers to such "business destinations" as Mexico City will still be able to eat without shelling out bucks or pesos. As of right now, back-cabin flyers will still get free food on trans-Atlantic, trans-Pacific and South American flights of six hours of longer -- and of course, first and business-class will still eat for free.

The only upside that I can see is that less food service means less trash and food waste going into landfills. I recently wrote a post indicting airlines for their miserable environmental scorecard when it comes to recycling -- just 20 percent, according to a recent study. Perhaps with little other than soda and beer cans, plastic glasses and cocktail napkins, Continental will improve its recycling performance -- and also help passengers control their weight.