The Lev

Was flying with WifeLev in PE from YYZ-HND the other day. WifeLev is Gluten-free but we didn't book any special meal for her knowing that usually there's enough GF alternatives. She eats the salad and main course from the first meal (bins the roll and dessert). Mid-flight snack is delivered and it is noodles (gluten), sandwich (gluten), cookie (gluten). WifeLev asks the FA if there are any gluten-free alternatives. FA asks if she had ordered GF meal and she says no. FA says nothing is available.

A couple of hours later, WifeLev is getting hungry (she does not share my ability to go long periods of time without nourishment). FA goes by and she explains her GF situation and says by mistake she packed her nuts in her checked bag, so would it be possible to get a bag of nuts, which she would be happy to pay for. FA says no, BoB is only on North American flights, that these things are monitored very closely by management and that giving nuts to a PE passenger would be considered "theft" (seriously???) and offers to get her pretzels (gluten). WifeLev asks for the Service Director who comes by a few minutes later.

Fortunately early in the flight, the SD had introduced herself to us and said "if there is anything I can do to make your flight more comfortable...", so my wife reminded her of this and explained the situation asking again for a big of nuts. She returned a couple of minutes with a couple of bags of cashews.

This whole episode left me somewhat torn - on the one hand, I tend not to have much sympathy for those (including my wife) with special dietary needs who don't pre-plan then whine about people and organisations not taking their dietary considerations into account; on the other hand Gluten Free has become a bit of the fad du jour and it does seem odd that AC would put their staff in a situation where:
1. a meal service offers only products with gluten
2. a FA doesn't have discretion to deal with the above situation sensibly and the SD needs to get called to get something/anything that the person can eat

All I know is that I would not have wanted to be anywhere near my wife if she had been forced to go 10+ hours without food.

End of rant.

thatdamnmelliniumbug

I have always found your posts to be logical and fair having been a lurker for some time. I'm somewhat surprised to read this post. Just because Gluten Free has become a "fad du jour" doesn't mean Air Canada is on the bleeding edge meals wise (let's be honest, AC is on the lagging side meal wise). We all know FA's cant cannibalize Y meals and i'm surprised the SD could break that policy given the fact management watches that closely.

I hate to say this but IMHO your wife should have ordered a special meal, and while I sympathize...

AC's meal service only offers products with gluten, and with a whole host of other things that people with dietary restrictions cannot have.

segacs

Somewhere around 1% of the population has Celiac disease. For them, eating gluten can be severely damaging, and they have to take care to avoid even trace amounts via cross-contamination. Celiac is a very serious disease, and I sympathize tremendously with people who suffer from it. I also know from experience that people who do have it will always either pack food that they can trust, or make sure to pre-order a special meal.

People who are non-celiac "gluten free", either because it's a fad du jour, or because they mistakenly believe there are health or other benefits to it, despite not having Celiac disease, are -- with all due respect -- either idiots, or receiving very poor medical advice. There is no evidence that cutting out gluten is at all beneficial or helpful to non-celiac patients. It's not healthier. The original author of the study who proposed non-Celiac gluten sensitivity actually reversed himself after a larger and better-designed study conclusively showed no evidence whatsoever of its existence. And the trend is harmful to true Celiac patients, because it's creating a perception that cross-contamination isn't an issue for them (it is).

I have no idea of your wife's exact situation, OP. But if she usually eats the salad and main course from the regular meal, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume she isn't concerned about trace contamination, and therefore is not Celiac and is thus avoiding gluten for another reason?

I see these types of restrictions as being similar to religious or moral restrictions (e.g. kosher or vegetarian) where people have personal reasons to avoid a certain food. In those cases, I think it's airlines actually do an admirable job of making options available as long as you pre-request them. But it's a bit unfair to expect them to be able to accommodate every preference and need in-flight, after they've taken off and can no longer edit the quantities of food they have on board.

To be fair here, your wife wasn't really "forced" to go 10+ hours without food, as you said. She could have either ordered the GF meal, packed her own food, or made alternate arrangements. Instead, it sounds like she opted to take her chances, and then wasn't happy when the roll of the dice came up not to her liking.

If that sounds insensitive, then so be it. But you did ask for opinions.

24left

EXCELLENT post! and ^^^^^^^^

With all due respect to The Lev and WifeLev, this is a fad for most people ever since one of those Hollywood people claimed they lost 25kg in 15 minutes by avoiding gluten.

The food industry, clever as they are in spotting hot trends, jumped on this this same way they did during the "low-carb" era. Boggles the mind how people are that stupid to buy low-carb bread. Seriously, just don't eat bread.

As for Air Canada and special meals, I've ordered them for some flights and they have either been really good or disasters as was my AC 15 earlier this year with that meal with no protein, tons of pasta and a disgusting breakfast of what might have been shredded tofu to look like scrambled eggs (photos are posted in a meals' thread).

I've travelled with family members who are diabetic, had high blood pressure and such. They are seasoned flyers and always prepare food items that they can carry onboard. Some people don't fly enough to know to plan for these things.

It is unfortunate that WifeLev did not have items with her in the cabin, it is also unfortunate that the AC cabin crew did not offer a fruit, as I'm sure there was at least an apple or such available (given my frequent crossings of the Pacific).

