My experience with United Airlines and low salt meals

LtotheK, the airline industry has become an 'industry' in the full sense of the word. We're just widgets that get moved from place to place; not people.  I fly about every other week, on average, and usually on Delta. Some time ago, they invited me to be part of a small group of passengers (about 60 people) who participate in an online forum that represents the passenger voice.  Yahoo, I thought when asked: I'll get to share my opinions and enlighten them on why nobody likes to fly!  Yeah...right.  I've been asked to help pick a new boarding pass format; to test drive their find-your-luggage app; and to explain why I don't rent a car from their website. But if any one of the SkyPanel members posts a complaint like the one you described, we're told politely that 'it's not the place to lodge personal complaints.'  

In a word: it's hopeless! Maybe we can use this thread to weigh in on strategies for finding food we can bring on board with us, that meets our needs and fills our tummies.  On a long flight like yours, that's a huge challenge.

For starters, I bring lots of water in bottles, even though it's a pain to carry them. I don't want to wait for beverage service. Fresh fruit, too (cumbersome and a challenge if you're returning home from a place not convenient to finding it). I carry packets of instant oatmeal with extra fiber, because I can always ask for hot water and the stuff reconstitutes pretty well if you let it sit in a cup for a minute or two (and it's my hotel room breakfast, always, and I also put a spoonful of cocoa powder in it!). Of course, that means I have a spoon in my bag, too.  For protein, dry roasted unsalted edamame (unsalted is hard to find). A dried fruit/nut mix  (unsalted).

None of this is a good stand-in for a  real meal, but it's better than going hungry. Does anyone else have some ideas?

Carol

Airlines don't actually cook their own meals - there are a handful of airline caterers that exist, and each airline has a contract with one of them.  In most cases whichever caterer they use is used in every flight.    So it's possible that low-salt may not be an option offered by whomever United is currently using.

I googled it for you...

According to Wikipedia (and I'm too lazy to check the accuracy), they use Chelsea catering.   Lufthansa uses LSG Sky Chefs for its catering needs.

That's your difference - it's not that they don't want to help - it just may not be an option from their caterer.  If you want to write to someone, that could be a good place to start -  the catering companies.

LtotheK, the Wild Garden hummus is also available in little boxed meals called GoPicnic meals.  GoPicnic has several meal combos, including one with tuna.  All of the meals are packaged in little compact boxes, and all components are individually packaged within, and shelf-stable. A typical meal has a tube of hummus, a small bag of crackers, a bag of dried fruit, and a bag of fruit/nut mix, plus one square of dark chocolate.  Every item is quite tasty--the fruit/nut mix has a little spice to it, for example. But--there's sodium. I do sometimes buy these little meals to take when I want to simplify my lunches while teaching seminars, but then I'm able to drink unlimited water during the day without having to face up to nonstop visits to a horrid airplane bathroom.  The GoPicnic meals are small but surprisingly filling, and I find them quite tasty, but to work as a regular meal, we really need to consider how the sodium fits into the daily total.   You'll find the GoPicnic.com website easily enough.  They sell them from their website, and the meals are available on Amazon, but I find them in drugstores and grocery stores, too.

Recently I had to sprint to catch a connecting flight, and that left me with zero minutes in the airport to find a bite of lunch. No problem, I thought, because Delta sells fresh food on its meal-hour flights.  Salad with chicken, even, which I've had and it's not bad.  But by the time they got to my row, around the middle of the plane, they were out of ALL fresh food. You could have all the boxed greasy sausage stuff you wanted, but no fresh food.  I had my bailout oatmeal on me, and an apple, so I was able to eat.  But still.  To your point, all the airlines need a reminder that human beings with real needs are sitting in those seats.  I just think that it's a hopeless argument.

Bingo, purple32 hit the nail on the head.

People with a cardiac intervention history, hypertension, congestive heart failure or even pulmonary problems should be given low salt or no salt options. Use that info in your fight LtotheK.

In fact, suggest ALL their meals should be low salt to cater to the trend to be more health conscious, and those that want it can add their own salt, right?!?