Early morning flight, what do you have for breakfast?

[MsMiaWallace]

Do you just overpay at the airport as your on holiday or do something else?

Prices seem ridiculous at the airport for something mediocre!

Yes true, I don't usually eat anything until a few hours after getting up. So I'd probably wait until the flight food, or if no flight food bring sandwiches prepared night before. Or a sandwich from Boots or M&S is fine until lunch.

I'm going on my first long haul flight in a month, I fly at 08.20, what time should I expect to get food? Not sure whether to fill up at the airport first or wait 🤔

@StrangeCondition which airline and Business or Economy?
In that scenario I'd probably bring along a protein/oats bar (if you like them obviously) and then see what happens, so you've got something if you get too hungry.
I noticed pre pandemic that most airlines were really spacing out the meals and of course there would be drinks beforehand so you may not get anything until around 10.
Not that my life is planned around every next meal or anything .

Depends who you're flying with but could easily be an hour plus after departure, maybe quite a bit more, and then the unknown might be what do you get and how much of it???

Personally I'd grab food before hand and/or have some emergency rations in the hand baggage.

Long haul I'd expect the first meal about an hour and a half after departure. The long long haul flights have about 7 hours where they don't serve any meals in the middle (as lights are out for sleeping) but you can usually ask for snacks.

Are airport lounges worth it??

I'd have a pint. Dh would have a pint and breakfast. I can't eat breakfast, makes me feel sick.

Are airport lounges worth it??

Probably not if you have to pay for them up front. However, if you get them “free”, they are.

Lol. Would love one for free!

Not at birmingham. They're a bit minging. LHR or LGW lounge are good.

Spoonies is nice there and the Pret, but more expensive than normal.

Not for us. £68 for two of us next week. Given that our flight’s at 8.15am and one of us is teetotal, it’s not a good deal.

dh and I book a lounge if it’s just the 2 of us mainly for the drinks and somewhere quiet to sit down and chill.
We don’t bother when we fly as a family of 5 as we usually do a bit of shopping, sit and have a meal somewhere, lounges I’ve been to aren’t especially entertaining for the kids (youngest is 10 so they’re not little) and the buffet isn’t appealing to any of us. The shopping and the meal part last usually exactly the right amount of time it takes to be called for boarding anyway.
Not been to one where they cook you meals to order though, that might change things a bit 😁

Boots meal deal usually.

We usually take a pret baguette on the plane to avoid buying plane food. As long as it isnt chicken or fish it can last a few hours I hand luggage.

Lounges are 100% worth it if they come gratis with your frequent flyer status. Eg BA lounges at Heathrow are brilliant, (the standard lounges are fab but the Concorde Room for First Class passengers at T5 was out of this world, full three course dining restaurant, £150 champagne free flowing and a spa) but you can't actually pay to get into those at all.

The paid lounges e.g No1 are a mixed bag. They seem to set themselves up so you can't actually eat or drink more than the value you have paid so you have to go to the bar and request your drink(compared to FF lounge where you self serve from the bar), you have to pay a 'supplement' for Prosecco, you can only have one thing from the breakfast menu which has to be specifically ordered and when it arrives it's teeny. Wine is cheap brands, crap beer. Free access to cereal, hot drinks,long life muffins and cheap juice though...

I think Pret or a Boot's meal deal would be better.

@SmugOldBag based on this thread I had a look to see how much it would cost to use our airport lounge - £32 per person ! I'd have to eat a lot of croissants to get my money's worth! Neither of us are big drinkers- me even less than DH, so I think we'll pass.

I used to be able to use the normal BA lounge when I flew a lot for work. It was fine, but not a great selection of food and got stingier over the years.

@rookiemere if you aren't a drinker they very definitely aren't worth it. No one can eat £32 worth of toast, marmite, cornflakes and tiny vac packed muffins! Most paid lounges probably wouldn't even stretch to a croissant. I remember ordering a smoked salmon and scrambled egg plate for breakfast and what arrived was a teeny sliver of salmon and two spoonfuls of egg.

Evening buffet selections were even worse. Chicken noodle soup, crackers and laughing cow cheese, slivers of edam, picked onions and a gallon of sad looking orzo salad

Work used to pay for a Priority Pass to access paid for lounges and I was most aggrieved at having to pay a £9 supplement for a thimble of Prosecco.

The bar staff seem to be trained to look at you in a schoolmarm ish way when you've gone up for your 5th thimble of supermarket Pinot Grigio as if to say 'you've had your £10 quota of wine don't think about coming back for another!'

Agree re the BA lounge reduced selection. We used to love the three curry and three pasta selection at T5! DH (skinny as a rake) used to challenge himself to have a bowl of each before a flight and a large cheese plate. He was devastated when they pared it back to one curry and one pasta!