Want Secured Food Accomodation? Fly Business

Hello,

First of all, happy Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it). Hope you had a wonderful time with your family or friends, ate plenty, remembered the history of the day, and kept warm.

Second of all, I am here to vent. Pure, trying to figure out why, for this specific flight (their words), I couldn’t get food accommodation because I wasn’t in business class.

Let me be clear, Copa Airlines is a very good airline. This vent is just about a specific thing that happened to me, and if anyone out there did too, maybe they can clarify their guidelines regarding this issue.

Setting the scene:

For starters, I have a plant-based diet, and I tend to not complain about the ‘lack of food’ for me since I can always figure something out, or I will forget to ask for accommodations ahead of time.

I took a flight with Copa Airlines, Panama to Boston, and I noticed that I could ask for a vegetarian accommodation (I usually seek vegan but I can work with vegetarian).

Note: on my previous flight with them, I couldn’t even find out if they offer those options until I asked at check-in in and by then it was too late.

The Food Accommodation Issue:

Anyhow, I called a week in advance, plenty of times compared to my previous attempts with other airlines, and I was informed I couldn’t have vegetarian accommodations because I wasn’t in business class.

My initial reaction was: what? I paid for the tickets AND seats, what do you mean I need to be in business class for me to have at least a vegetarian option?

Second of all, that’s not how it works (right?). So, the food for airplanes is prepared ahead of time, hence why if you have a dietary accommodation, you have to call at least 24 hours in advance, and even then, it’s considered too close. Meaning, if passenger A, regardless of where they are sitting, will have their meal prepared separately and marked. Yes, they marked the food, and it is delivered to the passenger a couple of minutes before the food and drink trolley passes by.

It doesn’t matter what class you are in!

The customer representative also made a peculiar emphasis that in “this” flight, I can’t make an accommodation. No real explanation as to why.

I managed to eat before the plane took off, and my father gave me the fruits that were in his tray. Thinking about it, I wonder if I could have simply asked for the fruits only. I don’t know.

I’m also wondering if ‘how’ I paid for the tickets plays a matter at hand. I certainly hope not. It seems absurd.

Have any of you experienced something similar? Let me know in the comments~

Btw, I seek vegan options cause I don’t like the taste of eggs and want to avoid dairy if possible. There are other reasons, but I don’t wanna get into them.

No, ever since I learned the difference between vegan and plant-based, I don’t consider myself vegan or vegetarian. I’d be a very imperfect vegan – not that it’s possible to be perfect about it, unless you grow your own food and stuff like that.

Thank you for reading the vent, and if you went through something similar with this airline or a different one, let me know in the comments!
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Happy Holidays

– Ivi