Let’s take a look at the proliferation of passengers ordering special meals and why it has reached a boiling point for Lufthansa flight attendants.
Lufthansa Flight Attendants Upset Over Special Meals
Lufthansa serves complimentary meals in economy class on its longhaul flights and in addition to a standard menu featuring a pair of choices, offers a number of special meals:
- gluten intolerant
- low cholesterol
- low sodium
- lactose intolerant
- vegan
- vegetarian
- Asian vegetarian
- Jain vegetarian
- Kosher
- Muslim
- Hindu
- children
- baby
As flagged by One Mile At A Time, flight attendants have noted a sharp increase in the quantity of special meals ordered on Lufthansa flights. In fact, flight attendants report that on some fights there are close to 200 special meals ordered (and routinely more than 100 ordered). The capacity of Lufthansa widebody jets ranges from 255 on the Airbus A330 to 509 on the Airbus A380.
Typically, special meals are served first, then the rest of the cabin is served. That becomes quite complicated when there are so many special meals ordered. To further complicate matters, flight attendants complain that these meals are not marked with a seat number and that creates a lot more work in trying to match the special meal with the passenger who ordered it.
Lufthansa flight attendants suggest limiting the number of special meals that can be ordered on a flight (not practical) or charging extra for them (probably not practical).
Should Special Meals Cost Extra?
What piqued my interest is that Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) already charges for special meals in economy class:
Frankly, I am not sure how SAS gets away with this. Denmark is part of the European Union and I would think that EU disability or religious liberty laws would prohibit discriminating against such passengers by charging them more for food (this is not my area of expertise, though…I’d welcome your comments below).
In any case, there is no easy fix…and flight attendants are reasonable in noting that all the special meal orders have greatly complicated meal service.
My Solution: Start With Better Standard Food
I order special meals all the time…not for religious or dietary needs, but because they often taste better. And of course I’m not alone.
I think the first solution would be to improve the standard meals…such that there is less of an incentive to order a special meal. For example, on JetBlue I never order a special meal because the “regular” choices are routinely excellent.
Second, I think there should always be a vegan choice amongst the standard menu. That would check off a lot of boxes for those who are vegetarian for strict vegetarian. It could also satisfy certain religious meals as well. If (like on British Airways), 4-5 special meals were actually the same dish, it would uncomplicated the distribution of such meals for flight attendants.
On flights to India, Lufthansa should have Indian vegetarian meals as one of the standard options. Same with Kosher meals on flights to Israel.
Third, Lufthansa should certainly make it easier for flight attendants by affixing cards to each special meal with the passenger’s name and seat number. Yes, seat numbers do change, but most airlines do this and that also greatly simplifies the distribution of these special meals. Ideally, they could be organized on a trolly such they they would not have to be taken out and served first, but could be served with the rest of the airplane.
CONCLUSION
I understand the gripe of Lufthansa flight attendants over the proliferation of special meals onboard. If more than half the flight is ordering them and the meals are not well-organized in the galley, it does create a logistical headache and a lot more work.
While I don’t think Lufthansa is going to be able to copy SAS and charge for special meals, I do think it can better organize such meals and reduce orders by offering better “regular” food including a vegan choice standard on all flights with meal service.
image: Lufthansa
I’m sure they’ll use this as another reason to strike for the 99th time in the past 12 months.
I wonder if they started serving special meals last instead of first how many people would switch back to the standard meal options. 🙂
We have a winner!
It would be more work for the crew to deal with hypoglycemia episodes from diabetic pax. Vegan meals usually heat faster than frozen animal protein dishes.
Perhaps there could be a meal that meets more than one specification, such as a vegetarian, low cholesterol, low sodium, lactose intolerant meal.
You do realize this is how airlines make their money? A mediocre meal and free booze will guarantee Joe Sixpack picks you over a marginally cheaper competitor, especially if it’s more than six hours to the nearest bar.
