Religious Travelers - "Clean meat" in business class?

Greetings, all. My first post here on FT.

I'm a Seventh-Day Adventist, and as some of you may know, part of our belief and message is health & diet related. We believe one shouldn't eat "unclean meats", like pork, crab, etc, for health reasons. Physical health can assist and improve spiritual health. Many of our dietary guidelines are similar to Kosher, but focus mainly on what should and shouldn't be eaten and less on how it's prepared and eaten. Most SDAs are vegetarian or vegan, but I'm not (yet?). I don't fly quite often enough to be very familiar with airline menu options, so I am hoping for some information - I suspect this is the right place to find help. :)

When I've flown before without making a meal request, it seems there is usually, but not always, something available without unclean meat. I realize that requesting a Kosher, Vegetarian or Vegan meal will meet the requirements I have, but I've heard some negative things about these meals in business class. For example they may just bring you the economy version of the meal. Plus, I do enjoy beef, chicken, etc. I have almost always flown economy, and am hoping to fly business as a treat for my fiancee and I very soon. Part of the treat is having the very nice meal and service, so I don't want that to be fouled by them feeding us the normal economy class food. Is there usually a meal option in business class service without pork, crab, shrimp, calamari, octopus, etc?

Our plan is to fly PDX - MNL, and it will probably be on Delta through NRT. (Portland, Manila, via Narita-Tokyo). If it turns out they don't meet our needs and wants, we'll fly another airline even though it then becomes a hop-intensive route. Other options are PDX-YVR-MNL on Philippine Airlines, PDX-YVR-ICN-MNL on Korean Air (and perhaps others). On the return trip, we need PDX to be the first and only US stop.

Thanks!

Order Kosher if you want meat or vegan if you do not. The quality may be off but the option seems to be meat not considered clean by your beliefs.

No airplane meal is that special so as to justify compromising beliefs. You fly to get somewhere not for a meal. On long flights you need to eat so order safe or bring your own and ask the crew to refrigerate it if need be.

Welcome to FT.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

We definitely won't compromise our beliefs for any meal.

Meals with chicken, beef, most types of fish, turkey, and several other things, are fine for us. From what I understand, there is perhaps "usually" an option which fits our beliefs, but this depends on airline and route? I was hoping to get an idea whether this is likely for our route, or if there are particular airlines for our trip which include known high quality kosher/veg options. I might need to ask this in a higher traffic area. :)

Call the airline and discuss your needs. If not satisfied, call another airline.

You might want to search this forum and all forums for kosher meals. Also you might want to post here a message in a new thread entitled "Best In-flight Kosher meals." You ought to list the airlines you are considering.

You might check out some of the kosher flyers at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/religious-travelers/774978-how-many-shomer-shabbat-fters-5.html and send them a private message. They likely can speak from experience.

Hope this helps.

FWIW Philippine Airlines used to serve a lot of pork meals, and pork was the most common meat we were served when in the Philippines, even more common than chicken. Shellfish was also very common. Not sure of your ultimate destination within the country, but it might not be the most hospitable place for your dietary needs.

orde the Muslim meal......at least you will get meat on your MNL segment, and out of NRT---that meat is halal and undergoes strict preparation...its the closest thing to clean meat---of course, no pork will ever be served on a MUSLIM meal....

If you are happy with "chicken, beef, most types of fish" and have no requirements other than that...

..then I'd be amazed if you couldn't find something in Business class to suit....on any decent airline...

Have a trawl through the menu threads to get a better idea of what is usually offered....you might be pleasantly surprised...

I have questions about how ANY food designated simply by type in that way can be considered "clean" when other foods (quite possibly more strictly produced/prepared and certified free of steroids etc) are automatically unclean.... but I best look that up myself! (And not go completely OT here...)

We are likely looking at a definition of "clean" I am not familiar with! ;)