Emirates Airlines

[codetalker]

I had a good experience with Emirates Airlines recently.  I flew from the US to the Maldives and had 2 flights with Emirates in each direction.  The flight from Wash-Dulles (IAD) to Dubai was 13 hrs and had 2 meals.  The flight from Dubai to Male was 4 hrs and had one meal.  Emirates offers several special-request meal types, including gluten-free.

 

The meals were tasty and I did not experience an unwanted glutening.

 

One slight issue occurred on the flights to the Maldives.  The meals served on those flights had 2 components.  The first was the part of the meal that needed to be heated up.  The second was a pack of bread/crackers that was added to each meal after heating.  Someone mistakenly added the pack to my meal.  However, the items included in the pack were clearly marked with an ingredient list so I immediately knew that the items contained wheat. 

 

I’ve encountered this on other flights with other airlines and do not see this as a problem.  People sometimes do things by rote and adding a pack of bread items to each meal tray falls into that category.  When you’re serving meals to hundreds of passengers, it is easy to fall into this trap.  I accept ultimate responsibility for what I put in my mouth and do not consider a bread pack accidentally placed on my tray a negative.  That said, I recognize that other celiacs disagree.

 

Some of the remaining meals contained a slice of bread wrapped in a plastic pack.  Those unfortunately were labeled only with a serial number.  It would have been useful if the wrapping contained labeling that described the type of bread and its ingredients.  Due to the lack of labeling, I passed on the bread, although I was fairly sure the bread was indeed gluten-free.

 

Bottom line, I had a good experience and look forward to flying w/ Emirates Airlines again.

[Saz]

I flew with Emirates last year from Australia to London and Dublin to Aus. I didn't have a problem except from Singapore to Australia. At Singapore airport I had asked to change seats. I informed ground staff that I needed a special meal and was assured the change of seat not effect my meal.  Turns out the change did not go through and my meal was given to someone else. They were able to find me some fruit but I guess the lesson is always check with flight crew.  

 

As far as the gluten-free meals I got, they were edible and I even got a  proper dessert on one of the legs to London. It was a nice change from a extra fruit salad.  On long haul flights I have sometimes gotten a brand of salad dressing or topping for bread that I knew wasn't gluten-free. It's no big deal, if I know it is not safe or suspect so I just don't eat it. Something that does annoy me is the mini snack offered between meals (crackers etc), usually this is not gluten-free and there doesn't seem to be a gluten-free thing offered.

 

Next week flying 14 hours straight with BA, Hope my meal gets loaded!

[codetalker]

Totally overlooked the snack, which you mentioned.  All the years I've been gluten-free, I can't remember ever being offered one that I was sure was OK to eat.  I sometimes take my own snack so it's not a big loss.

[Saz]

I also take my own, more because it gives me something to eat if the meal isn't loaded. I suspose having paid so much for flights it would be nice be provided with the same as everyone else. Also as this is usually like a little bag of chips or something they could easily have ones that are gluten-free and could be given to everyone.   Very minor thing though and would much rather they get the main meal part right than the snacky  thing. I suppose on the flight I did there was only the main meals and snacks so it just meant a bit longer between food if you didn't take your own. Another time I flew to UK, the airline I went with provided a in between service, I got fruit or salad, when other passengers were offered sandwiches biscuits, which was nice. That airline still didn't have any gluten-free for the other little snacky thing though.

 

As I said above- the food I did get on Emirates was fine and edible.