Peeling back the foil on an in-flight meal can be a sobering experience as you face the realisation it's the food in front of you or a tin of Pringles so overpriced you'll need you to remortgage your home.
From economy to business class, flyers face the perennial disappointment of stomaching meals from chicken 'slop' to cake more reminiscent of a 'building brick'.
In an annual airline survey, Which? Travel readers have been sharing snaps of some of the worst meals they've been dished up at 35,000ft.
Early morning flights can be bad enough but Ryanair passenger Billy Shearer quickly regretted his decision to opt for the Irish breakfast, described as 'the perfect option to fill up and start your day with'.
In reality he was left facing 'a monstrosity' of a soggy potato waffle, shrivelled button mushrooms and congealed white pudding. Top of the morning to you.
It doesn't get much better for Ryanair, with the airline being rated worst performing in the Which? survey overall and was the only carrier to receive an abysmal one-star food rating.
Splashing out extra cash to escape economy doesn't always guarantee customer satisfaction when it comes to meal time either.
David Ball flew business class with British Airways from London Gatwick to Mauritius and any thoughts of luxury went out of the window when he was presented with a chicken biriyani.
He said: "What you see in the picture is a chunk of dry chicken, a piece of dead, burnt cauliflower, a spoonful of gunk and overcooked rice. Awful."
After a relaxing holiday to get over the ordeal, David faced a similar experience during his return journey in World Traveller Plus (premium economy) when he was given this 'so-called omelette'.
He added: "It tasted exactly as it appears in the photo – disgusting."
David wasn't the only underwhelmed BA premium economy flyer as another was left disappointed which his upgraded meal of beef with roasted vegetables and mashed potato, describing it as 'overcooked and burnt on the edges' (pictured below).
Passenger Mike Bates was told the option of seared steak and buttered chicken curry had run out on his BA premium economy flight to Barbados and was left with only one option - cheese pasta.
With a less-than-glowing review, Mike said: "It was cold and the cheese had coagulated. I couldn’t eat any more after the first mouthful."
For those with special dietary requirements, the menu narrows even further.
Another BA passenger, Yannis Psomadakis, ordered the airline's low lactose cod with spinach and pulses.
He said: "The taste of dry cod and steamed spinach was not much to write home about. I had to pick out the peppers and wrap the spinach at every bite to make it 'swallowable'."
And to prove that eggs are exceptionally hard to pull off at 35,000 feet, the image below of BA's full English offering leaves a lot to be desired.
These experiences scored BA's premium economy service a measly two stars for the quality of its food and drink.
A BA spokeperson said: We pride ourselves on the quality of the meals we offer on board and are currently investing £6.5bn to improve our customer experience, including a multi-million-pound investment in catering across all cabins.
"We work closely with our caterers across our extensive global supply chain to deliver high-quality products, sourced in a responsible way, in order to meet our customers' expectations.
"Our latest customer survey scores show an upward trend in satisfaction levels for the catering onboard our flights."
Although Etihad cooked up a slightly more palatable three stars for its food, passenger Richard Cooney was far from impressed with the 'poor quality and tasteless' dish on his flight from Bangkok to Abu Dhabi last March.
In a review Gordon Ramsay would be proud to dish out, he described the sweet corn, pea and rice starter as ‘cold with no seasoning’ while slamming the cake as so ‘dry’ and ‘tough’ it resembled a ‘building brick’.
The tough critic added: "We have now decided to part company with Etihad after our most recent experiences with the food."
Another early morning crime came from Indian carrier SpiceJet (pictured above), with Nick Avery saying: "Apparently that is omelette, sausages and hash brown. It tasted as good as it looked."
A Norwegian airlines passenger said she found her chicken and mash swimming in grease, describing it as 'slop' (pictured above).
She found the turkey ham and Swiss cheese baguette equally underwhelming, with a half-hearted attempt to butter the bread and 'scant' filling.
Norwegian scored two out of five stars for the quality of its food and drink in the Which? survey.
We might stick to the Pringles next time.