JetBlue Ends Hot Meals for Economy Passengers Crossing the Atlantic

Raise your hand if you don’t want a hot meal on a flight over the ocean. We’ll guess that not too many people raised their hands.

JetBlue has quietly removed hot meals from its service offerings on transatlantic flights, at least for passengers in economy class. Here’s what you need to know about changes in meal service to prepare for your next JetBlue flight.

JetBlue Ends Hot Meals in Economy on Transatlantic Flights

A nice thing about flying with JetBlue is that there’s no mystery surrounding inflight meals. The airline publishes its menus online, and you can find the transatlantic menus here. As first noticed by Live and Let’s Fly, the menus had a quiet update.

The menus now have this line at the top: “All items served chilled.”

While that might be fine for a salad or yogurt, customers may be unhappy getting cold noodles, crepes, and frittata.

We contacted JetBlue for comment and haven’t received a response as of the time of writing. We asked a few questions, including whether this is a temporary move, whether additional changes are coming, and whether Mint passengers should also expect changes. Right now, the Mint menus still have hot options.

Should the airline respond, we’ll be back to update this story.

Why Is JetBlue Changing to Cold Meals?

Without an official explanation, we don’t know the exact logic behind this change. However, we can take a few signals from JetBlue’s other recent moves.

JetBlue is struggling financially. It’s made multiple changes in an attempt to achieve profitability again. These include cutting routes from Washington, D.C. (DCA) and reducing the number of flight attendants on transatlantic flights.

Will JetBlue save money by serving chilled meals? Or is this simply an effort-saver, due to fewer flight attendants on these routes? Perhaps it’s something else.

Regardless of the answer, it affects the inflight experience for passengers.

Final Thoughts

For economy passengers on Jetblue flights between the U.S. and Europe, hot meals have gone away. All meals will be served chilled. Menu items still look and sound delicious, but a few of these would be better served warm, so it’s worth knowing about before departure.