2. December 2025
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Food I Had Onboard XXVII (November 2025)

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

I had quite a lot of travelling during November 2025. Thus, it feels like perfect time for a new episode of my Food I Had Onboard. Let’s have a look together on my inflight meal and service experiences I had during the last weeks.

 

1st November 2025, Deutsche Bahn ICE 101, Cologne – Basel (Bad), First Class

My trip to the floorball matches in Zug kicked off with the morning train to Basel. Originally, I had planned to transfer at the Swiss station of Basel, Basel SBB, but a train suicide with the ECE Frankfurt-Milan train near Mannheim caused massive delays in Western Germany. Thus, I was one hour too late and had to additionally transfer in Basel  Bad. If you are in trouble, it is always a good idea to have a bite in Germany instead of in more expansive Switzerland – and thus, my second breakfast was a pumpkin soup. It was a really delicious. I also used one of my drink vouchers for an early winter gin and tonic, which was lovely as well. The service, ordering via the in-train WiFi at the seat, was really quick, too, so that I absolutely loved that service.

 

8th November 2025, KLM KL 1796 (operated by German Airways), Dusseldorf (DUS) – Amsterdam (AMS), Business Class (op-up)

A fully booked flight always increases my chances to sit in the front of the plane – and so it happened on that Saturday morning service by KLM Cityhopper and German Airways. boarding went surprisingly smoothly when the captain announced that they have a departure slot with a 30 minute delay. Not too surprisingly in morning fog conditions, and the geography of Amsterdam Airport (AMS). However, the door stayed open and the stairs were still on the plane. In fact, they waited for Hans Jürgen (if I got his name right), a pilot passive on this flight (i.e. flying as a passenger to cover duties later). I am fine with any kind of shit happening, but I did not like the captain lying to the passengers. Furthermore, the crew allowed having standing suitcases in front of a seat – which feels like a safety issue to me.

When the doors were finally closed, we got – not that surprisingly – a later slot time for departure. Finally, the plane was delayed by some 70 minutes at departure, 60 minutes at parking position. The cabin crew was really friendly and tried to calm down the emotions, but I absolutely hate that a person getting late to work (not blaming him, might be a German Airways operational issue…) is risking and killing connections of about 100 passengers. The chocolate muffin and the smoothie was nice, definitely.

 

8th November 2025, KLM KL 1005, Amsterdam (AMS) – London (LHR), Economy Class

I was really tired during the second leg of the trip, so that I cannot judge too much about the crew. However, they did not perform the cabin check before take-off correctly. When I woke up the first time, we were in the air already, with me not buckled up (as I need a belt extension for it). The breakfast snack was the typical oatmeal cookie. This thing is really rich and saturating, amazing.

 

9th November 2025, Air France AF 1581, London (LHR) – Paris (CDG), Economy Class

The first flight of Sunday was an Airbus A220 service to Paris (CDG). I was sitting right behind the curtain divider, which is always a bit of weird. The two seats on the left hand side are always some added comfort, even though I had a neighbor. The service was nice, the typical cheese sandwich, which becomes more and more the standard daytime snack of the Air France / KLM Group. Nonetheless, I really liked the service on that flight, even though it had more than one hour delay at departure (about an hour at Paris CDG).

 

9th November 2025, Air France AF 1406 (operated by Hop!), Paris (CDG) – Dusseldorf (DUS), Economy Class

Oh Charles de Gaulle – without the Priority line at the airport security (they don’t split between clean and unclean passengers there, so that anybody has to pass a security check…), I might have really missed my connection to Dusseldorf (DUS). An original 2:30 hrs connection did not even give me the chance to have a snack at the Air France 2G Lounge, and I headed right to the gate, where boarding started some ten minutes later. The service was fine again, the same cheese sandwich, obviously. Thus, I did not go for another picture of the food.

 

14th November 2025, KLM KL 1796 (operated by German Airways), Dusseldorf (DUS) – Amsterdam (AMS), Economy Class

Heading for the Penguins’ match in Stockholm, I was a bit of nervous about this first flight from Dusseldorf (DUS) to Amsterdam (AMS). The record of KL 1796 the last weeks, including my previous week’s experience, was not good at all – and I was facing a 90 minute transfer in the Netherlands, not able to run due to an injured leg. However, everything was in time, the service was absolutely okay as well and I also enjoyed the typical oat and raisin morning cookie.

 

14th November 2025, KLM KL 1217, Amsterdam (AMS) – Stockholm (ARN), Economy Class

After a quick transfer, we headed on to Stockholm. Due to the NHL match, the flight was packed, but the service worked well and was professional. It was the first time I had the typical KLM sandwich with egg salad instead of cheese. The egg salad as such is not too bad, but the spread is very thin. Thus, you got a really dry sandwich, which was not the nicest meal experience with the little drink provided.

 

17th November 2025, KLM KL 1803, Stockholm (ARN) – Amsterdam (AMS), Economy Class

After the two ice hockey matches, it was time for going back home. A lot of US people were in the plane, obviously, as Air France / KLM cooperate closely with Delta. I liked the flight and the service – and the economy class sandwich was a cheese one again. The curry mayo on it gave a nice spicy touch, even though it was not that well spread all over the bread. I liked it. The flight had a slight delay at departure as they had to check the cargo doors after a mistake, but we almost arrived in time in the Dutch capital.

