Comments on: Continental’s Reminder: BYO Food

By: Caroline

Caroline — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:26:25 +0000

I learned accidently that it is ok to take ice through security. I had packed a lunch for the plane, and put a bottle of frozen water on top of it–intending to throw away the bottle before I went through security. Well, I forgot. They pulled out my bottle, then said, “Oh, it’s frozen–and put it back.” When I asked about that, they said anything that is frozen solid (not slushy) when you go through security is fine. I wasn’t sure I believed him, so I asked again in Seattle. Same answer, frozen is fine, and slushy is not. So now in the future I intend to take ice to keep my airplane food cold every time.

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:59:09 +0000

Thanks for comments and suggestions!

I’ve virtually never had a TSA issue and in fact the food is rarely even looked at. Salad dressing can either be the foil pack kind or put in a less than 3 oz bottle placed in the one quart zip bag. I usually just use lemon and stick a half of one in the salad and squeeze before eating.

Yes, sushi is great. I stop at Ala Moana food court or better yet http://www.marukaihawaii.com/ en route to HNL.

By: sandi

sandi — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:57:07 +0000

thanks for the tips … I like to take a salad or sushi on flights

By: terrie

terrie — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:18:56 +0000

I take my flight attendant friend to the grocery store for a Lean Cuisine for her flight. Flight attendants can take gallons of liquid through the TSA checkpoint (my friend usually picks up a gallon of POG for her kids) so they might not be the best to ask about what to bring on the airplane. I think the only universal recommendation they will give is to skip the onboard food for a fee.

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:22:25 +0000

Ever since the airlines became deregulated, their commitment to the traveling customer has gone down every year. I gave up long ago relying on the airlines for food. And now, it’s getting increasingly more difficult to get food you bring from home past security! The sealed bag of chips and cookies and small ziplock bags of munchies are easy to get past security…but home made hoagies, or anything else not immediately recognizable is scrutinized and they always err on taking it away from you. While this has never happened to me, I have seen it happen to people infront of me in line! For that reason, the first place I hit after going through security is a sub/sandwich shop. I stock up on a cheesestake sub or blackforest ham and swiss sub and about 4 coke zeros for the flight…as long as I don’t have to go through security on another layover, I’m good!
I did take continental to Hong Kong from Dulles about a year ago. I flew to Hong Kong twice. Once on Continental and once on Delta/Northwest and I have to say, Continental was a *MUCH* better experience. And Northwest from Narita Japan to Hong Kong on my favorite plane, the 747, was a rare treat! Either way, I can’t imagine that on this 15+ hour flight, non-stop from Newark to Hong Kong that they wouldn’t supply you with food…but probably not as much as they have in the past. On my flight, they served two lunches, a dinner and a small breakfast…not bad, but nothing to write home about! And you can’t blame the airlines for dumping food…I mean, airline has been the brunt of comedians’ jokes for decades!

By: ThatCase

ThatCase — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:23:26 +0000

Good suggestions (this post as well as the earlier one you linked). Other than the handling of the salad dressing you mentioned, have you had any problems with your food clearing TSA? To me, at least, their web site seems to have sparse info on what is allowable.

Thanks.