As a vegetarian, I always order a “special meal” on flights and on my recent trip to Hong Kong this was no exception. Some airlines are better than others with their offerings. When given the choice, I choose an “Asian Indian Vegetarian Meal” which often is a vegan offering which is fine by me.

On my flight from Christchurch to Sydney on the first leg of our journey to Hong Kong, we were served breakfast. I always struggle with airline breakfasts.  Serve me curry and I’m good, but the often revolting plain egg omelette, wilted spinach and veggie sausages usually served… well lets just say I wouldn’t feed it to my dogs…

This flight wasn’t much of an exception.  Soggy hashbrowns, with baked beans, hardly cooked tomato, wilted spinach and some type of veggie sausage which tasted like a crayola crayon. Actually, I suspect the crayon would have tasted better.

Worst still, the yogurt served, when reading the container contained gelatine. Gelatine is not a vegetarian friendly product. Very disappointing when you consider the contents of the tray should be “safe” to eat for anyone with that particular dietary requirement.

Sure, it wouldn’t kill me, or even make me sick and its not for my religious beliefs but for some, this maybe a major issue – a Hindu for example wouldn’t be very impressed when ordering this meal to discover they had consumed a product derived from a dead cow. I’d let them away with this but its not the first time this has happened to me on a flight, I’m not sure if its the airline at fault or the ground catering crew not checking ingredients carefully enough.

Oh you have a nut allergy? Sorry about the satay sauce… Jewish or Muslim? How was your ham and cheese croissant?

Coming off this flight while we waited to board for Hong Kong I tweeted Qantas Customer Service, they responded saying they would investigate – a good response.  Let’s hope they fix it.

The meal out of Sydney was the complete opposite, it was a delicious (vegan) meal. A simple spinach salad with vinagerette, a vegetable curry with rice, bread roll with margarine spread and packaged vegan Anzac biscuits. Very tasty!

These two meals couldn’t have been more different in terms of quality.

Snacks were available along with soft drinks to help yourself during the flight.  Sea salt and balsamic biscotti – very tasty!  I noticed Air New Zealand did this on another long haul flight recently too.  It is nice to help yourself when you want a snack.

Towards the end of the flight, they served me a spicy bean toasted sandwich.  It was ok, a little soggy.  The rest of the passengers got a tomato and mushroom pizza slice which looked pretty good too.

It will be interesting to see what they serve on our flights home.

Rating 4/10