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lizabelleI've just returned from the UK (where I celebrated a fantastic Christmas and New Year with many much-missed friends and family), and was once again astounded by the failure of the airline to provide me with food in line with my prebooked request.
Before I go into details, let me say that although I'm talking here about Etihad, I have had similar experiences with Emirates, British Airways, Qantas and Virgin over the past few years. Never once have I travelled between the UK and Australia without being served something that contravened my request for a vegan meal, although this is almost invariably offered as an option.
So yes, this time we flew with Etihad. As always, I was careful to request a special meal with my booking, in this case the "VGML - VEGETARIAN MEAL". Etihad states that this option Does not contain any meat, fish or animal by-products e.g. animal fat in biscuits etc.
There is a separate "VLML - LACTO-OVO VEGETARIAN MEAL" for vegetarians, i.e. people who eat eggs and dairy products but not meat.
I was a tiny bit worried about the description "vegetarian meal", so called Etihad to clarify and was informed that yes, my VGML option was vegan.
On the first leg, from Sydney to Abu Dhabi, I was pretty impressed. Everything seemed in order and the food was pretty tasty. I was even given soy creamer to use in my tea, a rare treat on aeroplanes (I say this with just a tiny bit of irony. Soy creamer may not be the nicest thing in the world, but it's much better than nothing).
However, it was downhill from there. On the next flight, from Abu Dhabi to London, I was served yoghurt, and DAIRY creamer. The margarine offered with my bread was Flora; I can't be sure about this, because there were no ingredients on the tub, but when I've checked Flora margarines in supermarkets, they have always contained a small amount of dairy.
I was served at least one more yoghurt, plus some kind of sponge pudding that I'm now fairly certain wasn't vegan (it was shoved at me on the first flight by an attendant and I stupidly took it for granted that it was a special vegan option).
On the flights back from the UK to Sydney via Abu Dhabi, I was served another tub of yoghurt, Flora was always the margarine option, and there was no salad dressing and no creamer of any kind. *sadface* This left me with the salady bit and the main meal section - which was always tasty, but how could I be certain that these sections were vegan when the rest of the meal clearly wasn't?
As for those random snacks they wake you up for in the middle of the night, not once was I offered a vegan alternative, unless you count the attendant who blithely handed me an egg sandwich at one in the morning (no, just to clarify, NOT VEGAN).
On the way home, I didn't say anything because by this time I was convinced I must have somehow made a mistake and the VGML meal (I carefully checked the label each time I was handed a meal tray) wasn't intended to be vegan. On the way out, I did ask the flight attendants a couple of times about whether something was vegan or whether they had any soy creamer (I was given some once, so surely they had more somewhere, right?), and they were very nice, but clueless. They seemed to have no idea what the VGML description signified or what a vegan meal involved.
All of this was annoying and frustrating, but ultimately not fatal. But what about people with food allergies? If an attendant makes a mistake and hands me some yoghurt (and I'm stupid enough to eat it, which I wasn't), then there's no real harm done. If they do the same to someone with a nut or dairy allergy, the results could be very different.
Conclusion: airlines are increasingly offering a range of special meal options for people with a variety of dietary requirements based on health, ethics and lifestyle choices. If they are going to do this efficiently, they need to do their research and train their staff properly, so that passengers can feel assured that they are actually being fed in accordance with their requirements.
I will be contacting Etihad to let them know how disappointed I was with their service in this respect. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what else I could do to counteract this widespread problem?
ETA May 2012: This post has been hit by spammers, so I am now disabling comments. If you have anything to say to me about the post, please feel free to do so using the contact info listed in my user info.
Before I go into details, let me say that although I'm talking here about Etihad, I have had similar experiences with Emirates, British Airways, Qantas and Virgin over the past few years. Never once have I travelled between the UK and Australia without being served something that contravened my request for a vegan meal, although this is almost invariably offered as an option.
So yes, this time we flew with Etihad. As always, I was careful to request a special meal with my booking, in this case the "VGML - VEGETARIAN MEAL". Etihad states that this option Does not contain any meat, fish or animal by-products e.g. animal fat in biscuits etc.
There is a separate "VLML - LACTO-OVO VEGETARIAN MEAL" for vegetarians, i.e. people who eat eggs and dairy products but not meat.
I was a tiny bit worried about the description "vegetarian meal", so called Etihad to clarify and was informed that yes, my VGML option was vegan.
On the first leg, from Sydney to Abu Dhabi, I was pretty impressed. Everything seemed in order and the food was pretty tasty. I was even given soy creamer to use in my tea, a rare treat on aeroplanes (I say this with just a tiny bit of irony. Soy creamer may not be the nicest thing in the world, but it's much better than nothing).
However, it was downhill from there. On the next flight, from Abu Dhabi to London, I was served yoghurt, and DAIRY creamer. The margarine offered with my bread was Flora; I can't be sure about this, because there were no ingredients on the tub, but when I've checked Flora margarines in supermarkets, they have always contained a small amount of dairy.
I was served at least one more yoghurt, plus some kind of sponge pudding that I'm now fairly certain wasn't vegan (it was shoved at me on the first flight by an attendant and I stupidly took it for granted that it was a special vegan option).
On the flights back from the UK to Sydney via Abu Dhabi, I was served another tub of yoghurt, Flora was always the margarine option, and there was no salad dressing and no creamer of any kind. *sadface* This left me with the salady bit and the main meal section - which was always tasty, but how could I be certain that these sections were vegan when the rest of the meal clearly wasn't?
As for those random snacks they wake you up for in the middle of the night, not once was I offered a vegan alternative, unless you count the attendant who blithely handed me an egg sandwich at one in the morning (no, just to clarify, NOT VEGAN).
On the way home, I didn't say anything because by this time I was convinced I must have somehow made a mistake and the VGML meal (I carefully checked the label each time I was handed a meal tray) wasn't intended to be vegan. On the way out, I did ask the flight attendants a couple of times about whether something was vegan or whether they had any soy creamer (I was given some once, so surely they had more somewhere, right?), and they were very nice, but clueless. They seemed to have no idea what the VGML description signified or what a vegan meal involved.
All of this was annoying and frustrating, but ultimately not fatal. But what about people with food allergies? If an attendant makes a mistake and hands me some yoghurt (and I'm stupid enough to eat it, which I wasn't), then there's no real harm done. If they do the same to someone with a nut or dairy allergy, the results could be very different.
Conclusion: airlines are increasingly offering a range of special meal options for people with a variety of dietary requirements based on health, ethics and lifestyle choices. If they are going to do this efficiently, they need to do their research and train their staff properly, so that passengers can feel assured that they are actually being fed in accordance with their requirements.
I will be contacting Etihad to let them know how disappointed I was with their service in this respect. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what else I could do to counteract this widespread problem?
ETA May 2012: This post has been hit by spammers, so I am now disabling comments. If you have anything to say to me about the post, please feel free to do so using the contact info listed in my user info.