Thursday, March 10, 2005
Takeout food, a new prposition for air travelers
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Air travel has taken a new turn. While we all read about the increased security regulations, this article will try to update the T&V Country flyers about changes in the short-distance in-flight services.
In this era of air travel deregulation the established airlines are the heavy losers. Saddled with expensive union contracts and retirement payrolls, they have to fight off upstart competitors who grab the lucrative routes, such as New York - Miami, and underbid the regulars, who have used the income from these moneymakers to pay for the essential low-volume small market services. Traditional airlines are fighting back by cutting prices and services. That's why you have difficulties getting live reservation clerks on the phone, all traffic is slanted toward automated services and the Internet. Travel agent air reservation services are also getting to be history.
While the passengers are reaping the benefits of lower airfares, the in-flight services we once relished are fading. On short trips do not expect much beyond soft drinks and a bag of pretzels or peanuts to sustain the body. You can sometimes buy a premade sandwich, but the more knowledgeable travelers (that's us, the T&V Country bunch) will either pack a brown bag or buy food at the expanding airport food service franchises. Take-out airplane food, if you will.
At LaGuardia Airport, the entrance to Dock D, gates 1-10 serving mostly American Airlines, has a food galleria, a dining area with several name brand vendors circling it.
There's Au Bon Pan, with the customary fare of coffees, pastries and sandwiches, slightly marked up, as are all airport goods aimed at the traveler, vacationer or business.
Wendy's, a chain we respect, offers its standard 99 cent goods - a baked potato with sour cream and chives, a burger, a Caesar salad - at a minimally marked up $1.50, and a muffin with cheese and sausage at $2.20, excellent filling meals at the price.
Famiglia, an Italian food vendor, serves pizza, pasta and salads. Here you can buy a small slice for $2.29-2.69, a bagel at $4, garden and fruit salads for $4 - 6.50, and a Caesar salad at $4.49.
The galleria also features a Sunglass Hut, airport sine-qua-non, a Sprint PCS office selling nearly instant phone services for the forlorn traveler, a Hudson News stand with periodicals and newspapers at standard prices (save your NYTimes, it costs $2.50 in San Juan and a whopping $4.75 in the Virgin Islands, if at all available; don't look for a newsstand in the Old Town of Charlotte Amalie, where only diamond dealers and boutiques can afford the rent). If you would prefer to bring a noodle dish or other Oriental delicacies on board, a nearby Thai shop will pack a plastic dish for you.
There are also signs directing you upstairs, to a standby dentist's office (hours unknown), and Volunteers of America, to help travelers in distress.
Once you pass the security gate and enter the actual Dock D, servicing gates 1-10, more takeout food purveyors are at your service.
To feel you back at home, there's Figs, Food and Drinks, a branch of Todd English's Olives, the restaurant at the W Union Square Hotel. There the Weather Channel keeps the bar trade up to date while sipping beer and munching sandwiches (they will wrap 'em up for you as desired, here as well as at the sit-down Figs restaurant at Dock B).
Newsbreak, another sandwich bar stands ready, to provide you with warm or cold meals for the trip. Twenty ounce bottles of water are available everywhere, to supplement the canned sodas, seltzer and fruit juices the impoverished airlines still provide, along with a bag of peanuts or chips, during the flight.
There are stores for all the other essentials a vacationing traveler should desire. A miniature Brookstone's stand teases the passersby with a talking pedometer ($25), wristwatch with an MP3 player ($200), electronic games for playing poker, and the perennially popular Russian-invented Tetris, also boards with accessories for backgammon enthusiasts, binoculars that take color pictures and movies ($200), beepable luggage tags (I'm told; did not actually see one), neck pillows and comfort slippers (I still carry mine, from a trans-Pacific trip, handed out by a benevolent airline with instructions to take a walk once in a while, to avoid deep vein thrombosis. This instruction applies also to long-distance car riders). Their goods include a mysterious noise cancellation machine, and a portable air purifier (alas, too hefty for the average traveler's lap), for the worriers concerned about the germs in recirculated air.
Duty Free Americas has a major shop on Dock D, providing such luxuries as Godiva chocolates, Chanel and Isey Miyake cosmetics and, for international travelers only, Glenlivet and Laphroaig single malt whiskeys, two for $50. Another Hudson News offers books as well as periodicals. There are also snacks, candy bars and gum.
