When Jess Marra boarded her 10-hour flight from Los Angeles to Paris she didn’t anticipate she was going to spark a debate of epic proportions online.
In a now-viral video on Instagram with over 8,000 likes and thousands of comments, Marra, 33, shared how she decided to swap airplane food for a homemade alternative, bringing the ingredients for her salad on the flight and assembling it herself.
Ingredients included vegetables, dressing, and the most divisive addition—a hard boiled egg. The caption read: “Making my own healthy dinner on a 10 hour flight bc free will exists.”
“I don’t love plane food and I have some allergies, so bringing my own meals—especially on long-haul flights—is my preferred option. Most of the time, I’ll grab a sandwich or salad to bring with me. But this particular day was chaos—I was rushing to make the flight. I literally grabbed whatever was left in my fridge and tossed it into my bag without overthinking it,” Marra told Newsweek.
But after sharing the moment she made her own lunch mid-flight online, the reaction was seriously unexpected as commenters expressed their fury.
“Eating eggs on a plane should be a CRIME,” said Instagram user sarahbheta. While ishouldstillbeinbed wrote: “No one likes you on this flight….. no one.”
Airplane etiquette is a never-ending debate online, often prompting strong feelings and reactions. Last year a viral Reddit post shared 9 “rules” of plane etiquette, and number one was: “Don’t eat smelling food, if it’s a long flight, be courteous and pick inoffensive snacks.”
While a 2024 YouGov survey of 1,152 U.S. citizens asked where Americans sit on what behaviors are acceptable and unacceptable on an airplane. Of the respondents, 68 percent said that eating strong smelling food was unacceptable while traveling.
Some viewers though rallied to Marra’s defense. “I cannot believe the people so personally attacked by the egg,” said Whitneymbuckley. While Mrs_rogers_ wrote: “Eggs don’t stink up a plane. This was a very smart idea. And a 10 hour flight is a really long time.”
Taylorludnall simply wrote: “Insufferable.”
“I acknowledge that shaking up a homemade salad mid-flight is a little extra,” Marra laughed. “But I was in a window seat next to my husband, and truly no one seemed to notice.”
Except, of course, the internet.
Marra’s biggest critics assumed she smuggled cutlery past TSA, a claim she refutes. “It was the knife provided by Delta in Premium class. Nothing sketchy—I promise!”
While some online claimed to be traumatized by the egg salad video, Marra sees the debate as part of a larger conversation on performative outrage.
“Most airlines literally serve eggs. Breakfast on this flight included eggs,” she said. “But somehow a woman quietly eating one she brought herself is cause for a digital riot.”
Despite the backlash—some of it crossing into threatening territory—Marra remains unfazed. “Would I bring my own food again? Absolutely. Would I make a salad at my seat again? Probably not,” she said. “I’m happy to go back to the prepared sandwich route. But the egg stays.”
The post Woman’s Meal on 10 Hour Flight Called a Crime—She Insists It ‘Didn’t Smell’ appeared first on Newsweek.
