By doing away with free meals and raising the prices of buy-on-board food, airlines will only lose more money long-term. - Inspired by Henry Harteveldt, airline industry analyst at Forrester Research

Early next month, United Airlines will no longer offer complimentary snacks to economy class fliers across North America, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. One month after, it will stop offering complimentary meals in domestic business class for most flights. In a double whammy, it will also raise the prices of food you can buy on board.

The Chronicle also reports that United will soon terminate its free meal service on international economy class on flights from Washington-Dulles to Europe.

United’s explanation? "In the wake of high fuel prices and a challenging economic environment, we must continue to examine every aspect of our business and find new ways to improve our day-to-day operations through efficiencies that still meet our customers' expectations.”

But is this really the best way to go? According to Henry Harteveldt, airline industry analyst at Forrester Research. “These moves are flat-out stupid… The savings they will get doing away with lunch in business class - they will lose more than that when corporations yank business. The challenging thing about business is that whether things are good or bad, you have to invest in your product for the sake of keeping customers and to make it harder for competitors to catch up with you. This does nothing to encourage people to pay more because you give more. They really make me question whether the inmates have taken control of the asylum."