Air travel has taken a new turn. While we all read about the increased security regulations, this article will try to update the T&V Country flyers about changes in the short-distance in-flight services.
In this era of air travel deregulation the established airlines are the heavy losers. Saddled with expensive union contracts and retirement payrolls, they have to fight off upstart competitors who grab the lucrative routes, such as New York - Miami, and underbid the regulars, who have used the income from these moneymakers to pay for the essential low-volume small market services. Traditional airlines are fighting back by cutting prices and services. That's why you have difficulties getting live reservation clerks on the phone, all traffic is slanted toward automated services and the Internet. Travel agent air reservation services are also getting to be history.
While the passengers are reaping the benefits of lower airfares, the in-flight services we once relished are fading. On short trips do not expect much beyond soft drinks and a bag of pretzels or peanuts to sustain the body. You can sometimes buy a premade sandwich, but the more knowledgeable travelers (that's us, the T&V Country bunch) will either pack a brown bag or buy food at the expanding airport food service franchises. Take-out airplane food, if you will.
At LaGuardia Airport, the entrance to Dock D, gates 1-10 serving mostly American Airlines, has a food galleria, a dining area with several name brand vendors circling it.
There's Au Bon Pan, with the customary fare of coffees, pastries and sandwiches, slightly marked up, as are all airport goods aimed at the traveler, vacationer or business.
Wendy's, a chain we respect, offers its standard 99 cent goods - a baked potato with sour cream and chives, a burger, a Caesar salad - at a minimally marked up $1.50, and a muffin with cheese and sausage at $2.20, excellent filling meals at the price.
Famiglia, an Italian food vendor, serves pizza, pasta and salads. Here you can buy a small slice for $2.29-2.69, a bagel at $4, garden and fruit salads for $4 - 6.50, and a Caesar salad at $4.49.
The galleria also features a Sunglass Hut, airport sine-qua-non, a Sprint PCS office selling nearly instant phone services for the forlorn traveler, a Hudson News stand with periodicals and newspapers at standard prices (save your NYTimes, it costs $2.50 in San Juan and a whopping $4.75 in the Virgin Islands, if at all available; don't look for a newsstand in the Old Town of Charlotte Amalie, where only diamond dealers and boutiques can afford the rent). If you would prefer to bring a noodle dish or other Oriental delicacies on board, a nearby Thai shop will pack a plastic dish for you.
There are also signs directing you upstairs, to a standby dentist's office (hours unknown), and Volunteers of America, to help travelers in distress.
Once you pass the security gate and enter the actual Dock D, servicing gates 1-10, more takeout food purveyors are at your service.
To feel you back at home, there's Figs, Food and Drinks, a branch of Todd English's Olives, the restaurant at the W Union Square Hotel. There the Weather Channel keeps the bar trade up to date while sipping beer and munching sandwiches (they will wrap 'em up for you as desired, here as well as at the sit-down Figs restaurant at Dock B).
Newsbreak, another sandwich bar stands ready, to provide you with warm or cold meals for the trip. Twenty ounce bottles of water are available everywhere, to supplement the canned sodas, seltzer and fruit juices the impoverished airlines still provide, along with a bag of peanuts or chips, during the flight.
There are stores for all the other essentials a vacationing traveler should desire. A miniature Brookstone's stand teases the passersby with a talking pedometer ($25), wristwatch with an MP3 player ($200), electronic games for playing poker, and the perennially popular Russian-invented Tetris, also boards with accessories for backgammon enthusiasts, binoculars that take color pictures and movies ($200), beepable luggage tags (I'm told; did not actually see one), neck pillows and comfort slippers (I still carry mine, from a trans-Pacific trip, handed out by a benevolent airline with instructions to take a walk once in a while, to avoid deep vein thrombosis. This instruction applies also to long-distance car riders). Their goods include a mysterious noise cancellation machine, and a portable air purifier (alas, too hefty for the average traveler's lap), for the worriers concerned about the germs in recirculated air.
Duty Free Americas has a major shop on Dock D, providing such luxuries as Godiva chocolates, Chanel and Isey Miyake cosmetics and, for international travelers only, Glenlivet and Laphroaig single malt whiskeys, two for $50. Another Hudson News offers books as well as periodicals. There are also snacks, candy bars and gum.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 1:51 PM 