As for the pack of nuts and all the fear heaved upon AC crew for providing a snack that should have been pretzels, this is just one of those fails of AC management. I and most here understand the limitations of the number of BoB meals brought onboard for sale, but the lack of flexibility or discretion by some crew tells me they are more terrified of AC managers than of an unhappy pax.

<my rant over>
.

segacs

I'd also mention that nut allergies are more common than gluten allergies. So it would be just as legitimate for someone with a nut allergy to come on here and complain if AC only had cashews as opposed to pretzels.

You can't satisfy everyone with the standard option. That's why there's an option to pre-book special meals. If you don't reserve, you can't really expect them to know or to be able to accommodate.

Mauricio23

Whether OP's wife is celiac or not is completely irrelevant, and nobody's business but her own. It is also irrelevant that AC does not have GF meals on board if not asked to supply one - that's the point of the special meals option. People who want to eat GF should either select the option or bring their food on board - no grounds for complaint here. The only red flag here is the FA's behavior. Mistakes do happen - people forget to check the special meal option, or inadvertently check their food. That an FA has no flexibility to deal with such a situation by "stealing" a 25 cent bag of nuts is idiotic (but is entirely consistent with the customer service policies at all levels at AC).

canadiancow

I think the rest of your points were adequately addressed.

This is the one thing that gets me. When I flew HKG-YVR, there were two breakfast options. Mushroom congee, or mushroom omelette. I hate mushrooms (my second least favorite food).

I can see the challenges when you start getting 50 people saying "have one option without X", for 50 different values of X. But at some level, they need to realize that even though the meals they're offering are "different", there's a common component that may result in some people wanting none of it.

I don't know enough about gluten to even suggest that it may or may not be feasible to address this, but certainly in the mushroom case, I'm shocked no one looked at the menu and thought "Well what if someone doesn't eat mushrooms?"

In the end, I took the omelette, picked out the mushrooms, and ate it. I don't think you can do that with gluten

MasterGeek

Glutten-Free is just a fad. We cannot cater to every fad out there

arf04

I pretty much agree with all of this. I always order a VGML and because AC is hit and miss on either quality or on catering the special meal I (or my wife and I when we travel together) always bring our own food. It should not be required, but it's a safe way to ensure we will eat when we want to. I would not expect AC to have vegan food on board just in case someone wants it.

The FA's behaviour puzzles me completely. We were in PY on LHR-YYZ last week and the FA serving our side of the plane went out of his way to ensure that the couple across the aisle got a choice of meals even though they only had one entree choice left for PY. He offered them Y food or to put something together from what was there for PY and J. It did not seem to be a problem and he seemed quite happy to do it. I'm sure if the couple had asked for nuts he would have found some for them.

24left

This is great to hear and clearly, he was an awesome FA. Some are. Some aren't.

Stranger

Gluten free is a fad in most cases. However not all.

Question is, who are we to decide?" Reminds me of the hijab debate. Whether it's realgious or a social tradition. At the end of the day, regardless of rationality, we have no real choice but letting the end user define him or heslef.

YEGTigger

My wife is celiac and I can say that we've had nothing but great FA's both domestically and internationally, except for one issue on Rouge to the US. Now, to be fair we always order the GFML to be safe and my wife always carries food with her, because sometimes the meal is downright awful, disgusting. When the meal hasn't been loaded, they've been great often canibalizing other meals. I'm assuming that the non loaded meal helps them justify. But, we've even had them help when the meal was clearly inedible. Two years ago we had the same SD both to and from CPH and the meal was horrible enough that she (the SD) looked at it and asked if there was anything she could bring as an alternative that might work okay. The second time she remembered the issue from the first flight, as she put it a bun so hard she could put a hole in the plane with it.

But, in all cases my wife was ready with something in her bag to eat that would not cause problems in Customs on the other end.

segacs

Hey, I don't care whether people avoid food for any personal reasons ranging from religious to preference to fad diet to "I don't like orange food". Whatever floats your boat.

Point is, if you specify it in the booking and request the special meal, great. If not, it's pointless blaming the flight crew for not having a suitable alternative on board.

flyquiet

The response of "I can't make any BOB food available to you" is what is weird to me. Presumably WifeLev had a regular meal allocated. I wonder if any Y pax would have been happy to switch, if the Y food (catered or BOB) was so preciously allocated that there was no surplus. The stories of resourceful FAs are encouraging. While we all would like to see passengers protecting themselves, The Lev has explained that WifeLev generally finds "eating around" her limits work for her (it's what I do also, because my sensitivies are not covered by any of the SPMLs, and bringing "food" through CBP is more of a headache than doing so.)

The Lev

WifeLev fits into the "idiot" category in this case (although in her defence it did help her lose weight by eliminating a bunch of temptations from her diet. Unfortunately she now finds that if she has more than trace amounts of gluten it causes her an upset stomach (not fun on a plane ).

I guess this is the where I feel somewhat conflicted. If this had been Ma and Pa Kettle and they weren't aware that you could order special meals and they had Celiac, is it appropriate for an airline employee to say "too bad so sad it would be theft to give you something you can actually eat"?

(WifeLev is aware of the GF meals but doesn't order them for two reasons - doesn't want to make a fuss and perceived or real inedibility of GF meals as mentioned by another poster. She feels that normally she can cobble together enough food from the regular menu - and normally she brings snacks with her just in case).

This.

That's called common sense and taking the initiative to provide good customer service. Shame it has been trained out of so many AC employees.