 

17th November 2025, KLM KL 1803 (operated by KLM Cityhopper), Amsterdam (AMS) – Dusseldorf (DUS), Economy Class

This KLM Cityhopper flight was driven by an E175, which is just coming with an 88 seat capacity. Another fully booked flight – KLM feels doing the connections to Germany really well. Unfortunately, the flight was a nightmare to me. The flight attendants cared much more about somehow squeezing – not too rarely obviously oversized – hand luggage into the small (and also not too well designed) bins in the Embraer before the flight. Therefore, the cabin check before take-off was sloppy and so fast, that I did not even get it. Due to my body size, I obviously need an extension in that plane. Even though I used the call button and waved to the purser on the taxiway, she ignored that (and later even switched off the call centrally), so that I could not buckle up for take-off. What would you have done? I even thought about standing up and force a stopping of the take-off procedures.

The afternoon snack in Economy Class were the typical crackers. I really like them and don’t have them too often, as I typically have early morning or late afternoon flights. I raised the incident to KLM already (on top of a broken suitcase wheel, shit happens). I am really curious how the airline will react. Despite the cabin crew felt more concentrated before landing, they missed several issues like backpacks not stored below the seat in front. I might put up a blog post about that topic one day, I feel.

 

21st November 2025, Lufthansa LH 2037, Dusseldorf (DUS) – Munich (MUC), Economy Class

Damn, I would have loved to have the KLM cookie this time. The 50 minute flight to Munich on a Friday morning was nothing but a bottle of water and a small farewell chocolate bar in regards of catering. The crew did not even do the buy on board service Onboard delight. Lucky me that I quickly jumped into the Lufthansa Lounge in Dusseldorf (DUS) before the flight. Nice crew, which felt much more professional than in my previous experiences with the French-Dutch airline.

 

21st November 2025, Lufthansa LH 2460, Munich (MUC) – Helsinki (HEL), Business Class

The plane came in with a slight delay from the Berlin (BER) flight before – and the crew managed to handle it very well. I decided to go for a paid upgrade on this flight – and it felt being absolutely worth it! Especially the purser was awesome. The breakfast platter was great as well. It came with Greek yogurt, baked apple compote and almonds as well as a lovely sausage and cheese selection. There were two bread services for it as well. On top, you could choose between an egg and potato breakfast gratis with vegetable ragout or a spelt nut shredded nut pancake. It took the latter, which came with vanilla sauce and cranberries. It was an awesome way to have breakfast and I felt really filled when landing in Finland.

 

23rd November 2025, Lufthansa LH 855, Helsinki (HEL) – Frankfurt (FRA), Business Class

For the flight to Hamburg, reaching out for the Logan Mize and Tim Hicks show there, I had an ordinary business class ticket. Despite de-icing and some delays, we almost made it on time. The crew, again, was lovely. The breakfast was a nice cold cut platter, dried fruit, and a selection of bread rolls and croissants. For the warm main, there was a choice of scrambled eggs and small pancakes with vanilla sauce and cherry compote. The dried fruit thing was absolutely weird to me, I missed yogurt or similar. Overall, the dish was nice, but significantly worse in quality (especially in regards of the cold cuts) than the breakfast service I had two days before. Nonetheless, a nice experience.

 

23rd November 2025, Lufthansa LH 16, Frankfurt (FRA) – Hamburg (HAM), Business Class

The last flight of the trip was the short hop from Frankfurt (FRA) to Hamburg (HAM). Fun fact: while this was after more than 1,500 flight in total the first time I flew this connection at all, I knew that I will have it again four days later. However, this time was a Business Class service. Despite the really short flight and a rather large business class cabin, the crew was awesome and the food much better than expected. On the cold side, there was beef ham, a vegetable salad and Tyrolean mountain cheese. The crew served one or two fresh pretzel bread rolls to it. The vanilla tartlet was a lovely treat. There were even two rounds of drinks before the plane went into descent. A really impressing performance by Lufthansa and their crew.

 

27th November 2025, Lufthansa LH 5747 (operated by Air Dolomiti), Luxembourg (LUX) – Frankfurt (FRA), Economy Class

During my visit to the Women Handball World Championships, I had to go to a two day workshop to Hamburg. There are just rare direct flights, so my Thursday morning fist brought me to Frankfurt (FRA), operated by one of the Air Dolomiti Embraer planes. Despite a packed flights, boarding went reasonable. There was even a small cookie on top of the bottle of water. Overall, a very nice crew and good operations. I only struggled that de-icing lead to a minor delay – and I had to rush for my connection, as the shuttle bus brought me to Terminal B.

 

27th November 2025, Lufthansa LH 8, Frankurt (FRA) – Hamburg (HAM), Economy Class

I just had the same connection (other flight, though…) four days before. However, this time, my Frankfurt (FRA) to Hamburg (HAM) service was at the back of the curtain. There was a water bottle service (no picture), but no other food – also no chance to buy on board. The crew, though, felt nice and attentive.

 

28th November 2025, Luxair LG 9514, Hamburg (HAM) – Luxembourg (LUX), Economy Class

Going back to Trier for handball, I was lucky to have a direct flight to Luxembourg (LUX). The airport was in dense fog so that there were major delays. Apart from that, I really enjoyed the Luxair experience in the rear of the cabin. The crew was really nice and there was a choice of muffin or pretzel in economy class, on top of a choice of drink. I really liked that experience in a Dash (turboprop) plane.

 

Food I Had Onboard

My bites and drinks on flights and trains are shown in Food I Had Onboard:

 

Hotel Reviews 2025

Here are all my hotel reviews published in 2025:

 

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