Alaska Airlines Food Mystery: Why Do Their Meals Taste Better—Despite Spending Less Than United And Delta? – View from the Wing

Alaska Airlines Food Mystery: Why Do Their Meals Taste Better—Despite Spending Less Than United And Delta?

by Gary Leff on July 5, 2025

I don’t fly Alaska Airlines often, maybe just a couple of trips per year. I’m much more active in their Mileage Plan program than with the airline. But every time I fly Alaska I’m struck by the quality of their food. I received a complimentary upgrade on a Seattle – Austin flight a few days ago thanks to my American AAdvantage status, and the breakfast I was served was pretty good.

Alaska Airlines Breakfast

In contrast, there are some decent meals on United, actually, though few and far between and not varied often enough. I didn’t mind the Denver-specific meatloaf meal a few days prior. And there are American Airlines meals you can at least eat, like the enchilada. But Alaska’s food is kind of… good.

United Denver Hub Special

It struck me that breakfast on an Alaska Airlines midcon from Seattle to Austin was actually better than breakfast in Amreican Airlines Flagship First Class from Los Angeles to Sydney.

American Airlines long haul first class breakfast

I’ve had a pretty good burger on Alaska.

Alaska Burger

While the United Airlines burger is actually disgusting.

United Burger

At $5.30 per passenger systemwide, Alaska is spending more than JetBlue (which offers ‘Mint’ on some flights and operates transatlantic, but lacks a first class cabin on most planes) but less than United, American and Delta which have robust long haul networks while Alaska does not. It isn’t just the investment, though food spend certainly matters.

My first thought was that the culinary focus was a holdover from the Virgin America acquisition. Virgin America used to have the best domestic meal service by far. And I don’t remember Alaska food being a differentiator 15 years ago. But I think somethng happened at Alaska between 2010 and 2016 at Alaska. They did a regional chef branding deal and other partnerships (Tillamook cheese, Chateau Ste. Michelle wines). They introduced pre-order meals (they were behind American with this). Historically they’d offered craft beers – free on regional Horizon flights! – for many years, but a food focus took shape a couple years before acquiring Virgin America. That deal just accelerated the focus.

Incidentally, here’s what each airline spends per passenger on food.

These figures come from Bureau of Transportation Statistics data, Air Carrier Financial Reports (Form 41 Schedule P‑6) line 51, 2023 data. Enplanement data comes from form T-100, 2023 data.

It’s not surprising that United spends the most on food – their network skews most heavily towards long haul international so they’re feeding more passengers. However it’s quite striking that Delta spends so little considering their larger international footprint than American’s. Still, when you compare actual meal service this should not surprise. Delta’s food is uniquely unimpressive.

I’m curious, though, to hear from anyone that knows about the specific catering decisions Alaska Airlines has been making – what exactly is the difference here that’s driving better inflight food versus their competitors? I wrote about how they were so much better than competitors back in 2019, so this isn’t a recent change. What’s going on here?

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