Now, the idea that “special meals go first” just like “wheelchairs board first” needs some management to take care of exploitation. Someone who’s disabled surely has enough problems, and special diets aren’t great either (please tell me those 200 special meals aren’t on the TLV-FRA flight), and the food is worse.
There is, at least one airline actually have steam vegetables for all the above meal request. And you get a banana for a kosher meal.
Funny enough, they all meet the dietary requirements of the meal.
Don’t take special meals for granted or believe too much what you saw on the internet.
On some 3rd world airlines, you get nothing special.
Fly Delta. They offer an elite product and the quality of their meals far exceeds that of any competitor.
How dare you make fun of my daddy! Go fly AA or Spirit, the universe’s #1 premium airline doesn’t want your business!
Of all things to charge for, a children’s meal? Wow.
I keep saying that people need to stop treating planes as an entertainment location. It is a mode of transportation and not a bar or restaurant where you go to eat and drink. Serve water and have a fee items for purchase for those that did not bring their own food and that’s about it. No need for fancy drinks, special meals, coffee with cream, etc… Sit back, relax and enjoy your flight!!
Sounds like you’d enjoy flying as cargo.
The airlines need to lead by taking the step to stop promoting such things. Somehow I doubt anyone wants to be the first one into that minefield…
On topic of this LH post… I don’t see why they couldn’t charge some nominal fee and not run afoul of the law. Restaurants commonly have a surcharge for, say, gluten-free bread/rolls. Or charge different for having a veggie burger. Not nearly to the extreme cost that SAS has taken…
Dude, who cares for bad processed food and cheap booze. I fly to get from point A to point B and not to eat or drink. Unless you fly one of the top Asian or ME airlines in first or business class the expectation you will eat or drink anything decent is close to none.
People do need to sustain themselves on 20+ hour trips (it’s not just the flight – they will often be queuing at security/passport control/customs, waiting for luggage, running across the terminal to make a connection etc) and you don’t want lots of them bringing their durians, mackerels, and big bags of allergen-laden nuts onboard. Buy on board is also notoriously difficult to manage – in fact, my first flight ever on easyJet was a huge disappointment as they could only sell me Pringles on a 4-hour segment after I had spent another couple of hours getting to the airport with a change of trains and generally no access to real food. There really aren’t any good solutions apart from selling premium meals on a pre-order basis like SAS (and LOT) do- but even then, infrequent travellers won’t necessarily know that the facility is available.
“Sounds like you’d enjoy flying as cargo.”
Seriously.
Er, you realize this is a blog dedicated to those who prefer to fly in status and even fly “mileage runs” to qualify for status? They aren’t the “spirit air” cargo type. I personally view flying as special so I love the meals and service from the FA’s.
All that said, I’m amused that folks are slowly discovering the travel hack of ordering special meals. I discovered the Fruit meal on some airlines and it tasted great and I arrived at my destination refreshed. My wife has considered trying the Kosher meal but I also read that sometimes it’s prepackaged and not all that great.
I think it would be great if passengers could at least state their preference in advance for the NORMAL meals so they could stock up meat versus vegetarian options in advance during check-in.
In the case of
“No need for fancy drinks, special meals, coffee with cream, etc… Sit back, relax and enjoy your flight!!”
Eh, that only works for short haul flights…maybe. Otherwise between waiting at the airport and flights of 3 hours or more (others might have a different time limit), there is nothing wrong with expecting food to be served on a plane.
How about manage expectations? Do you think the list of special meals listed above is sustainable? How about adding ethnic foods? Maybe hispanic, middle eastern, e, Mediterranean? Maybe cage free chicken, grass fed beef, cauliflower crust pizza? If a passenger is so special, bring your own food? Serve a vegetarian, an animal protein and a pasta meal and that’s it. Don’t like it? Too bad.
“Do you think the list of special meals listed above is sustainable?”
Yes.
“How about adding ethnic foods? Maybe hispanic, middle eastern, e, Mediterranean?”
