Business-Class Passenger Served Single Banana With Chopsticks For Vegan Meal Option On Flight

Mar 10, 2023 by apost team

Flying can be a stressful experience for any number of reasons. Whether you're a nervous flyer, traveling with kids, or simply not accustomed to the ins and outs of plane travel, there's a lot that can be unnerving when you're 36,000 feet in the air.

While plane food doesn't necessarily have a great reputation, when traveling on a long-haul flight, it's assumed that you will at least be fed. However, as one Japan Airlines (JAL) customer found out the hard way, a full meal isn't always guaranteed.

Kris Chari took a flight from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Tokyo, Japan, which was expected to last over seven hours in February 2023. Seated in business class, Chari had ordered the vegan food option, which was confirmed by a flight attendant before takeoff. The flight was expected to have a snack/light meal served, followed by a more substantial lunch.

However, when the light meal was served, Chari was shocked to realize his vegan meal only consisted of a banana, while other passengers had a much larger offering. The passenger posted about the incident on the forum Flyer Talk alongside a photo of his meager meal. "Before takeoff today my flight attendant confirmed that I ordered VGML and that my breakfast was a banana, by which I mistakenly assumed she meant that breakfast included a banana," he wrote.

"When she served the banana after takeoff I thought it was just an underwhelming appetizer, but it was in fact the entire meal service!" Chari added.

Other passengers who did not specify a vegan option were served cheese with orange salsa, seared tuna with a Moroccan-style eggplant salad and a baguette.

Chari said he was "frankly quite shocked" with his underwhelming food option and added:

"It's a bit insulting to be served a single banana while others are given a far more substantial and flavorful menu. ... It seems especially important given the growth in the number of vegans and vegetarians."

Despite his disappointment, he showed off his sense of humor when he wrote, "It was a really good banana — one of the best I've had recently — but it still seems more appropriate as a snack." He ended his original post by asking other users on the forum whether catering from his departure airport was "typically this underwhelming?"

The second meal Chari was served on his long-haul flight was spaghetti, which he described as "barely seasoned." Other passengers were served a cheese omelet, ratatouille and chicken sausage on the airline's Western menu, or grilled salmon on the Japanese menu. Chari lamented that his other meals served on JAL flights "were also bad, but nothing was quite as insubstantial (as) this." Nevertheless, the passenger saw one positive in the situation: 

"It was cute of the crew to serve the banana with chopsticks, though!"

Chari didn't expect his post to make waves, but soon enough, his story blew up and went viral. JAL even made a statement on the blunder, as a representative for the airline told Insider:

"We apologize for not being able to meet expectations. ... We will continue to respond to our menus in light of the growing interest and diverse needs of customers requesting special meals, including the valuable feedback from this customer."

JAL's website lists a vegetarian/vegan option that features a sample photo with salad bowls, a larger rice dish, a baguette and halal sorbet.

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What do you think about the "meal" passenger Kris Chari was served on his flight? Do you have any similar stories? Let us know, then pass this on so others can read about it too.