Who do you choose to fly with and why?

**ALR** · 29-12-2006, 15:58

Hi

As you may have noticed from my previous postings we have had a bit of hassle with Virgin flights on our last trip so I am looking to change our carrier for our next trip. However, I need to be able to book coeliac special meals inflight and the BA website doesn't provide them. Any recommendations anyone?

Thanks
ALR

**LiesaAnna** · 29-12-2006, 16:22

we went with (only cos it was cheaper) AIR ATLANTA, 747 it was XL had loaned them a plane apparently , last september, and the service was fantastic!!! we sat up the front of the plane, had bags of legroom and a brilliant flight! last part i was ill and again they really tried to help me,
on way home we had something a lot smaller, apparently it was more commmonly used for 4 hour flights, leather look seats etc, they used 2 planes to ship us all home and we had so much room, we were able to push the front seats forward to put legs up, it was great
having said that i think we prefer Virgin but only cos of the name? had reasonably good service last time we used them but very unhelpful when we tried booking seats! not the best of air hostesses, not as polite as i wouldve expected or as friendly but am not paying for that! just to get to florida there and back!

so bascially dont really care as long as its not to expensive!

**trevlad** · 29-12-2006, 16:42

i know this subject has been looked at before with different attitudes to paying lots of money for the flight or having to stopover 2 or 3 times but for us more often than not we have flown with virgin, but last couple of flights had dodgy planes with no video games and problems with films not working etc.

last few years for the new york marathon we have gone via a package and ended up with b a. initially gutted at not sneeking the extra virgin miles we have been compensated with excellent food and service, so if i could get a similar price i would go b. a

in saying that our cheap £99 flight with my travel plus an upgrade was equally excellent....

**Macka** · 29-12-2006, 16:47

Yes ALR, no secret we're BA fans and I think you woyuld be well catered for as a coeliac.

Also, continental via NYC are very good.

**E. Cosgrove** · 29-12-2006, 16:59

We usually go Virgin for free using hubbies BMI airmiles that he accrues on business trips, haven't paid for a flight for ages so not sure who I would use if I had to!!
Did get a great deal and excellent service with US airways a couple of years ago[msnsmile2]
Have used airmiles for Lufthansa via Frankfurt to Miami as well and that worked out nicely too[msnsmile2]

**pieman790** · 29-12-2006, 17:57

We have done quite a few routes from Manchester inc Virgin US Airways, AA, BMI, BA Etc. We usually fly at least twice a year so for us it goes down to price. We tend to use BMI via Chicago and IMHO they compare very much to Virgins standards but on a negative side you have the Chicago detour. For us the detour is worth it as on our Summer visit it was over £900 cheaper to fly with BMI rather than Virgin.
We also got upgraded free of charge to PE including the kids as we are Frequent flyers with BMI.

**Carla** · 29-12-2006, 19:58

I think that in this case you may need to decide whether the meal or the flight/service/reliability is more important. It is probably unlikely that any of the charters flying into Sanford will do very special meals (I don't know this forcertain though), so that probably leaves you with the scheduled airlines.

I can't help here with which ones will do a coeliac suitable meal, but if only Virgin do such meals, would it be possible for you to fly with another airline and get around this problem yourselves by taking suitable food with you? Is some of the food served by the airlines suitable?

Could you perhaps contact BA and find out which of the special meals that they do is closest to a coeliac suitable meal? I have always found BA to be very helpful and would fly with them any day rather than Virgin. BA and Virgin are the only two scheduled airlines with a direct service into Central Florida (Orlando for Virgin and Orlando & Tampa for BA). If you are prepared to fly via an indirect route then you could also look at all of the American based airlines, or maybe get to Amsterdam and fly KLM.

**ShirleyD** · 29-12-2006, 20:19

The problem these days with our compensation culture is that airlines are scared to offer medical meals incase they are 'contaminated' in any way. They no longer provide the food themselves, this is done by a contractor and an errror in labelling or content could leave them open to a large loss. There are also restrictions on heating food provided by you in commercial ovens.
I would think that the scheduled ailines would be the most helpful. Ring BA and see what they say. Otherwise, why not pack a luxury pic-nic for you all on the next trip. All airline food is pretty basic anyway and you will probably get jealous looks from other travellers [msnwink]

29-12-2006, 21:20

As far as I am aware BA still offer 20 special meals..........

Special Meals
If you have special dietary requirements, you can let us know in advance and we will provide you with a suitable meal. You can request a special or medical meal through Manage My Booking.

Special meals are available to:

all longhaul customers
Club Europe customers
Euro Traveller customers to/from Moscow, Athens, Istanbul, Larnaca, Kiev, Sofia, St Petersburg, Bucharest and Tripoli
If you’re travelling on a standby or waitlist basis you will not be able to request a special meal.

A minimum of 24 hours notice is required for all special meal requests. Unfortunately, variations of the meal request cannot be accepted, as we are unable to guarantee delivery of them across our entire network. Also, requests for specific items such as lobster, steak, caviar, fruit plate made for personal preference cannot be accepted.

DBML Diabetic Meal
BLML Bland Meal
GFML Gluten Free Meal (coeliac)
LSML Low Sodium Meal (no salt added)
LFML Low Cholesterol Meal (low fat)
LCML Low Calorie Meal (weight control)
LPML Low Protein/Potassium Meal
HFML High Fibre Meal
KSML Kosher Meal
PRML Low Purine Meal (uric acid)
NLML Non Lactose Meal (no milk/no dairy)
HNML Hindu Meal
MOML Moslem Meal
CHML Child Meal
BBML Baby Meal
SFML Seafood Meal
FPML Fresh Fruit Plate
VLML Vegetarian Meal (lacto-ovo)
VGML Vegetarian Meal (non dairy)
AVML Asian Vegetarian Meal (Indian)

I am ex BA crew so would always prefer to fly with them[msnwink]