Already included in the menus of many airlines, actually. Anyone who flies on a regular basis would know this.
“Maybe cage free chicken, grass fed beef, cauliflower crust pizza?”
Why not?
“If a passenger is so special, bring your own food?”
Don’t be a dummy, the airline does that on longer routes.
“Serve a vegetarian, an animal protein and a pasta meal and that’s it. Don’t like it? Too bad.”
I’ve never seen anyone so triggered by giving people more choices in ordering their meals. Well, except the LH FAs. Are we sure you’re not really one of them?
“Lufthansa should certainly make it easier for flight attendants by affixing cards to each special meal with the passenger’s name and seat number”
Duh! Lufthansa must be the only airline that does not already do this. What happened to renowned German prcision and efficiency? Every special meal I’ve ordered on other airlines has a sticker with my name (not just seat number) on it when they bring it to me.
And as someone who routinely orders special meals, I wish the special meals were served last. I do not like having my meal dropped off on my tray in advance before the real meal service begins, because I am never offered anything to drink with it. For that I have to wait until the meal and drinks cart service for all the other passengers reaches my row, by which time my meal is cold.
“On flights to India, Lufthansa should have Indian vegetarian meals as one of the standard options”.
They already do this on all India routes and even some of the North America routes with heavy India flow traffic. However VFR passengers that fly these routes regularly have been trained over the years to always order an AVML special meal, as they don’t want to end up with a bland pasta or no vegetarian meal at all.
Ideally airlines should have an automated way to check if one of their regular meals on the route meets the special meal requirement, and load extra regular meals accordingly. 9W used to do this on their long-haul routes.
Shouldn’t the flight attendants be more upset with Verdi permitting the ground staff to strike yet again for three days? If they keep this up they won’t have any meals to serve to anyone.
Couldn’t agree more! I just missed the last strike by one day! on the fence about flying Lufthansa for future flights! This needs to get resolved asap!
This is exactly why airlines should encourage tipping of flight attendants. I promise you that special meal delivery duties would immediately become a highly sought after role.
I don’t really see the problem here.
Add cards to all meals (i am pretty sure i saw my seat number the last time i had a special meal but i could be wrong), print a list and that’s it.
And maybe serve special meals after the standard meals are served. I don’t really care in economy but if it helps solving this issue…
The point is more, that in Y on some routes about 150 persons are ordering special meals, mainly as they believe that they are better than beef or pasta or that they get their food quicker.
Secondly, the logistic of the special meals is super badly managed. The meal only shows the name, NOT the seat number. So with 150 meals, the FA must check every name wiht the PAX list and bring this to the seat – this is not productive at all…..
So the underlaying issue is that the main meals are bad (which I can confirm), the service is poor/slow, leading to the fact that pax are trying to make more for them……
I would suggest that SAS are only getting away with charging for special dietary meals until they are challenged in court on this one. There have been other instances where the airline has lost – disability discrimination over wheelchairs at Ryanair is one that springs immediately to mind where O’Liary wanted to charge for a wheelchair and he’s not allowed. to. The same can easily happen over meals and the ECJ would almost certainly take exactly the same view over dietary needs.
I see that none of the meals listed on the SAS screenshot are RELIGIOUS special meals – just vegetarian and its variants (although plenty of Hindus are vegetarian butI see that ‘bog standard VGML isn’t dislayed either). No Kosher or Halal shown.
I see that none of the meals listed on the SAS screenshot are RELIGIOUS special meals – just vegetarian and its variants (although plenty of Hindus are vegetarian but I see that ‘bog standard VGML isn’t displayed either). No Kosher or Halal shown.
SAS dietary restriction meals don’t cost extra. They’re free. The ones you posted are the extra/special/upgraded meals they offer. I can’t imagine airlines starting to charge us for dietary restriction meals…but then again some charge for carryon bags lol
I haven’t checked to see if anything changed, but SAS absolutely charged extra for dietary meals during my 2023 trip.