'Special' meal requirements in UC

Hi all

In March I have my first UCS trip as I used up some miles to get a G fare.

As a vegan I obviously make sure I've pre booked that type of meal.
But how are these kind of requests handled in UC? I.e. the Freedom menu goes out of the window - I can hardly request them to knock up some marinaded tofu or a little quinoa, perhaps.
So do they just load on the usual economy special meals?

And if I might chuck in another question - in terms of the LHR Clubhouse, is each person (we're both on G tickets) limited to 1 treatment each? Or would my girlfriend be able to get, say, a haircut and another treatment?

Thanks in advance

Andy

[Scrooge]

Im sure when Pete(resident veggie)get's back he will be more than happy to give you the full low down on ordering special meal in UC.

[Nottingham Nick]

I stand to be corrected, but I am sure that I have read in the past that the 'special meals' provided to meet religious or dietary considerations are the same in all three classes.

It may be that this was just for the Kosher meals. [?]

Obviously there are a number of veggie options, but I would think that the vegan selection would be more limited.

Nick

The special meals in Upper Class are NOT the same as the ones found in Economy.

On a typical East Coast flight the caterers will load Lunch and Afternoon Tea.

Hope this helps.

[Decker]

It's pleasing to hear that this has changed Declan as when paying for my Jewish staff to travel UC it was always a point of annoyance that they received a coach kosher meal.

This was discussed at some length here when SindyLou made the same claim that special meals were different in UC. When did this change? Or did you mean that some non-religious special meals are different in UC?

The Kosher meals in Upper Class have always been different to those that I have seen in Economy from what I can remember in my experience.

The white Upper Class tray comes totally sealed.

[ChuckC]

Hi Andy,
Virgin's current special meal descriptions can be found here. Meals may either be requested online or by ringing VS' Special Assistance folks.

Chuck-

[Decker]

Thanks Declan - that might explain the misunderstanding - he was served the meal on a white plastic tray. We had assumed that it would be "uppered" onto plates and trays! He described the quality as being the same as his PE flights.

I'm not sure about Vegan meals but when you request a childrens meal in UC you simply get a standard childrens economy meal which has been taken off the tray and put onto plates. I had assumed the same was true of all special meal requests.

Originally posted by Decker
Thanks Declan - that might explain the misunderstanding - he was served the meal on a white plastic tray. We had assumed that it would be "uppered" onto plates and trays! He described the quality as being the same as his PE flights.

I'd guess that any re-plating, removal from the wrapping, or additional and unnecessary handling of the food by the cabin crew may affect it's kosher-ness?

Whereas, on El-Al for example, their galley procedures have probably been developed under appropriate Rabbinical supervision, so it's acceptable for their crews to carry out portioning/plating/presentation of food on the aicraft.

Cheers,
Mike

The only time I ever flew Upper Class (last November) I had a really good kosher meal, ensconsed in many layers of plastic wrap! Most definitely NOT from economy or PE!

My trip report from then is here:

http://www.v-flyer.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3666

I truly hope this is still the case, as I shall be flying Upper Class again at the end of January.

[Decker]

Thanks for that Mike - knowing my colleague he probably just didn't realise he'd had better quality food!