Do you order special meals on flights?
 

I am not sure if this is the right place for this question but since most European travel includes meal service I will start here. I am traveling to the UK for business on British Air. The manager I travel with always orders Kosher meals and highly recommends it. Since I worked in a Kosher hotel in college the concept that a Kosher meal would be good is foreign to me. So the last time I ordered a Asian vegetarian meal which had tofu as the main component of the meal. I am not fond of tofu but it was ok. Do you order a special meal and if you do what do you order? Please also note the airline where you have had the best meals. TIA.

I order kosher meals often - on United and Air France, which are the two airlines I fly most often.

Yes, I order low-sodium meals but I don't always get them. Strangely, one of the best was on a LAN flight from Miami to Santiago and one of the worst, almost inedible, was on a LAN flight from Buenos Aries to Miami. AF has been fairly good.

I do get a lot of fruit when I get the LS meals. One breakfast was totally fruit. The person next to me had yogurt and a roll so I asked for a roll so I'd have something in addition to the fruit.

I ordered bland for myself and a kid's meal for my granddaughter in April on USAirways to Paris; on the plane they had no record of my ever having ordered it. I complained via emai when I returned, and they sent me a voucher for ~$50 for my inconvenience.

This last trip I ordered bland on Delta, and it was ok although there was something on my husband's regular meal that was more bland than something they gave me!

On the advice of a travel agent, I once requested a vegetarian meal for a transatlantic British Airways flight.
"They're always fabulous," she assured me, "a gorgeous fruit plate. Anyone sitting near you will be jealous."

My vegetarian meal was a plate of plain peas and plain rice. Burned, at that.

On the flight home, I was no longer a vegetarian.

BA food is actually among the best I have had transatlantic - it actually had flavour! I am almost ashamed to say it but I did enjoy the meal - at least going to the US. Coming back wasn't as good. That was cattle class too.
I have ordered vegetarian meals in the past, and once ordered Kosher. But tbh I didn't find them to be any better than the normal meals. A vegan friend on the other hand gets very good meals, as does my son's coeiliac MIL. I think the more unusual the dietary requirement the better the meal.

I'm on this forum all the time, trying to look for places to get my travelling news, but recently found this, has anyone else seen it already? I've never heard of it before, am I completely out of touch?

www.fingertips.net

I have ordered vegetarian and asian vegetarian and have been pleased. Usually, I just eat whatever they give me and try not to get too attached.

Maybe I am totally different..I don't eat on the planes. I might eat a croissant (if offerred) for breakfast and their fruit or fruit juice...dinner or lunch, I pass on it.

Joan

Members of my family have ordered vegetarian on CO, LH and BA and all were good (coach). Usually included pasta with veggies, etc. The best was on CO but we were lucky enough to be flying in BusinessFirst on that particular trip and all of the meals were actually very good.

We always fly BA and we are on record for 'no red meat' meals.
The entrees (well, plates) vary depending on whether we're in
First, BC or Econ.+ - that's to be expected.

By and large, all are okay or better but if you are a food
lover it's important to realize your tastebuds don't work as
well at 33,000ft. so everything tastes slightly bland. I
can't imagine how flat a 'bland' plate would be after having
the misfortune to have to eat a tofu/rice combo. Fell asleep
while chewing it!

I am a vegetarian, so I request that. Sometimes I get vegan meals, which is upsetting because sometimes the little block of cheddar in the regular meal is the only edible thing!
If you want to eat well, the only guarantee is to pack your own food.

For the last few flights we've taken on Lufthansa (and a BA flight too), our entire family has ordered vegetarian, even though in "real life," we eat meat. They serve the special meals first, which means we can eat, then use the bathroom before the after-dinner crowd, and ideally, go to sleep sooner. The food is usually decent, and I'd rather have unidentifiable vegetables over unidentifiable meats. Usually, the vegetarian is also vegan, which is only somewhat annoying. I prefer the asian vegetarian over regular vegetarian, but the asian version is usually much like Indian food, so if you don't like Indian, you won't like Asian vegetarian.

no, I don't as I don't have any special requirements and none of the options are guaranteed to be any better IMO. I can't imagine why a vegetarian would want a "fruit plate" for dinner, for example. They never have really great vegetarian meals that I've seen, but I'm not one anyway. I don't really care that much about the whole thing, to be honest, it's just a few hours on a plane, I don't care about the food that much.

Yes, Lexma makes an excellent point--you do usually get served first, so you can finish and get to sleep earlier on overnight flights (provided you are seated where this is possible).

I agree with the above poster who said BA food is good. I'm picky about food. Here's a website where people take pictures of airline food and post it. Under the pictures it will tell you if it's 1st class, business or economy and what it is.
http://www.airlinemeals.net/

They're upgrading the website, but it's still very functional.

I don't like salt so a couple of times I ordered low salt, but I was very dissappointed so I just go with the flow now.

For a while I ordered special meals and found Delta's seafood meal acceptable: usually cold poached salmon with potato salad, tomatoes and cucumbers on the way to Europe, cold shrimp and something for the return. I can no longer stomach any of it, though, and just pack my own food: sandwiches, cookies, fruit, fresh vegetables.

The smell of hot food on the plane is just about the worst aspect of the trip for me. I don't usually eat at all on the night flight, instead dining before take-off, and time my meals on the return such that they don't coincide with hot meal service as I find the smell cuts my appetite.

I have celiac disease and would be very ill if I eat gluten so always request gluten free meals but also carry backup food such as GF energy bars, nuts and fruit in case of a mix-up or flight delay. Air Canada orders GF for me automatically and did a great job of providing decent GF meals for many years but recently their GF offerings have been pretty pathetic.

One year I flew to Japan on Korean Airlines which met my request by serving a filet steak and baked potato for every meal - gluten free and excellent! Other times I have to bring my own food for the entire trip because GF meals aren't available and now many airlines aren't offering meals at all.

Returning from London one year I picked up Chesire Cheese at Harrods to eat on the plane, if needed. By the time I reached home after a flight delay I'd forgotten about this. So, when a dog at baggage claims started excitedly sniffing my carryon, I thought, oh no, someone planted drugs in my bag! Fortunately it was an Agriculture Canada dog who smelled the cheese but couldn't distinguish between hard (okay) or soft (forbidden)!

I order vegetarian, but usually get vegan :) It's so much fun to get the special meal with everybody around is hungry, and sending me evil glances :))

I don't order kosher as once I got beef that I didn't like.

Ordered a diabetic diet on Lufhansa and it was good. Ordered a diabetic diet on quantas, and I liked that too. Instead of a gooey roll,dripping with frosting, I got fresh strawberries and a steamed white fish for breakfast. I did order the muslim meal on AA once, and people on the plane wanted to know how I got that! It was like tandori chicken.