TWA884

You should be able to order a kosher meal on the LAX-JFK leg of your trip.

travellerK

I am scheduled on a DL flight, MSP-PHL in F. Last flight of the day at 7:20 PM.

The online reservation system confirms KSML. Does anyone know if they really serve special kosher meals on such a route, and if so what should I expect?

Thanks,

joshwex90

DL is the only domestic carrier who still offers SPMLs on all flights with complimentary meal service. So yes, you should expect a KSML. What it's like though, no idea.

joshwex90

Was served breakfast by Hamasbia. Most (if not all non-LY) carriers use Hamasbia ex-TLV. Was quite underwhelmed. I basically got the Y meal. Everything except the utensils were plastic. It was served in a tray that looks just like a Y tray, though slightly larger.



Sorry for the poor quality as my camera seems to have gone down in quality. Really weird.

Anyways, the egg is the exact same I'm served in CO Y, BA WT, and LX Y.

Everything looks just like it would in Y except the fruit which has more than in Y (usually just 2 pieces of fruit) and the salad which usually isn't there.

Food tasted fine, but presentation was poor and portions too small.

I forgot to ask if they have kosher wine, as it was a 05:30 flight, so I wasn't going to be drinking any.

joshwex90

Shalom Catering, company out of Zurich. Same one LX uses. They usually have very good food, though sometimes, small portions. Again, underwhelmed. For this one, I'm not sure if Shalom is to blame or UA, as it didn't look like they were particularly fantastic for the regular meals either.

CO BF has always given me a choice of meals. No such option. Again, this looked like a Y meal with minor adjustments. Everything was plastic. Though the FAs were great on this one - they asked me if I minded them opening the meal to serve it, or if I preferred to open it "as per different interpretations, understandings, or followings of Jewish law." Thought that was quite classy. I allowed them to open it as it wasn't the meat, but rather the tray. Again, photo quality is poor.

Lunch - tray:

This is only slightly more than the regular Y meal. There were 2 pieces of gefilte fish.

Lunch - main:

and

Some sort of chicken in sauce with vegetables and kugel. Was all delicious except the kugel (which was fine, but nothing to write home about). But too small.

Snack:

For a snack, pretty good. They had assorted deli meat. Glad they didn't consider this a meal. Though for an 8 hour flight, it wouldn't hurt to have a 2nd meal service.

Food was all fine, (the cake was great in both lunch and the snack!) but for C, not big enough, and presentation was quite poor.
Also, no kosher wine.

mikebg

Re: Hamasbia

It is all a factor of how much the airline is willing to pay the caterer (assuming we are not talking about Stogel or their French lookalike). LY use Hamasbia for their SKML from TLV and LON. The Hamasbia breakfast on LY in C does not resemble the picture above in any way, even though it comes from the same caterer. It is actually quite reasonable, and no less good than the regular (non-SKML) offering in C. The main problem is that most airlines are not willing to pay more for their SKMLs even though the production costs are higher. As a result, the quality will be lower than a regular meal.

Maybe enough complaints from high status passengers on the other airlines might help ... along the lines of ... hey EL AL use the same caterer for SKML but look what their meal looks like ...

I did that a few years ago with EL AL (their F meals from Hamasbia were appalling) and it worked wonders.

joshwex90

I wouldn't come close to blaming Hamasbia. This is all LX. CO uses Hamasbia in BF, and it's fantastic. Served on real china, with real silverware, mugs, etc. Real cloth napkins. Multiple courses (depending on the meal). They can be great.

craz

Im speechless UA served a KSML that wasnt KoshAir! I got KoshAir the other week on UA NRT-SIN,SIN-NRT, was suppose to NRT-IAD but I off loaded myself and flew NRT-LAX instead = no meal but well worth it

joshwex90

No meal for NRT-LAX, or because you switched less than 24 hours? Why was it well worth it?
Where is KoshAir based out of? It's probably cheaper for them to use Shalom as they're ZRH-based. Maybe they work with LX who also use Shalom. And remember, UA doesn't only use KoshAir. They use Weiss ex-EWR.

craz

no meal since I was on the plane and told them to off load me, I wasnt going.There was a 5 month old the seat behind me that had a piercing scream that went on for over 10 mins before its grandmother was able to get it to shut up and there was no place to hide. was gonna take a chance what would be during the 12 hr flight

But the meal was KoshAir just as it was out of SIN , also a couple months before when I was in NRT for a few days they gave me KA on my way back. Pretty much now I dont touch it unless I havent had anything for a couple of days

Even with the cost of shipping the KA meals, Im sure KA is cheaper then anything else. Could be CO is finally fixing it where they can for now.

joshwex90

I don't see how the Shalom meal was CO's doing - CO spends money for a proper Biz meal. That was a premium economy meal.

craz

1st thing would be to find out what UA was serving on its ZRH-IAD flights before they took over the EWR-ZRH from CO

My guess is that CO told UA you cant serve the KA slop on what used to be our metal flights as it will lose us the passengers. after all why does UA use Weiss on the EWR-ZRH and not KA as they do on all of their flights?

My question is why arent they using Regal like CO does, could be CO plans on going back to Weiss when the Regal contract is up, so they are using Weiss on the newer routes that arent under contract with Regal. Regal does a much better job, Weiss when they started up some 10 yrs ago was great but went downhill very fast

joshwex90

I think Weiss has some meals that are TASTIER than Regal. But Regal has a nicer presentation and larger portions.

Ya, I don't know what they used to serve on ZRH-IAD. Never flew it. Maybe someone here knows... (I wonder if calling in would lead anywhere)

travellerK

It was a Borenstein Meal - OU

Main course was a turkey sandwhich (beracha on the roll was, "ask your Rabbi")

It also had:
a bag of Leiber's corn chips
Sonny & Joe's sauteed eggplant (special production for Regal)
Chocolate pudding
Golden Flow apple juice
Coffee & Tea stuff (including some Golden Flow Non-dairy Creamer)


A so-so meal. But considering that AA, CO, & US have not giving me a special meal even when going to Central America, getting something on a 2 hour flight is pretty good

joshwex90

Borenstein isn't bad in general, so that's good to know. Looks to be OK for a domestic flight. Unfortunately, that's what we've come to expect.
I remember getting a KSML on CO, EWR-PBI in Y!