Meals & service on board: what to expect

Would you rather have a sticky £10 sandwich in a tight Economy class seat or enjoy a complete three course meal prepared by a Michelin star chef in a spacious business class suite? It’s an easy choice to make. Service on board is determined by your choice of airline and travel class. Obviously you pay for the services you receive on board. Besides the more expensive airlines that offer business class, there are also airlines that barely differ in ticket price but have huge differences in the services offer. We compared 6 airline classes to one another, checked their services they provide on board and compared prices of for a flight to Ibiza.

British Airways

British Airways is one of the largest Airlines in the UK. They adjust their menus completely to fit the needs of British passengers. You don’t have to worry about going hungry aboard a BA flight. This airline provides its passengers with the following:

Travel class	UK	Europe	Intercontinental	Special meals
Economy	Snack and beverage. Breakfast on early flights.	Snacks and beverages.	Three course meal or light meal, beverages.	At request until 48 hours prior to the flight.
Business	Snacks and beverages. Breakfast on early flights.	Snacks and beverages.	Three course menu, cheese platter, dessert, afternoon tea, complete breakfast and beverages.	At request until 48 hours prior to the flight.

At British Airways you can expect plenty of meals, snacks and beverages. There is also the opportunity to watch series and films and newspapers are available on various flights. Inflight Wi-Fi is not for free.

Iberia

Iberia is the main airline of Spain and conducts a lot of flights from and to the UK. This Spanish airline offers their passengers the following:

Travel class	Short haul	Long haul	Extra service	Special meals
Economy	Snacks, beverages available for purchase.	Three course meal, beverages.	Personal screen with films/series on long haul flights.	At request until 24 hours prior to the flight. Economy service only on long haul flights.
Business	Meal, snacks, beverages.	Three course menu(s), snacks, beverages.	PSP on some short haul flights, personal screen with films/series on long haul flights.	At request until 24 hours prior to the flight.

You can purchase Wi-Fi access on Iberia flights.

Lufthansa

Lufthansa is Germany’s flag carrier. This German airline offers their passengers the following:

Travel class	Short haul	Long haul	Extra service	Special meals
Economy	Snack, sandwich or meal and beverages.	Cocktail service, three course meal, snacks and beverages.	Free series/music/films through Lufthansa app on short haul flights and through screen on long haul flights.	At request until 24 hours prior to the flight.
Business	Snacks, meals and beverages.	Welcome drinks, three course menu, snacks and beverages.	Free series/music/films through Lufthansa app on short haul flights and through screen on long haul flights.	At request until 24 hours prior to the flight.

Lufthansa takes service very seriously. They offer all passengers in all travel classes a wide range of meal and beverage choices. Child meals are included in the price and passengers traveling with babies don’t even need to bring their own baby food.

Thomson

Holiday carrier Thomson (TUI) is a well-known airline for holiday destinations. This airline offers its passengers the following:

Travel class	Short haul	Long haul > 7 hours	Extra service	Special meals
Economy	Snacks, beverages available for purchase.	Meals included. Beverages available for purchase.	–	–
Premium club	4 course meal and beverages.	4 course meal and beverages.	–	–

Thomson does not offer any extra services such as inflight entertainment or the ability to order special meals for dietary reasons. If you require special meals you should bring them yourself.

Ryanair

Ryanair is an Irish budget airline that is well known for offering their passengers the lowest fare rates. This airline is not highly recommended for its service. Ryanair offers their passengers the following:

Travel class	Europe	Extra service	Special meals
Economy standard	Snacks, beverages available for purchase.	–	–
Leisure plus	Snacks, beverages available for purchase.	–	–
Business plus	Snacks, beverages available for purchase.	–	–

As you can see, Ryanair does not offer much more than low fares. Of course, this may be all you need on short haul flights, but it might not always suit your needs. Ryanair does not offer inflight entertainment or inflight Wi-Fi.

Jet2

Jet2 is a British low fare airline that is popularly used for city breaks and summer holidays. Jet2 offers their passengers the following:

Travel class	Europe	Extra service	Special meals
Economy	Meals, beverages available for purchase.	Free beverage with ordered meal.	–

As a holiday carrier Jet2 is very popular among British passengers. However the airline does not offer inflight entertainment or Wi-Fi on board. It does offer the rare service these days of 1 piece of checked baggage.

Travel to Ibiza

British Airways, Iberia and Lufthansa are compared based on price, quality and service on a flight to Ibiza august 25th in economy class.

Airline	From	To	Flight duration	Free service	Ticket price	Price/Quality
British Airways	London	Ibiza	2 hours 25 minutes	Meals and beverages. Films/series.	€198	–
Iberia	Madrid	Ibiza	1 hour 10 minutes	–	€50	+
Lufthansa	Frankfurt	Ibiza	2 hours 15 minutes	Snacks and beverages. Films/series/music.	€78	++

Flights on 25 August to Ibiza

Lufthansa performs best on the price-quality ratio. The airline offers a relatively cheap ticket price with a proper meal service included. British Airways charges a high price for a ticket to Ibiza compared to Lufthansa. The flight distance is nearly the same and they both offer free snacks and beverages, but their prices differs by more than €100.

Airline	From	To	Flight duration	Free service	Ticket price	Price/Quality
Thomson	London	Ibiza	2 hours 20 minutes	–	€81	++
Ryanair	Dublin	Ibiza	3 hours 5 minutes	–	€133,99	+
Jet2	Manchester	Ibiza	2 hours 55 minutes	–	€168,58	–

Flights on 25 August to Ibiza

When we compared the prices of the regular airlines with the budget airlines we realized that only Thomson is close in ticket price to the low fares of Lufthansa and Iberia. Ryanair and Jet2 are even more expensive than a service airline such as Lufthansa. This shows it is always worth comparing budget to regular airlines since regular airlines can sometimes provide the best rates.

Which airline would you prefer to fly with?

Photo: Flickr.com

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