Skimpflation getting to first class airlines

screenshot from X

Judging from the views and engagement, I'd say a lot of people have already seen the viral meal photo posted online by Peyman Milanfar, a scientist that works at Google.

This is the meal with the plain meat cubes and whole tomato on the tray, no one even bothered to cut the tomato into slices or dress up the plate, it was just placed on the tray to satisfy the airline's obligation to provide a meal.

Damn that's cold.

Some of the people in the comments called it Shrinkflation but it's rather a form of Skimpflation. It's not that the amount of food you receive is smaller, but the quality has decreased dramatically, the price remains the same or may even be increased. I honestly don't know which one is worse at this point.

United Airlines and all other airlines have apparently come to the conclusion that passengers will not typically complain, so long as they receive what they legally must provide.(Sarcasm intended).

A meal is a meal, who cares if it looks like someone had never seen food? And how about the tomato, seriously what is stopping them from slicing a tomato for you after paying first class money?

I'm pretty sure it'll take no more than thirty seconds and that's thirty seconds of employee time, and you know what that means, cash. So instead, they say here you go, here's your whole tomato that you'll have to deal with using your plastic knife.

This is not just limited to airlines. Hotels are getting away with eliminating daily room cleaning while marketing it as being eco-friendly. Streaming video services are continually raising their subscription fees while their library of content is declining.

The plan is simply this, lower the standard so slowly that no one is aware that they are paying premium prices for a budget experience.

The biggest problem is how we've all been forced to accept this quietly, even while we joke about the tomato, post pictures, and go ahead and book another flight because we have no other options. The middle class guys like this scientists will always want first class and of all first class are practicing Skimpflation, there's no hope.