Special meals on long-haul flights

My experience of ordering special meals has been a bit “hit and miss” — even airlines which serve a diabetic meal have been known to serve snacks which are totally unsuited to diabetics.

It’s worth noting, to give credit where it’s due, that my frequent flier profile with KLM records the fact that I require a special meal and this information seems to be passed on reliably to other airlines, such as China Southern, with which they have a relationship.

Again, for the sake of completeness, it’s worth mentioning that the best “special” meals I’ve had have been those on China Southern. And yes, in general terms, I’d echo what’s been said about “special” meals often being rather better quality than the ordinary meals.

I request a vegetarian meal for every flight and I highly recommend to make the request by phone. This seems to be the most effective method of ensuring you will actually get a vegetarian meal.

When ordering the meal on the airline website, it has happened to me before that my order got lost and I did not get my meal.

Simply look up the customer service number for the airline online and when you call give them your booking confirmation code and request the vegetarian meal. This must be done at least 48 hours before the flight.

In addition to this post https://travel.stackexchange.com/a/70930/4584
I also recommend you confirming this when collecting your boarding pass.

I once flew with a diabetic mate of mine and despite instructions when booking and confirming again with their customer care, his request for a vegetarian meal was not honored in Delta Airlines. Flying from Dallas to Dubai was a night mare as he was single mindedly occupied with monitoring his glucose levels.

In another flight I experienced a human error. The conversation went : Is this fish ? – Yeah, I see you ordered a vegetarian meal which wasn’t really necessary as we are serving fish in the menu today.

So being doubly sure is something you can do in addition.

It’s best to take some extra food with you. There may be problems with the food they serve, or it may not be enough. I always do this because I eat way more than average while on planes they serve minuscule amounts of food. On the plane I’ll eat whatever is served first, keeping the food I’ve brought with me as reserve for later.

A full list of special meals types is available on wikipedia. Not every one is available on every airline, for example here is Etihad’s selection. There are quite a number of meal types that are vegetarian, so you don’t have to restrict yourself to just the normal VLML, and might want to try one of the others for a change:

VGML – Vegetarian Meal (usually called Vegetarian Vegan on most airlines)

• Contains all types of fruits and vegetables.
• Does not contain any meat, fish or animal by-products (like animal fat in biscuits).
• Does not contain dairy products.

VJML – Vegetarian Jain meal

• Contains non-root vegetables only.
• Does not contain any root vegetables like onions, ginger, garlic, potatoes, carrots or animal/animal by-products.
• Prepared Asian style.
• Suitable for a section of the Indian community who are strict vegetarians.

AVML – Asian Vegetarian Meal

• Contains all types of fruits, vegetables, and dairy products.
• Does not contain any type of meat, fish or eggs.
• Prepared according to subcontinent taste (mildly spicy to spicy).
• Can qualify as a Hindu meal.

FPML – Fruit Platter

• Contains seasonal fruits.
• Suitable for guests who are fasting or has dietary needs.

VLML – Vegetarian Lacto-Ovo Meal

• Contains dairy products.
• Does not contain any meat or meat products, fish, poultry or products with lard or gelatine.
• Suitable for guests who do not eat flesh of any kind but can eat milk and cheese products.

RVML – Raw Vegetable Meal

• Contains mainly raw vegetables and salads.

SFML – Seafood Meal – ok, not vegetarian, but some quasi vegetarians (pescetarians) might like it

• Contains all types of fish or shellfish.
• Does not contain meat products.
• Does not apply to breakfast.
• Suitable for guests who prefer seafood.

VOML – Vegetarian Oriental Meal

• Contains fruits and vegetables.
• Does not contain meat, fish, eggs or dairy products.
• Prepared in Chinese style.
• Suitable for oriental vegetarians.

Alternatively:

CLML – Celebration Cake Meal on Turkish Airlines

• We serve Celebration Cake (CLML) only for our TK Miles & Smiles members.
  It’s possible to order this for a flight within 3 days of your birthday

I’m a vegetarian and in every int’l flight I’ve ever been on, they hand out the special-diet meals first. It’s an extra perk. On my last flight the woman next to me asked why mine was first then figured she’d do the same next time she flew…just to get her food faster 🙂

I have requested countless times vegan/vegetarian meals on long-haul flights.

Normally they are pretty well organized and you won’t have to ask for the meal. My strategy is just to wait and if given the normal food, then I politely remind them I have a special arrangement. In hundred of flights, this has only happened maybe 1 or 2 times.

In most airlines, they deliver the special meals ahead of time and only then will they start delivering the normal menus. It is a rare ocurrence that the crew will make the effort of delivering your meal in sync with everyone else [Turkish Airlines however managed delivering in sync pretty well].

I will also add that often in the vegetarian menu, the desserts and breakfasts are far nicer than the alternatives, as they won’t give you that terrible egg substitute and you often get real fruit instead of the boring generic cakes. [and I prefer to know what I am eating rather than eating something I do not know how it was made ]

The experience may vary because often the service crew/crew does not understand the concept and nuances of vegetarianism, from ovo-lacto to strict vegetarianism. From my experience, in the UK and middle east airlines often they got it right as they frequently have Indian/Hindu customers.

Also from the voice of experience, the request has to be done at booking time. By check-in time, the logistics are already in motion and they won’t be able to cater to your preferences.

As @happybuddha correctly points out, it is always sensible to ask at check in/boarding time wether you have the meal in place or not. However, if there was a fault it will not always be corrected. The process is unreliable at best, depends on the willingness of the parties involved, and of a member of the crew taking the time to coordinate/fetch your meal from the service crew and carrying it by hand to the plane.

You may however have the luck of them having a extra veg meal by some other motive. Once I asked why I was not given my veg meal, and whilst I was told it was not in the system, I was asked if I would not mind having a hindu meal instead.

Be aware, when a plane is “upgraded” at the last minute, or there is a malfunction and there is a plane change, all bets are off. There is a strong possibility that they won’t have time to deal with the logistics and will just load a generic meal for x passengers.

If you miss a flight/connection, forget about your special meal. As I said before, at check-in time they won’t be able to change meals, even though they may say they will to try to keep you happy – in a small airport/company someone of the crew might be tasked to carry the meal, it already happened with me, but it was a courtesy and it is not a common occurrence. The meals are usually already in the plane, or already prepared to be loaded in the plane by that time. It seems pretty much a requirement in many airlines that any special meal has to be booked at least 48h in advance.

Even for non-vegetarians it may be worth looking at special meals – for instance Emirates Airlines and Turkish airlines have a wide choice, including several ethnic choices and sea food.

Please do note that in some short-haul flights, you might have hot meals as well if you buy the meal at booking time, like in Cebu Pacific or Cathay Pacific airlines. The price can be competitive compared to having a meal/snack at a restaurant/coffee shop in the airport, and it also can save you valuable time.