If you preorder a special airline meal (e.g. vegan) just to try it, does this inconvenience the caterers and staff?

Question

Background information

Some people preorder special meals for variety, or just to try them

Some people are vegan. So, when they book a long-haul flight with free meal service, they'll preorder special meals which are vegan. This is fine.

Some other people eat meat every day. But they want to try some vegan airline food, to see if it's any better than regular airline fare. So, when they book their flight, they too will request vegan meals. I wonder whether or not this inconveniences the staff.

Still other people fly often, and preorder special meals for variety.

Special meals may take more work to prepare

One user claims:

"Airlines provide special meals as an accommodation for special needs (religious, medical, etc.), not as an à la carte option. As such, they require you to request special meals directly. This requirement helps to indirectly limit special meals to those who truly need them. If an airline essentially lets passengers order à la carte online, this makes catering the flight more costly and difficult.

"Some airlines do let you save your special-meal needs in your frequent-flyer profile. Others let you choose a special meal while booking. But many airlines require you to phone a call center."

Another user claims:

This burdens the caterers. They must plan the meals in advance, in order to ensure on-time departures.

FlyerTalk user "dia1" chimes in:

"From my observations: It would seem that, if you don't need to inconvenience [caterers and staff] by ordering special meals, it would be best not to. It's a different matter if you really need to."

My questions

A.) How much extra work is it for staff to prepare and serve special meals (e.g. vegan, vegetarian, Asian vegetarian, low-gluten, vegetarian Oriental, baby food, and others)?

B.) If you don't have any dietary restrictions, is it indeed best to avoid ordering special meals when you book your flight?

the Indian vegetarian meals are usually much spicier than any of the regular choices
you get yours first and you know what it's going to be. With a seat at the very back you may find there is no longer any choice by the time the cart of general meals reaches you.
they believe halal or kosher meat is higher quality (of course, some airlines achieve halal by not giving you any meat)
they have a strange allergy (eg all citrus) and staff often don't know what is in the regular meals. For special meals you get full ingredient lists
the parts of a special meal are often individually wrapped and made to be ok at room temperature, making them easier to slip into your bag for later

All of these are perfectly fine. You don't need a "good enough" reason and there is no screening test or certification to prove you're entitled to a special meal.

The only downside is that the staff hand deliver the special meals one by one to each person who ordered them. You are thus causing about as much extra work for the crew as if you ever ding your call bell, even by accident. This is not overtly selfish of you.

The downside for you is that sometimes you get a banana and an apology from the crew. Many people have told me the volume of food in special meals can often be less than you would want.

score 15 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 01 '23 at 17:29

I'm not sure if this really is a comment or not.

I would argue that, if the airline has given you the option of ordering a special meal, then you are free to do so.

Airlines generally outsource their meal preparation to caterers. These caterers produce meals in bulk, and not individually. The cost of meal production will be aggregated over multiple flights. There will be an expectation of a certain percentage of passengers on a flight eating each type of meal. These figures will drive what meals are offered on each flight with the airline.

You, as an individual, will not upset the production of special meals, or the airlines' economics of meal supply. Even if every passenger on one flight ordered a special meal, the airline knows this ahead of time and can ramp up production before departure.

So, in my opinion, order what you like. The airline won't question you on the validity of your meal choices.

Flipping your question around: Would you feel bad for not eating any non-special meal that was offered to you? After all, the airline went to great lengths to ensure that it had food available for you.

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 03 '23 at 17:56

Vegan is not a 'special' meal

There's absolutely nothing special in a vegan meal. A vegan meal consists of vegetables, which are a basis for every healthy meal. It just doesn't have meat as an addition. Think of a non-vegan meal as special, because an extra component is added.

Everything about you is an inconvenience to the staff

and they are being paid for dealing with that inconvenience. So don't feel bad about pre-ordering a special meal or using the toilet during your flight (though Ryanair might charge you extra anyway).

Offers are driven by demand

If nobody would take the vegan option, it would disappear. If more people take it, they will prepare more vegan meals in advance. Maybe someday meat will be considered an extra need (and charged extra?)

Willeke · Answer 4 · 2023-03-02T18:35:59.600

It is not bad to order a special meals for each of the reasons mentioned in the other answers (and comments) and use it, as long as you do claim what you ordered, (eat it or not, but do not claim an other meal.)

Sometimes they run out of certain special meals, because not enough were send to the plane for this flight, there is nothing you can do about that (other than if you hear it and you do not really need a special meal, you offer it to the flight attendant.)
But sometimes they run out because people claimed to have ordered a special meal but did not and people who really need the special meal and ordered it have to go without, which is bad. So unless you have ordered a special meal do not claim one.

The price difference between one airline meal and an other will not be huge and sometimes the special meals are cheaper which offsets the ones which are more expensive. That should not be enough of a reason not to order a special meal, airlines can raise ticket costs if it gets out of hand, or downgrade the meals, special or all.

unforgettableidSupportsMonica · Answer 5 · 2023-03-03T02:44:50.827

It probably depends a lot on your airline and your departure airport.

Are you taking a major airline, from one of their hubs? They handle tons of special meal requests every day. One more or one less request won’t make a difference, as long as it's been entered into their computer in time. With a small airline and a small airport, it could be a bigger issue.

Some airlines simplify things by preparing a reduced number of special meals. Each meal type may cover multiple categories of dietary restrictions at once. For example, the vegan meal and the vegetarian meal might both be identical: both meals might actually be made up of the exact same vegan foods.

(Adapted from a comment by jcaron.)