ahmetdouas

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HIDDY

Was thinking that myself. Special meals must be a friggin' nightmare for the airline caterers especially with people being so quick to sue or seek publicity nowadays.

muishkin

I don't know why BA doesn't do this but AA always have an item on the main menu that happened to be vegetarian. This holds in their Y long haul as well.

ILikePancakes

Don't even get me started on this! I'm still reeling from my "veggie" meal in CE being a few slices of fruit.

ILikePancakes

The veggie food in the lounge is alright though. Shame they don't provide you with a Tupperware container for the plane

Crismyth

no paying 5000+ pounds for a CW ticket and recieving the same bland filth that is served in all classes because caterers can get away with it due to bad airline food and cost management is an friggin nightmare.
I bet the airlines are paying premium prices for the slob they serve as special meals... And I bet they can save and serve better meals if they would actually understand the demands and cared...

CosmosHuman

Do airlines actually employ a registered dietician for medical meals? Any half-wit knows that white rice increase blood glucose levels. Brown rice isn't much better. This us why I brink my own emergency reserve on board.

konagirl2

It does seem strange that BA offer a variety of special meal but are then so lazy in what they actually offer. So many airlines are the same but it is infuriating! Airlines generally avoid pork products unless there is a choice; you would think they could just make the economy starters and desserts veggie too so they can hand out the same trays to most people. In CW you should get a choice (notwithstanding BA's tendency to undercater). I don't think most people would notice if the economy dessert changed from a mousse to a cake.

I would emphasise that BA (I believe deliberately) do not claim the non-meat dishes in CW are vegetarian. They are quite likely to contain non-vegetarian cheese, gelatine, meat stocks etc. Even if there is an option touted as 'vegetarian' in economy, it often includes cheese that might not be veggie and comes with a tray with a gelatinous desert. So we each make our own decision on these things.

If BA really wants to save money, it should consolidate the choices to a strict vegan / Jain option as a special meal plus religious and dietary (allergy, low-sugar and low-salt) options with a guaranteed vegetarian starter, main and dessert on-board - but improve the quality of the offering! I have had one good VLML which happened to be vegan on BA - a tofu and ginger salad in CE. I have also had pretty good asian vegetarian meals, though they tend to include paneer. But most of the standard VLML options are bland and don't work well on aircraft. It is really not difficult to make tasty and interesting vegan and vegetarian dishes, it is pure laziness by the airline caterers. I agree with previous posters, how hard is it to make an interesting salad?
Think of all the amazing flavours you could go for, but no lets have two slices of red pepper on two lettuce leaves with no dressing! It is laughable.

CCayley

And yet again (for there are already several instances in this thread) the 'solution' to this supposed problem that is touted involves the 95% being forced to obey the whims and self-imposed restrictions of the 5%. Why do vegetarians feel such a compulsion to be dictatorial? And by the way if the economy trays contain meat items they can already be handed out to "most people". It is the desires of a small minority only that is the topic of this thread.

konagirl2

I don't think I have ever been called dictatorial before (smiley/winky face). The argument is as much about what BA already do to an extent, but their labelling / information is poor.

I was largely referring to long-haul economy, where the trays are already 95% vegetarian. The starter is a salad and the dessert is usually either fruit or cake, but sometimes it might include gelatine. For breakfasts, the tray includes fruit, yoghurt and a pastry - all veggie already. So I wasn't dictating much different imo. That is how I read the OP - it's daft that BA give out a different tray to a VLML special meal when the standard tray would do in most cases.

With regard to CW, one of the four options for main meal (and sometimes two starters) already 'look' vegetarian. It would be nice if BA could indicate that they are veggie - or clearly indicate if they are not - and I would argue the same for e.g. Halal. One presumes that BA have a reasonable uptake of these dishes; otherwise knowing how BA undercater if only 5% of the cabin chose the non-meat option there would be people forced to have it on every flight - you would think there would be many more complaints about lack of choice. Every restaurant or food outlet in the UK has to put allergy information and chooses to put dietary symbols on their menus. It's not asking a lot for BA to do the same with their menu, rather than having it in the galley in the Chef's Chat. Just my two-pence.

Ancient Observer

Given that a lot of food served on planes is awful, why should the vegetarians be treated any better then us animal eaters?

ManchesterBAFlyer

I was really trying not to come across as pushing vegetarianism on anyone. But to address a few points and offer potential solutions:

- AA used to (and may still) not offer a VLML, only a VGML - it may not be an ideal solution, but at least a passenger's expectations can be set. Don't offer a VLML choice if you have no intention of providing it.

- There are enough people globally requesting VLMLs amd VGMLs to justify them not being lazily thought out and terrible. I get that if someone has a plethora of different dietary requirements (e.g. a lactose and gluten intolerant vegetarian with a nut and tomato allergy) they may want to bring their own food, but if an airline offers a product, it should be at the same standard as all the others. I remember one Lufthansa flight where my VLML breakfast consisted of a plate with 3 slices of cheese and a couple of grapes, whilst the main breakfast was a sweet pastry, some fruit a packet of granola and fresh milk. The flight attendent was disgusted and pro-actively removed my meal and replaced it with the standard one!

- As someone based in the UK, we have an amazing system of labelling for vegetarian food, which may mean that we are somewhat spoiled. However, I really think that in this day and age, there is no excuse for using animal products such as gelatine - even most supermarket cheese is now suitable for vegetarians! If the starter is a chicken or prawn salad, fair enough and maybe there is an issue with 'one size fits all', but why does the cake need to have animal in it?

ManchesterBAFlyer

I always use the pre-order option in F when flying out of LHR and then I ask YouFirst to email me the menu for the inbound flight which they happily do. This means I can check before I travel and then decide whether to order a special meal - which I've never had to do, but I may have just been lucky.

RoyalSwazi

When I was a child I used to be allergic to seafood and poultry, much to the envy of my friends being force fed fish several times a week. After a few experiences of having to stare at the meal, my parents started ordering "red meat only" for me. I still remember the stares when I got 4 roast beef sandwiches as the 2nd meal on a SYD-SIN in QF Y

I grew out of my allergies and these days I'll eat almost anything except pickles & capers. I'm very happy that I'm not vegetarian or vegan, as I've found that except in south Asian cuisine it tends to be either salad or really boring pasta being dished up. What does annoy me, though, is that people don't differentiate between a special need (medical) vs special want (personal preference). Eating meat, non-Halal or non-Kosher will not make you physically ill or potentially kill you. There's enough stories of people having to resort to drinking their own urine or eating their dead comrades in emergency situations to prove that. There are also tens of thousands of people dying every day from starvation and malnutrition.

I'm sure I'll get attacked for making these statements but I think this is a Category 5 in a shot glass.

wrp96

If a person has been vegetarian long enough, then yes eating meat can make them physically ill. My mom was diagnosed with a beef allergy several years ago, but a retest a few years ago showed no allergy so she tried to eat beef again. But because she hasn't had beef in so long, her stomach can no longer tolerate it and it causes severe stomach issues which would not be good for her (or seatmates) to have to endure on a plane.