Gluten Free? Have a banana!

[AgedCrone]

Aircraft catering excels itself in stupidity!

[Ali_H]

Well dietary wise it's correct! 😎 Just not as inventive as poached egg on a bed of lettuce with a few raspberries scattered around topped with a sprinkling of sunflower seeds! 😋

[AgedCrone]

Airlines don't cover themselves with glory catering wise do they? I once boarded a flight to fly to London from Nairobi, & the only food on the flight was boxes & boxes of.....BANANAS!!!!

It was an African Airline & the crew quite nonchalantly said "catering had 'forgotten' to load food". ......& the crew obviously hadn't checked the containers before take off! Verrrrreeeeee long flight!

But I recently flew on Norwegian Airlines & they do a very tasty ham & cheese Toastie ...very hot & nice & crispy....but if course not GF bread!!

AC

[helixhelix]

I wouldn't dismiss cutlery...we were stuck on a plane in Bangkok for 17 hours and my OH (who is vegetarian) was offered 2 whole mangos. But with no cutlery, so a bit hard to deal with.

[Exhausted101]

My other half is g/f and while travelling (first class) on Virgin Rail was offered tortillas or a sandwich for the allegedly first class meal....

BA offer no g/f option at all even though you now have to pay. On his last flight they had sat for an hour and a half on the tarmac so he didn't have time to get breakfast before going to a meeting that he was to lead. Not a happy bunny!

[AgedCrone in reply to Exhausted101]

I'm very sorry Exhausted , for the experience your husband had, but a word about aircraft catering.....I know this isn't well publicised, but you have to order ahead of time if you have special needs.They might just be able to cobble together a vegetarian meal...but a GF meal would need to be especially prepared in the catering unit. Guess your husband will need a packed lunch in future if his schedule is too tight to order ahead.

I wonder if Boots have a GF option at airports in their snack section?

Major airlines have hundreds of departures every day & they can't possibly have a selection of "Special Diets" moulding away in the galley just in case one is requested.

I used to be cabin crew & not only did passengers think we had a supermarket hidden in the galley, but also an ice making machine & an enormous fridge to house aunt Milly's birthday cake when flying from London to Sydney. If they saw the size of aircraft fridges they would understand it is just not possible, so get your cool bags ready when you fly folks!

Same goes for keeping meds cool....at transits the ground catering staff often empty galley fridges ...so keep your meds in your cool bags or you might arrive without them!

Amongst items I was asked for were ladies tights,stamps for postcards, ice cream, indigestion tablets, & oh the most requested item was nappies ...mothers flying for 24 hours would bring ONE spare nappy. With possibly 40 nappy wearing babies on a flight.....do the maths...quite a few nappies needed. We did have an emergency supply, but not an unlimited supply of pampers included with the ticket.

I used to regularly write to travel journalists who were living in the days before jumbo aircraft, asking them not to tell their readers "to ask the stewardess" for X,or Z. as I was fed up with explaining that these days we didn't have all the little luxuries that used to be provided free on flights. Needless to,supply I didn't get a reply!

[Gnarli]

If flying for more than 4 hours I pre-order the vegetarian option and have enjoyed a few lovely meals although the hummus sandwich was a bit odd. Less than four hours I eat before we fly or pack some snacks. Emergency chocolate is useful as are small packs of nuts/fruit/seeds.

[AgedCrone in reply to Gnarli]

Good thinking BH, I do the same, but when flying for really long journeys a nice meal with a glass of wine, does pass the time, & hopefully encourage sleep!

I must say some of the new Gulf airlines provide some unusual tasty meal trays.,,,but I prefer my hummus with some carrot & celery sticks rather than a sandwich!

[Gnarli in reply to AgedCrone]

Me too!

[Gnarli in reply to Gnarli]

Oooh. Forgot. Some countries really, really hate you taking nuts/fruit/seeds/foodstuffs into their country and you can get into serious trouble even if it was a mistake. J

[AgedCrone in reply to Gnarli]

Good point BH ....should always check regulations.USA & Auustralia in particular are very strict about importing food...you are given a card to fill in on the aircraft stating if you have any foodstuffs ....so even if you only have a biscuit say "Yes" you have food...then you will be covered.

If you say "No" & then the authorities find food in your bags, that will be byebye to your holiday spending money as they can fine you (lots) on the spot.

There are bins before you enter customs from US Agriculture where you can dispose of any food before you are checked....even if your child is eating an apple....get rid of it

Even within the EU some foodstuffs are forbidden from being imported!