Late evening flights and meals

[Espada III]

I took a flight last night which took off from Zurich at 23:30 on a 3.5 hour flight. As we reached cruising altitude (and after a bit of turbulence over the Alps) all the cabin lights came on and a meal service was started.

Now I know I paid for this meal, but frankly I would have preferred they keep the lights down and we all get a bit of sleep; especially the rather fractious young children on board, for whom it was a very late night.

When I take the reverse journey which leaves at about 05:30, they deliberately tell us to shut the blinds after take off, keeps the lights down and encourage us to sleep until they serve breakfast about 2.5 hours later. I like this as I get to catch up a bit on the sleep lost by having to get to the airport for about 03:00.

What would you prefer?

[Octopussy2]

It's difficult because it would depend on whether I was tired, whether I'd eaten already, the likely quality of the food offered etc etc. So probably impossible to find a concensus amongst those on board.

How about an announcement at the start - "Those who want food/drinks, please keep your reading light on and we'll serve you"? That could be a good compromise, but whether crew can serve food without the cabin lights on (either whether they are permitted, or is there enough residual light to see by), I don't know.

[MathFox]

I think you should also consider that some of your fellow passengers can be on a totally different clock and be hungry. The joy of traveling faster than your internal body clock can adapt to the time zone changes.

[Bushfiva]

I carry "Please don't wake for food" and "Please wake for food" stickers which I print up from time to time. Many moons ago I remember some airlilnes handing out such things. Also, earplugs and eye shades.

[edi_local]

I carry "Please don't wake for food" and "Please wake for food" stickers which I print up from time to time. Many moons ago I remember some airlilnes handing out such things. Also, earplugs and eye shades.

Emirates still hand out such things in a little bag. It's sitting on the seat when you board.

[Leftofcentre2009]

This is my only complaint with emirates when travelling east. They keep the lights on several hours into the flight when its a good chance to get some sleep.

[Peter47]

I flew out of HKG just after midnight on a 13hr flight to LHR (in Y) with BA a few years ago and they did not serve an evening meal although we did get a cooked breakfast. I was expecting an evening meal as we did get one outbound on a 2230 departure from LHR - SIN, although I would agree that two in the morning is not the obvious time to eat. My view is that if an airline saves money on a main meal on a flight of that length it should upgrade the mid flight snacks in the galley to something substantial as you can get rather peckish mid-flight.

On another matter, I wish that some airlines could give more details of meal services on their website so that you know what to expect.

[crewmeal]

Any good cabin manager whatever airline would judge the mood of the cabin before deciding to serve a meal at night. These days lights could be dimmed for a service especially with the Dreamliner with its lighting effects. There is no need to have lights on full at all. Infact when I was flying the old classic 747 we would always have lights on 'dim' for any meal service at night, then turn the screens and start the movie.