Buster CT1K

I just want to share this note of caution.

I ordered Hindu meal for LHR to JFK recently. It was disappointingly insipid.

The starter was just a few sticks of carrots and celery with hummus. Nothing South Asian about this. The main course was mildly spiced veggies with rice cakes. Perhaps ok for an Asian vegetarian meal, but I know I can order that if I want just veg. I ordered the Hindu meal because I want meat, and BA always has a nice meat curry.

The second “extra bites” service was also disappointing. It was very plain, and contained a plastic wrapped sandwich that had “Vegan Sandwich” printed on it. In this case, VS clearly just went lazy and provided a vegan preparation without any taste or imagination.

Acid

BA switched its Hindu meal to be a veg curry few years ago.

Buster CT1K

But not in first ;-)

UKTraveller4Fun

Virgin don't have First, what do BA serve in CW?

Buster CT1K

Doesn't matter to me. I fly front cabin to and from LHR. If it's BA then it's F. If it's VS then it's Upper.

UKTraveller4Fun

I think comparing class of flying rather than seat position on the plane is a fairer way to compare airlines. So Upper should be compared to Club World, not First in regards the food offerings, otherwise is somewhat of an unfair and misleading comparison.

Buster CT1K

Sure, each of us have different priorities and ways of comparing airlines. I wish you bon voyage!

UKTraveller4Fun

I would not compare Economy with Business and feel it the comparison in ths case to be somewhat inflamatory and disengenious, if you wish to have a First Class meal and experience then frankly pay for it rather than pay for business and expect first.

Buster CT1K

Considering that my round trip JFK-LHR-JFK ticket did cost close to $10,000, yes I did pay for a high quality experience and was disappointed.

But frankly any upper class meal or business class meal should be tasty and meet minimum standards of care, thoughtfulness, and taste. This was not my initial comparison, but was essentially made by another poster who asked “why do BA serve?” The answer to that is really, what does it matter? A VS meal, especially in Upper, should be tasty and thoughtful in its own right. That was not what I was provided.

mantan_rtw

Which makes sense because serving meat as Hindu meal is quite dumb. Traditionally Hindus were mostly lacto-vegetarian for hundreds of years even though many of them have started eating meat in the last 20-30 years.

UKTraveller4Fun

I think as your posts seem to send mix messages it gets confusing what you are expecting or comparing. In your inital post the main part you were complaining about waslack of meat in the meal and even said as a Vegitarian Asian meal it was ok, just that as far as you were concerned the lack of meat was unacceptable along with a comment that the side bits / starter were not tasty. You then directly compared to a BA meat curry, which was not accurate as BA Business is a veg curry, it is only First that you get a meat curry, hence BA Business and Virgin Business are indeed both veg and thus your complaint about lack of meat compared to BA just doesnt fit.

I would fully agree with you that the meal should be tasty and thoughtful in travelling in a Business Class cabin, although I would disagree it should contain meat or that it should be comparable to BA First Class. So it does sound like the Virgin meal was not what it should be, the way you describe it and introduce BA First into the conversation simply takes away from the point your making, as a meal in a Business Class Cabin it was simply not very good, which is a fair point, it just gets lost in the other non relevent points.