dclassical

Thank you, will definitely try that if I can find the time (holding time is quite long and had to hang up before talking to someone when I called back).

This is not domestic, but international flight, which is why I was surprised.

Worst case I will ask at the Admiral's Club tomorrow since I have to be there for another flight.

dC.

N1120A

Based on a recent experience with my girlfriend, I think I might know your problem. AA seems to have consolidated their vegetarian meals down to vegan and Asian Vegetarian, and has done away with the separate lacto-ovo meal. Perhaps that is the confusion?

dclassical

Thank you all for your help, I have not had a chance to speak to someone else, but will update this when (if) I get an answer.

Again, thank you.

dC

mrbrioni

Call up again - there's no reason what so ever there for there to not be special meals.

dclassical

Well calling a second time gave me the same answer (different person though).
I was able to go to the Admirals Club where it took the very nice 30 seconds to request the meal and give me a printout.

So there are special meals available... if the phone does not work, try to do it at the airport.

dC.

Microwave

I've gone ahead and merged your question in to the consolidated thread on the topic. The reason you may not have found this thread is that it used to have "meals" but not "meal" in the title; I've changed it so now when you do an advanced search for thread titles (which is how I suggest all members start their searches) for "special meal" (with quotes), this thread should come up more prominently.

~Moderator

ChrL

Does anyone have any tips for improving the chances of a special meal making it onto the flight? I travel between the USA and London on AA and have had a few occasions where my special meal was not on the flight, but other people with the same request did have their meal. I'll describe the most recent two:

1) LHR-DFW economy class. This was the first sector of the return portion of my trip during the summer 2012 and the requested meal was provided on the outbound flight but not on the return flight. The original ticket was booked by our corporate travel agent and I had called AA to add the meal request. The only thing unusual about this trip was that the check in agent had to do a lot of typing to get me an aisle seat. I then had three new boarding passes at the gate as they moved me further towards the back to accommodate families. Onboard there was no record of my request at any of the seat numbers so the meal was not available.

2) ORD-LHR business class. This was the second sector of the outbound portion of my Christmas trip this year. The booking was made several months in advance and the meal was requeted by calling AA. Since then the following happened to my booking:
i) I requested 500 mile upgrades for my internal flights online
ii) A few weeks later I decided it would be worth paying to upgrade the transatlantic flight so I called and requested a business class upgrade ($350+25K miles) on the ORD-LHR flight. No upgrades were available so I was put on the waitlist and told my meal request was also on the waitlist. I checked on virtuallythere.com (aa.com never shows this info) and it did show the waitlisted flight with meal request
iii) About 3 days prior to the flight the upgrade as confirmed and I paid my money. A special meal was confirmed at the time.
iv) 2 days prior to the flight I realised that the $+miles upgrade would actualy cover the internal flight as well so phoned back to avoid using unneccessary 500 mile stickers. They removed the 500 mile upgrade request and 'desired' and upgrade on the internal flight. No changes needed to be made to the ORD-LHR flight.
v) On the day of travel the upgrade cleared on the internal flight (whilst I was in the lounge).
So on this trip nothing actually changed on the ORD-LHR leg within 3 days prior to travel but there were changes to the internal flight to ORD. The meal request was confirmed over the phone and had shown on virtuallythere (they never show on aa.com).
The cabin crew said there was no record of my request but pointed towards someone else in business class who had successfully requested and received the same meal.

I've tried asking AA if they can tell me what went wrong and whether there is anything I can do to improve the chances of getting the requested meal in future (there is about a 25% fail rate). The AA platinum call centre had told me that problems with meals are the aiprort's fault rather than the airline but they couldn't give me contact details for the airport. The AA Customer Relations team have offered me a small number of bonus miles (1/10th of the amount I earned on the outbound leg of the trip). Even if the number of miles was siginificant enough to notice - it still doesn't help prevent a re-occurance of the same problem.

So, has anyone else suffered similar problems? What is the best way to avoid them?

Thanks and Merry Christmas

TachOz

I've got a couple of trans-con flights in J and F this coming week, and apparently am being given the option of selecting a special meal online. The regular breakfast options look pretty unappealing, so was thinking of ordering the vegetarian or gluten free special meal since it's being listed as an option.

Can anybody give me some idea of what J/F class vegetarian or gluten free meals are like? More specifically, what are they like for breakfast/brunch? I have a ~9am LAX-MIA flight to contend with first.

Thanks in advance

ossipago

What special meals does AA offer now? I ordered a Hindu Vegetarian meal on a TATL, and got a VGML. It was vegan and gluten-free, not just vegetarian; it was also pretty vile. The standard snack was a cheese pizza and cookies, for example, while I got bland rice and veggies. Is every special meal request now just the same?

Irubi

Hi All,

I have searched and not found the answer for this.

I have a bunch of AA domestic flights coming up next week.

On the MIA-LAX leg, I am in J on a 3 class 777. I am a vegetarian and have been able to order entrees for every other leg (great idea btw) as there has been a vegetarian option on the regular menu. On this leg though, there is nothing I can eat on the regular entree's.

So, the question - if I order a special meal, does this affect my chances of an upgrade? On BA for example, I know that they won't op-up anyone with a special meal ordered. Is this the same on AA?

Also, is there likely to be a non-meat or fish option on board anyway that isn't showing on the pre-book screen?

Thanks alot,

Irubi

HNL

Special Meal requests do not impact Upgrade (requested or operational) chances.

bdemaria

Not at all likely.

sukn

Not for an entree choice, but you will still be able to eat the warm nuts, a side salad (if either entree comes with one), bread, and dessert. So you won't go completely hungry if you don't order a special meal.

Also, you can ask the FA is you can have an item from the coach buy-on-board menu.

http://www.aa.com/i18n/travelInforma...ealService.jsp

As mentioned above, ordering a special meal will not impact upgrades in any manner.

krich

On a transcon flight in a premium cabin, shouldn't there be a VGML special meal available under the dietary-specific section of the pre-order option?

I am flying MIA-LAX, albeit on a 2 class service in First, and I have pre-ordered a VGML using the pre-order option and I found it listed under the dietary-specific section which is at the bottom of the regular options.

Irubi

Many thanks for your replies, good to know that it doesn't affect my chances.

krich - yes, there is a VGML option, but wasn't sure, until now, if this would affect my upgrade chances. On BA, for instance, would pretty much guarantee no upgrade under their policy.

Will order the meal and hope for the best for the upgrade