For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 14, 2014

I’d go for the filet mignon. (When the minister said first class has cutlery, does he mean metal cutlery, not plastic cutlery?)

Geeze…on a Canadian airline you get to eat Real food instead of the stale peanuts on US airlines… Of course, Lynn did do this comic quite a while back… ;)

I rode on Delta once that had a real, walk up, full service bar with bar tender and stools.

Depends on the airline. I think the Asia-based airlines are also decent compared with American ones. I flew Cathay Pacific a little while back and 16 hour flights on that were much more enjoyable than five hour flights on US carriers. Lots of options for inflight entertainment, like entire seasons of TV shows including the Big Bang Theory. Full meal service, too, along with snacks and hot ramen on request between meals.

Because of our last name we actually were surprised with first class meals on two American flights back in 1980, so around the time this strip was written, and I recall very tasty trout almandine on one of those flights, perhaps the same one where we were directed to the VIP baggage carousel… We were not related to the man they feared, but the airline employees took no chances. Yes, there actually were some good meals offered.

Chicken Kiev or Filet Mignon…

In cafeteria-speak that translates to pressed chicken party with sauce or processed pressed beef with painted grill marks.

I remember hot meals and cutlery in coach on US flights.It was a friendlier sky.C.

Get these people some sporks!

When I was 15 I flew to Texas to visit my sister. They served Chicken Kiev, and I loved it! I never forgot it.

If anyone ever finds themselves stranded at the Phoenix-Mesa airport, be sure to eat at the Copper Plate Grill. They have excellent food.

1978, AeroMexico, San Francisco to Mexico City on $99 RT special Big tender steak, with beans and rice, with dinner roll, salad, hot vegetables…PLUS a cellophane packet of surprisingly fresh, small tortillas, and another containing a huge pickled jalapeno.I think there was also cake.

I still compare it with airline meals ever since….

Although…. our originally 5pm take-off had been delayed till about 1am….. so they woke us all up about 3am to serve dinner.

Then again before dawn to serve pan dulce and coffee for breakfast.

Return … late evening flight delayed till midnight-ish.

No dinner but piles of fresh fruit, desserts, snacks.

2008…. can’t remember which US carrier…. SF to Riverside, CA….. 400 mi each wayno time to shop for deals…well over $200 for the RT flight….on time both ways …. Tiny bag of miniature stale pretzels.Return flight…. sorry, we’re out of pretzels.

Oh my, how times have changed. Flying economy is now about the same standard as riding the bus. On the other hand, tickets now cost a fraction of what they used to when compared with the average wage. I guess you can’t have everything.

last time I flew back in the 90’s we picked up a sack lunch when we entered the plane, a stale sandwich, a bag of chips and a cookie. I remember the very first time I ever flew was on United to Hawaii and we had a really good chicken dinner and once flew from San Francisco on TWA to Hawaii, a champagne flight, the plane was mostly empty so they just gave us the bottle and two glasses. lol Air travel was much nicer then.

Pan Am at its peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Even back in the old days I think I flight from Toronto to Winnipeg only took about 2 1/2 hours. I don’t think I’ve ever been given anything other than a drink on a short haul.

My Mom used to always order lasagna. She thought they couldn’t do anything too terrible with lasagna.

argy.bargy2: A former pastor of mine found that Chicago to Dallas was cheaper with a one-day stop in Paris, so she visited her daughter in Le Mans on the way home.`

1966 – Round SA for $600 – unlimited stopovers!St. Louis-NYC-Rio-Brazilia-Sao Paulo-Iguassu-BA- Santiago-Lima-Cuzco-Quito-Bogota-Miami- Chicago.

Pan Am about that time offered Around the World fare for $999 as I recall.

Yes, 1st class on Air Canada does have china dishes, metal tea pot, and metal cutlery. Air Canada also has a very nice meal selection for the economy class, but only plastic dishes and styro foam cups. I took a flight once on Cathay airlines (about 8 years ago) and we still had real cutlery and dishes in the economy.

I needed to sew on a button, just recently, and they brought me a sewing kit,(which I could keep) containing all the prohibited items. It just goes to show you.

The airlines that fly within China have pretty good food.

They still serve meals for longer distance flights. Not sure what the cutoff is, but my 1 1/2 hour flight to DC doesn’t serve a meal (and doesn’t need to, although they serve a very light snack and beverage). My flight to Europe serves 2 meals (including complimentary wine), and snacks. This is on Delta.I’ve been offered peanuts plenty of times for snack — that hasn’t gone away. But it’s usually a choice of pretzels, peanuts or cookies. Again, on Delta. I rarely fly other airlines because Delta’s main hub is in my hometown.

They take away your nail clippers when you board then hand you a steak knife at dinner? Filet mignon on a domestic economy flight? I thought Lynn said she would be doing some updating. FAIL.