Meals on planes

[coccinelle]

How do they calculate these? I'm going to Japan; I've got breakfast and meal going out and two meals coming back. Leave at 13.30 and arrive 8am going out and leave 11.55am arriving 5.30pm.
Flights are about 12 hours each so should I consider that boarding at 13.30 means I won't get a meal even though I need to be there 2 hours beforehand? and on leaving Tokyo at lunchtime means I won't have lunch in the plane?
I'd like to know when they serve the meals to be sure I take enough with me!

[Mosaic]

They seem to operate a kind of local time on the flight, based around giving you a main meal, a snack and a breakfast. Plus if you're hungry they will be sure to have something to snack on. Take a sandwich with you as a standby.
I've done the trip with BA and Finnair and both seemed very generous with snacks and drinks between meals.

[dzug2]

Remember there's a time difference as well.

I would guess that going out you will get a meal a couple of hours after departure and another a couple of hours before landing. Coming back not so sure - but it won't be a lot different

Depending on the airline snacks between meals may well be available - you may have to collect them from the galley

[Prudie]

I didn't think airlines took much notice of real time and would plan the meals according to flight time (and if it's dark) I'd have thought they start doing your lunch as soon as you're well airborne irrelevant of it being late afternoon.

[coccinelle]

To be on the safe side I'll have a sandwich before boarding. Thank you for your replies.

[boxtops]

Take the sandwich on board with you - we always do that - then if we get hungry mid-flight, we've always got a backup!

[furrypusscat]

When I went to Japan, everyone had 2 meals going out and on return. Can't remember times we ate or flight times, bearing in mind time differences, it seemed as if I was always having food put in front of me. You could always ring the airline and ask, I needed to as I had to ask for vegetarian diet and being in a group it was prebooked so I had to inform them. They were very helpful. Didn't enjoy the meals.

[Mosaic]

Finnair did the best airline food ever. In fact it wasn't very airliney - just very good food.