JetBlue to make food change many travelers won’t like

While airlines periodically tout new menu items and collaborations with chefs as improvements to their in-flight food offerings, cuts also regularly get made under the same umbrella.

Earlier this year, Korean Air announced that it would no longer be serving what used to be its signature snack of instant noodles to economy passengers due to increased instances of severe turbulence and subsequent risk of burns. United Airlines’ 2023 choice to phase out the iconic Biscoff cookie is still causing outrage while Air France became the latest airline to announce that it would discontinue even a small free snack for economy passengers on certain short routes.

The latest food-related shoe to drop came from New York-based JetBlue Airways. Last week, the carrier introduced a new “Chilled” menu for the economy fare on transatlantic flights.

JetBlue says it is cutting hot food ‘after trial run this summer’

The description “all items served chilled” on dishes such as the chicken grain bowl, tofu and soba noodles and zucchini breakfast frittata obscures the fact that the airline will no longer offer hot meals to its economy passengers even on longer flights where a free meal is included.

“After trial run this summer on our Dublin and Edinburgh seasonal flights, we are extending a new core menu onto our six transatlantic daily flights this winter,” the airline confirmed of the changes.

Those traveling in the airline’s Mint fare class (the airline’s equivalent term for business) will still receive a hot offering that this season includes dishes such as mushroom rigatoni, cheese pizza and Chicken Milanese.

JetBlue also frames the change as a cost-cutting measure that will help it offer lower fares and improve profitability in a time when many competitors are also looking to do the same.

‘Part of our effort to continue to provide a great experience’

“This change is part of our effort to ensure we can continue to provide a great experience at JetBlue’s competitive fares on these routes,” JetBlue’s statement reads further. It also provided a generic comment about ensuring that the food “lives up to the standard we set for high-quality meals.”

The new cold menu items are created in partnership with fast-casual bowl company Dig. On its website, the new description of the economy food offering encourages travelers to “enjoy a chilled main meal featuring seasonal, farm-to-tray-table ingredients.”

On shorter domestic flights, economy travelers with JetBlue get a choice of snack including PopChips in the sea salt flavor and Chifles plantain chips as well as soft drinks, but anything more substantial needs to be purchased from the carrier’s in-flight menu of snack boxes and, depending on the flight, larger cold items such as a harvest grain salad and turkey pretzel sandwich.

Given that any food changes often generate a strong reaction among airlines’ customers, many travelers took to Reddit to express their displeasure both at the phasing-out of hot food and the way it is being touted as an improvement.

“And they’re going to reduce ticket prices because of the savings, right?” Reddit user r/Latter-Bar-8927 wrote under the post on the /Aviation subreddit. “Right?”

In January, a federal judge blocked JetBlue from buying Spirit Airlines in a $3.8 million deal, arguing that it would reduce competition. JetBlue is the ninth busiest commercial carrier at Harry Reid International Airport and carried 860,224 passengers in 2023.