Air Transat Will No Longer Accommodate Your Dietary Restrictions – Except Kosher

You may want to think twice about booking a flight on Air Transat if you have dietary restrictions.

The airline has stopped offering meal accommodations to passengers who require special diets for health or religious reasons.

As part of a menu “revamp,” passengers flying economy class on transatlantic flights are now required to choose from a selection of hot sandwiches that can’t be adapted to account for allergies or other restrictions.

While Air Transat’s EuroBistro menu includes an option for vegetarians and the airline can prepare kosher meals, it won’t offer choices for conditions like gluten-intolerance or offerings that accommodate other religious practices.

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The airline says that those wishing for a special meal can either upgrade to club class or bring their own food on board the flight.

The situation is pretty much the same for for passengers on U.S. or Caribbean flights, who can purchase meals from Air Transat’s menu but are also unable to request most special meal accommodations.

According to the airline, the changes came after customer satisfaction surveys found that passengers were craving more variety in Air Transat’s meal offerings.

As opposed to a choice between the two hot casseroles previously offered, customers now have a selection of six hot sandwiches to choose from in addition to a sushi option for vegetarians, according to Air Transat spokeswoman Debbie Cabana.

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The menu format chosen by Air Transat apparently can’t be modified to the variety of food restrictions among their passengers.

“We did not have the possibility to offer all of the special meals that could be ordered for all our flights,” she said. “There are so many possibilities and there could be so many restrictions that it was not possible for us to respond to all these kinds of allergies or specific needs for food.”

While she has a point, does six of one type of meal really constitute variety? Doesn’t seem to make much sense given that than every third person has a wheat allergy these days.

FAir Canada’s meal selection, meanwhile, features 17 selections, including meals classified as suitable for travellers who are diabetic, gluten-intolerant, Hindu, Muslim, low-calorie and vegetarian.

In a confined space, isn’t it in the best interest of everyone to give a dairy or gluten-intolerant person the options to eat something that won’t upset their stomach?

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