Airline passenger news and views
07 February 2012 | Sign In
Special in-flight meals
A reality test.
For anyone with special dietary requirements receiving an in-flight meal can be a surprising event.
There are some horror stories flying around involving certain halal meals making people sick, gluten-free dishes not actually being free of gluten and a vegan meal consisting of a piece of bread … and a tomato.
For every unsatisfied customer you meet though, there is a satisfied one.
To maintain passenger loyalty, many airlines claim to answer virtually all special dietary requirements, but are they offering the real deal?
On a flight last year, the passenger next to me had pre-ordered a halal meal and on receiving it found it to be simply the vegetarian option.
Though, technically it may or may not have been halal, the person felt somewhat cheated since they felt it had been labelled misleadingly.
Bmi boast 16 special meals which may be ordered up to 24 hours before the flight departure, or 48 hours for kosher meals.
British Airways offer ten special meals which must be ordered 24 hours in advance and are available to all long haul flight passengers, Club Europe customers and Euro Traveller customers to and from several European destinations.
Virgin Atlantic said they can cater for any special dietary needs.
Thomas Cook and Thomson offer some special dishes, but the latter do not cater for halal or kosher requirements. Jet2 offer vegetarian.
Ryanair, easyjet and flybe do not offer any special options.
Do airlines then, do enough to provide for special dietary requirements with regards in-flight meals?
| Comments | Post a comment |
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Holly Jones, London 15 June 2010, 04:43PM | |
No, I don't think they do, we should have a bit more choice, the food is always far too bland anyway, surely they could improve on this aspect, especially when flying long haul. | |
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I always book vegetarian meals, not because I am anti-meat but because I believe that one gets a better quality meal by doing this. | |
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Jane, North London 21 June 2010, 11:20AM | |
I flew with Royal Brunei Airways to Bangkok from Heathrow, return, October and December 2009, and I have to say I was very pleased with the specialised airline meals. They catered for veggie and vegan meals without fuss, friendly helpful staff. | |
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Justin Cobb, Birmingham 27 June 2010, 11:21AM | |
I just ask why we go to all this trouble to produce a sub-standard meal in difficult conditions and then serve it in limited space with plastic utensils.
We are on a flight, surely we can survive without this luxury for a few hours? For me, a decent sandwich or roll would be fine. Marks and Spencer sell rolls and sandwiches which keep office workers happy during the day, so why can we not just accept that this works and stop pretending that an aircraft is a flying kitchen. | |
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Colin, Bristol 1 July 2010, 01:33PM | |
As Justin says, I think that when you fly it is a means of getting from A to B and should not expect a specialised meal. For godness sake if we were going out for a fantastic meal then surely you would book a top London resturant and not a flights. | |
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Susan, Luton 29 November 2010, 08:06PM | |
When i fly i never have had a satisfactory meal. The only half decent meal was on the way to Florida where we were given a cheese roll and a twix! | |
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Chris Morgan 30 November 2010, 10:44AM | |
Whilst I understand Susan's complaint, I have to ask what she expects for the money that she paid. Some people pay £5,000 for a first-class seat and others pay £350 to down the back. Both get there. The difference is the level of service. I think all of us that grumble should recognise that cheap tickets are very good value at the moment. They will get more expensive. Cheap travel exists because people want to travel more than they want to have meals on board. | |
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