I was stranded this weekend in Newark coming home from my brother's wedding. Mechanical issues with United caused me to miss my connection. Result - an extra 6 hours hanging around an airport. I went to United Customer Service (an oxymoron) to see what they would do for me. They gave me a "meal voucher" for my troubles. The "meal voucher" was for $7. I found a ham and cheese sandwich that came to $12.80 after tax, no drink, no side. I think this is the first time I have ever said this...I agree with Jezebel.
This might be relevant to the topic:
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/09/22/lessons-in-badassity-from-a-night-in-houston/
Also, United sucks.
Fly enough times and they'll all let you down, not just a little, but really badly. I went through phases of avoiding this airline or that, but at this point I've been unrepentantly fucked over by all the major ones, and grudgingly settled back into my original strategy of buying the cheapest ticket that fits my schedule.
Good comments on both sides here. We were recently stuck in airports due to weather - Albany for 2 hours and Newark for 3. Luckily, my spouse travels for work *just* often enough to qualify for United Club membership. We spent a couple of hours in the United club in Newark, charging our phones.
This came with free snacks - cheese and crackers, vegetable soup, rolls, hummus and vegetables, olives, israeli couscous salad, water, some candy, etc. The spouse and kids still went and bought "real" dinner. I was fine with that though, because we'd had a long travel day. I had packed snacks, but sometimes real food is preferred. Plus we were traveling on miles anyway, so it was a cheap trip.
In the end, we pulled into a hotel 1 hour from home because we'd been awake for 24 hours (just us, the kids slept on the plane). I was fine paying for it because it beat dying in a fiery crash.
I was definitely more chill that I've been in the past. I have to take issue with the MMM "fasting" part, but mostly for 2 reasons - first, not gonna make my kids fast and second, I'm female, I can't really fast without getting hangry. But that's a male/ female thing.
I think a single slice of pizza at Newark was $7