near miss

[urbangirl]

I have just returned from a holiday in Central America which was wonderful and I had very few problems eating gf food. But this post is not about the holiday it is about a big mistake made by the airlines on the food I was given.

We booked our holiday with a well-known tour company who advised the airline company I needed a GF meal on the 10 hour flight. Following advice and my own experiences I did bring a couple of meals but they leaked and I had to abandon them in the departure lounge. However, I was given a meal that I thought was GF along with a bread roll. There were various initials on the packaging that I didn't understand. Now I don't eat GF bread as I react to the ingredients so left it. The meal was a vegetable curry and I just ate a bit of it. When the second meal was given to me - another vegetarian dish - pasta and pesto - my husband noticed the warning on the packaging advising it contained gluten. So I took it to the cabin crew and explained there must be a mistake. Apparently there were no GF meals booked on the flight - I had eaten a vegetarian meal earlier which did not contain gluten but the bread roll I had fortunately not eaten was not GF. If I had eaten it I would not have been able to get off the plane.

The cabin crew were most apologetic about this - it was not their fault. The tour company were also apologetic and assured me they ordered a GF meal. However, the point is I ate the meal in good faith but someone made a very serious mistake which could have had disastrous consequences. I am taking this up with the airline but in the meantime would advise GF travellers to either bring their own food and make sure it doesn't leak! and if you have a GF meal check that it is exactly that!

[Lisahelen]

Glad you had a good holiday despite the airline c... up. Do you have anything written to confirm your gf requirement? It might be helpful if they try to pass the buck and effectively you get the brush off.

[urbangirl in reply to Lisahelen]

Yes I think that the tour company would support me. But thank you for the advice.

[liver-bird]

Thanks for sharing this to help the rest of us

[kaspa]

I flew with Singapore Airlines long haul to Australia and they were excellent with everything clearly marked and great attention to detail. So it can be done. Hope you get a good response from their customer services as this slap dash approach is risky and dangerous and they need to get a grip!