orbitmic

I agree with you on that. I don't think we should relate the fact that someone eats McDonald's or anything else to any form of education/refinement/acting in a civilised way. That's actually the point I was trying to make half jokingly when I said that most of the people I've seen eating fast food in plane often came across as very posh because I don't think people should assume that they are "chavs". Incidentally, I think it is also entirely unrelated to age, I've seen some fairly mature people doing it and some very young ones who wouldn't dream of it.



I can only speak for myself but in my case, for instance, if I bring my own food (which I do on BoB flights like BA sometimes) I can assure you that I would never consider taking a tuna salad (something I quite like at home from time to time) on a plane, and would have the same reaction if 1A had brought that (though I do think that for some reason, the smell of cold food lingers and permeates less than cold ones. Or to directly illustrate your point about snobbishness, another food I absolutely adore but which smells quite strongly and which I know many people do dislike is fresh truffle. To me, toasted bread with good olive oil, thin slices of fresh truffle and a bit of fleur de sel is close to culinary heaven (and I think we'll agree that whatever social element it evokes is very different from McNuggets) but it is another food I would absolutely not consider taking onboard a train and plane and would prefer people would not (even though that specific smell wouldn't bother me personally, I'm quite certain there will always be some people in the cabin who would find it very overpowering and intrusive).

Basically, in my case I react to the question of smelly food the same way I react to the question of loud phone conversations or music or someone sat directly across you on the train who'd keep fidgeting in a way that you could not possibly not see. I'm totally cool with anything people want to eat, say, do or for that matter whatever they want to drink or smoke, whoever they want to do intimate things with and so on, but I just much prefer it not to intrude into my space and I appreciate when people show consideration for (or at least awareness that) some of their choices have a tendency to do just that and to become part of other passengers' life and senses without them having chosen that. Whether the smell comes from McNuggets or from some super posh $100 designer burger with prime wagyu, foie gras, and gold specs is entirely irrelevant to me, I would just prefer that someone else does not make that choice for me. .

cavemanzk

It all comes down to context and personal preference - for all we know the passenger could fo rushed to the airport straight from meetings didn't have an chance to eat in the lounge etc.

Example if I'm going on Holiday I'm going to dress pretty causal in J, should that not be allow too?

Jed

snaxmuppet

No hot food should be allowed to be brought on board IMHO. I find the smell quite obnoxious even though I love McD! It is nothing to do with being snooty... it is just about respect to the other passengers

Lefly

I have no problem with hot food brought on board.
Regarding the the smell... it's not as the galley cooked food has no odor, so I can't really see a big difference. I also think it's not possible to generalize the smell issue, as even perfume can be obnoxious to other people.

GrayAnderson

The only thing that makes this potentially tolerable, to my mind, would be a combination of a bad lounge situation or a security cluster combined with an expected delay in the meal service (e.g. if for some reason you're looking at an expected two-hour wait for service). But even then...McDonald's? C'mon, man...

Vgravity

81romeo

I love HARIBOS, have them with me on each trip...and could easily have a couple of 400gr bags on a Long haul flight :-)

YuropFlyer

Putin doesn't eat at McDonalds

hsmall

Slight;y OT perhaps but one of the (very minor) irritating compromises of married life is that my husband bans me from even the most ocasional use of KFC because he thinks it is considerable more unhealthy than McD's... I think also its smell in a confined space might be more noticeable than McD's.

RoxyMountain

orbitmic

But there is a difference. One is what the airline is providing as part of its service and the other is someone who could choose not to impose smells on others and does anyway. I mean, you may not want to listen to PA announcements by cabin crew about welcome to our Executive club passengers and onboard shopping, but it doesn't follow that it is fine for any and everyone on the plane to bring their own microphone to thank their Mum and Dad for their Oscar and explain why since everyone is listening to them they should buy this new fabulous insurance policy in case their pet turtle has their lettuce stolen by the neighbour's slug. The airline has a legitimacy to define the flying conditions of all its passengers, individual passengers do not have that same legitimacy to define the flying condition of everyone else around them.

And even if you forgot about that fundamental difference, it wouldn't follow that adding more smells to existing smells would be fine. It would be like saying "oh well there is one person shouting on the street so I don't mind if there are 200 drunkards shouting", or one guy is listening to their music outloud so it makes no difference if everyone stops using earphones and imposes their own music to all others. It's not the same, effects do accumulate, and any one of us with a remotely sensitive nose who has flown US domestic Y dinner flights knows what I mean.

I do however, fully agree with you that tastes in smells are idiosyncratic, but that's why I (and I suspect many others) are not saying "we don't want McDonald's food smells but feel free to bring your tin of sardines and your Stinking Bishop", but rather "if everyone could choose food which does not smell strongly and does not make a lot of noise eating then all would be great" (81romeo I think your Haribo are safe! ).

By the way, while many seem surprised at the argument, that one shouldn't really have to smell other people's food, many of us will have seen this enforced for years. For instance, I remember when I was a student, there was no problem bringing food or water when we had exams but if anyone brought anything smelly (most definitely including any hot food from McDonald's, cheese, fish, and more) or anything unduly noisy (apples come to mind), or anything that could lead to leaks, dirt and other incidents, it was confiscated and discarded immediately so as not to disturb the other candidates. I personally think that this was entirely sensible and good practice

orbitmic

I didn't know either and they do look exciting!

RoxyMountain

Dave Noble

The passengers are customers, not exam candidates ; I suspect that the rubric for the exam was such that there was provision for refusing it

Does the CoC say that own food is not permitted?