The question of whether passengers on long-haul Aer Lingus flights should be woken up for meals by cabin crew comes as close as you can get to the definition of a first-world problem. Nonetheless, it is a subject close to the hearts of many readers of this paper – and by extension the nation as a whole – if the interest shown in a recent article by Pricewatch editor Conor Pope is any guide.
He told of a passenger on a transatlantic flight who was more than a little put out because she was not woken up for her meal. To make matters worse, the airline failed to feed her when she later went looking for food. “When I tried to mention what happened as I disembarked I was told it was my own fault and I ‘should have known’. I should have known not to sleep, I suppose,” the woman, Cathy, wrote.
[ A sleeping passenger goes hungry on an Aer Lingus flight across the AtlanticOpens in new window ]
Aer Lingus’s eventual response was categorical and not very sympathetic: “To ensure a restful experience, our cabin crew do not wake customers who are sleeping. For health and safety reasons, we are also unable to leave meals unattended at seats or reheat them later.”
The national carrier can count itself lucky that the passenger in question was so reasonable. Last April an American Airlines flight from JKF to Italy was forced to turn around four hours out over the Atlantic after a passenger got upset over his meal. The problem was that he didn’t get the meal choice he wanted, according to fellow passengers.
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[ An Aer Lingus passenger’s 26-hour trek home, and eventual refundOpens in new window ]
There are two broad schools of thought on this not-quite existential dilemma. On one side you have those who subscribe to the view that: “I paid for it, so I want it.” That rubbery pasta and mushy beef can engender such passion is a wonder in itself, but many of us would seem to prefer to be woken up for such delicacies rather than be left slumbering.
The alternative view and the prevailing one – based on a small and highly selective sample – is that passengers should not be woken. Pretty much all airlines subscribe to the maxim of letting sleeping passengers lie, on the basis that people are more likely to be annoyed over being woken up during a flight rather than missing a meal.
With incidents of air rage significantly on the rise post the Covid pandemic, according to the International Air Transport Association, it makes sense from an airline’s perspective not to risk antagonising passengers.
Flying can be a stressful experience for some, without being poked awake after finally falling asleep once the person behind stops kicking the back of the seat. Of course, the best way to cut down on air rage would be stop serving alcohol but no airline seems concerned enough to take that radical step.
That said, hunger is also seen as one of the triggers for air rage and some airlines try to tread the middle path; offering do not disturb stickers or asking premium passengers if they want to be woken for their meals.
Air rage is a serious issue but probably has as much to do with the coarsening of social norms as food or sleep. People are increasingly unrestrained, angry and rude to others in their everyday lives, so why not when they get on a flight?
The full explanation for why airlines don’t wake passengers for meals remains elusive (almost as elusive as the reason so many people seem to have strong feelings about the issue.)
The answer is probably that it is a relatable problem. There doesn’t seem to be any reliable figures for how many of us fly or how many have taken a long-haul flight, but all the data for numbers using airports and air traffic points to a nation that likes to travel. This is not that surprising given we live on an island.
And so it’s safe to assume we can all put ourselves in the seat of the woman who slept through her meal with Aer Lingus and woke up hungry.
Whether passengers should be woken for meals may not be the most urgent issue unfolding in the world today, but it appears to divide the nation. As these things go, it must rank in the list of Irish schisms somewhere between how best to eat a Creme Egg and whether Roy Keane is a hero or a villain.
