Why You Sometimes Don't Get In-Flight Food And Beverage Service
One rookie mistake you might make as a first-time flier is eating at the airport — the food inside the terminal will almost always be more expensive than it would be in the "real world." You might just decide to wait to get something to eat and drink while you're in the air. After all, while you probably won't get a full meal on the airplane if you're not in first class, you will almost always get a free beverage and some kind of snack to help keep you comfortable on board. Key word is almost. You and all the other passengers might miss getting any in-flight service if / when there's turbulence, requiring the flight attendants to take a seat.
It may be enough that there is simply the potential for turbulence to require flight attendants to stay seated, which inherently cancels the food and beverage service. There will generally be an announcement that confirms this situation, so at least you get the heads up to not expect anything to eat or drink. Though, by that time, it's far too late to pack a snack.
Flight attendant safety comes before snacks and drinks
If you hear that they're canceling food and beverage service due to the possibility of turbulence, you may be left expecting to hit rough air during your flight, and if you're a nervous flier, you might find yourself gripping your armrests a little harder. The warning, though, doesn't confirm that it will be a bumpy ride, just that there's potential for it. Even if there aren't any storms on the radar between your departure and arrival airports, there can still be patches of bumpy air, especially when you're flying over or near mountain ranges.
It's a better safe than sorry situation if the drink service gets called off and flight attendants have to take a seat, though you might find yourself a little annoyed if you didn't get any snacks and the turbulence potential was never realized. However, it's worth remembering that flight attendants are there for your safety first; your hunger and thirst are secondary concerns. So, don't complain if you can't get a snack on board — add that to the list of things that flight attendants want you to stop doing. Turbulence can cause serious injury, and in a 2021 report by the National Transportation Safety Board, flight attendants are the ones who are most likely to be hurt.
Short flights will nearly always have reduced or non-existent food service
Along with turbulence, if your flight is short, you can pretty much guarantee that there won't be a full food and beverage service if there is one at all. It depends on the airline. American Airlines offers non-alcoholic drinks upon request for flights under 250 miles, but no snacks. The booze and snack cut-off for United is 300 miles, though they still have other drinks. For Southwest, they have water only on flights less than 175 miles.
It's not like flight attendants can just immediately start serving passengers once the flight takes off. They can't get up for service until the plane is at 10,000 feet, and they should be sitting back down by the time the plane descends below that threshold or, if they're up and about, performing only essential work. Getting you a drink is not essential work. On short flights, planes may spend more time ascending and descending than they spend above 10,000 feet. There just isn't time to serve everyone on board.
Since you can't always count on getting something on your flight if you're hungry and thirsty, you should always fly or travel with a reusable water bottle — remember to dump it out before going through security; you'll be able to refill it in the terminal. Tossing a granola bar in your bag will also serve to stave off any hunger pangs in the air.