Hawaii-based Airlines - No vegetarian option SYD-HNL on Hawaiian?

My vegetarian friend & her vegetarian daughter are flying SYD-HNL & return next April but have been told there is no veg meal to be had. I checked HA's website and discovered they have this sort-of set meal and it's got meat in it.

Anyone got any ideas on how my friend could get something else? Is there any chance? Should she call/email the airline? Would they be amenable or should she just give up and take her own food? :rolleyes:

Hi Alison,

It looks to me like the SYD-HNL route already has some non-meat options in their fixed menu. Go to this page (http://www.hawaiianair.com/Services/in-flight-dining), scroll down to Sydney, and look at the tab for her class of service (Complimentary means economy class). You didn't specify the class so I'll assume economy... For the first service one of the options is:

Ravioli with Red Pesto Sauce, Couscous Pumpkin Salad, Dinner Roll, Chocolate Macadamia Nut Candy

On the way back, one of the choices is Bowtie Pasta with Marinara Sauce & Parmesan Cheese. In first class there are similar non-meat choices in the list.... Is there some objection to the pasta, or are we looking at different menus?

You assume correctly with the economy. I thought marinara sauce usually meant seafood unless they just wave the seafood over the top of it? :) My friend doesn't do fish. The ravioli will be OK unless, of course, it's filled with meat. Although I suspect she could pick it out.

buy food in the airporthttp://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.flyertalk.com/get/forum/images/smilies/ideasmilie.gif

Marinara sauce is just tomato sauce, nothing fancy in it.

The ravioli will be OK unless, of course, it's filled with meat.

Hmm, I guess you have a point there. :) I fly HA a lot but I've never flown in economy so I don't know if they have meat or cheese ravioli. My guess is they use cheese just to satisfy vegetarian meal requests, since the other option (Dijon Chicken) is clearly meat-based.

sylvas808 is right about the marinara, it's just tomato sauce.

Thank you all for your input. Who knew that marinara was just tomato? No one in Australia! LOL

Is marinara sauce meat-based in Australia? I have no idea, but I would not have thought so.


A quick wikipedia search indicates that marinara sauce has never been meat-based in its traditional form. The term is from 'mariner's' but that does not mean it has meat/seafood, just that it was invented/eaten by people who were at sea.

In Australia, marinara sauce invariably has seafood in it. They even sell mixed seafood at the supermarket labelled "marinara mix". Hence my confusion.

Marinara sauce is totally different between US and Oz. I can confirm in Oz it will mean a read sauce with different seafoods, in US it is nothing more than the read sauce.

Thanks for that confirmation. I will pass on this info to the veg friend. :)