Take, for example, the recent incident involving a vegan "meal" served to a business class passenger on a Japan Airlines flight. The passenger had made sure to order his vegan meal ahead of time, noting that it included a banana. However, upon receiving his meal, he found that it was just that: a solitary banana.
Now, while the passenger did mention that it was one of the tastiest bananas he had had in a while, it's hard not to see the humor in the situation. Perhaps there's a silver lining after all...
From The New York Post:
Kris Chari was traveling from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Tokyo when he ordered the vegan meal for the seven-hour flight.
Chari reported his disappointing meal on the air travel forum FlyerTalk, saying he had thought it was a pre-breakfast snack — not the entire 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,” Chari wrote on Feb. 21. “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 then told a flight attendant he was “frankly quite shocked” to learn that the banana was a catered meal.
“It’s a bit insulting to be served a single banana while others are given a far more substantial and flavorful menu,” he told Insider. “It seems especially important given the growth in the number of vegans and vegetarians.”
Yes, there were two meal services during the flight, a snack and light refreshment and lunch.
However, the much heartier “snack” options for non-vegans was seared tuna with a Moroccan eggplant salad, cheese with orange salsa and a baguette, according to the airline’s menu.
Although Chari admitted it was a “really good banana” — in fact “one of the best” he’d eaten recently — the confused passenger was still appalled it was classified as an entire meal.
“It still seems more appropriate as a snack,” they wrote. “Is catering out of [Soekarno–Hatta International Airport] typically this underwhelming?”
