Gluten Free Flying

My experiences of flying gluten free.

Gluten Free Renaissance Hotel, Denver

Oct
16
By Laura

My delicious salad

Free of gluten

Last week on our way home from Des Moines, our one hour layover in Denver turned into a 12 hour layover when our flight was cancelled out of the blue. With nothing we could do but wait until the early morning flight, due to a strange lack of alternative flights heading in our direction, we took our complimentary vouchers for $15 of food and a room at the Renaissance Hotel. We could spend the vouchers at either the airport or the hotel. We decided to give finding a gluten free option at the hotel a shot. I wasn’t too hopeful but I was happily surprised by what I found. (more…)

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Tips For Flying Gluten Free

Aug
25
By Laura

A mile high gluten free meal!

Air travel can be stressful for coeliacs but with the right preparation getting to your destination need not cause any unnecessary anxiety. Unfortunately more often than not travelling by air is an unavoidable part of international, and frequently domestic, travel. As a result we must always go into it prepared and aware that the world of airports and mile high snacking is filled with expensive gluten. I was filled with anxiety prior to the first few flights I took as a coeliac as I was inexperienced, unprepared and didn’t know what to expect. I’ve since learned a few things, through experience and making lots of mistakes (isn’t that always the way!), which keep me satisfied and anxiety free no matter what the gluten free meal situation when I travel by air. Hopefully my tips for flying gluten free will help you to prepare and relax on your next gluten free flight.

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Gluten Free Flying within the US

Jan
21
By Laura

Next week I’m flying from Oakland to Philadelphia. This trip involves a 2 hour flight to Phoenix, Arizona followed by a 4.5 hour flight to Philadelphia. I called US Airways to order my gluten free meal only to discover that this is not an option. Gluten free meals are only available on international flights apparently! This could be seen as acceptable if we were talking about flights within a small country like the UK but in a country which is more than 3000 miles wide and takes 6 hours to fly coast to coast this is insane! (more…)

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Gluten Free Continental

May
06
By Laura

Last week we booked our flights to Argentina…we fly from Houston to Buenos Aires in August. I just called to book my gluten free meal and after listening to five minutes of recorded information on the recent merger with US Airways a lovely woman answered and changed my meal to a gluten free one. Let’s see what delights Continental Airlines have to offer…

UPDATE: I am pleased to say that I got my gluten free meal on the flight from Houston to Buenos Aires without any problems.

Gluten Free dinner

Blackened chicken

It was an overnight flight so we were served dinner as soon as we reached cruising altitude. As appears to be the norm, ‘special meals’ were served first and I was almost finished eating before the rest of the flight were served. I got blackened chicken with rice, green beans and a roll, a small quinoa salad and a chocolate chip cookie. The chicken dish was pretty tasty, as was the cookie. In the morning, less than an hour before landing, I got a small cup of Dole fruit and a muffin for breakfast.

Quinoa salad

Muffin and fruit salad for breakfast

UPDATE: I am disappointed to report than on my return flight from Buenos Aires to Houston, Continental Airlines forgot my gluten free meal. No special meal had been ordered for me and on an 11 hour flight where passengers are served both dinner and breakfast I wasn’t very happy about their mistake.

One of the staff came to my rescue with a sweet potato meant for her own dinner. She had purchased said sweet potato earlier in the day and wrapped it in foil ready to be heated up. She offered it to me and I accepted. This has to have been the strangest meal I’ve eaten at 35,000 feet! I still wasn’t too pleased that they had forgotten my special meal but I wasn’t going to starve and my potato tasted great along with the free glass of wine I asked for and received :-)

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You can’t bring that on the plane!

Mar
30
By Laura

It’s been established that some airlines are Coeliac friendly and others not so much when it comes to ordering and getting a 100% gluten free meal. I am interested in finding out how other Coeliacs find travelling by air when they try to get their own food onto the flight.

Whether or not I have a gluten free meal ordered, on a long-haul flight I like to bring some of my own food just in case. I don’t want to find myself stuck for hours without anything safe to eat if something goes wrong. Most of the time I pack fruit (especially bananas and oranges) and seed and nut bars. On a couple of occasions after being diagnosed, I tried to take yoghurt but was told that I couldn’t bring this onto the flight. I tried both putting the yoghurt into my hand luggage and also putting it into the clear plastic bag to show security but whatever I did I was told to either put it in the bin or eat it before going back through security. Am I ridiculous for even trying to take my dangerous, threatening yoghurts through security? Does anyone have any tips on the best gluten free food to take on flights?

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Gluten Free with Aer Lingus?

Mar
22
By Laura

I am flying to New York with Aer Lingus in May. We finally booked our flights yesterday after debating who to fly with and chose Aer Lingus for a few reasons: We don’t have to back track to London or Amsterdam, flight times are good and decently priced, we have flown with them before and enjoyed the flights and they offer gluten free meals…

You can’t select your gluten free meal when booking the way you can with Virgin for example but there is a phone number to call if you need to make any special  meal requests. It’s a 10p a minute number so I made the call at work and I’m glad I did because I was on hold for 10 minutes before anyone answered.  The woman who answered asked for my booking reference, confirmed my name and asked if it was just me who wanted a gluten free meal. She then put me on hold for another few minutes before confirming that a gluten free meal had been ordered on both my outbound and return flights. I was a bit concerned at this point considering I had only booked a one way flight!?! I told her this and she said she wasn’t sure what she was looking at but my meal on the Dublin-JFK flight would be gluten free. I’ll keep you updated on how this goes….

My special meal

My special meal

UPDATE: I am happy to report that I got my gluten free meal as requested on my Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to JFK. Around an hour into

My gluten free lunch

My gluten free lunch

the flight it was lunch time and as all of the ‘special people’ are served first, I received my ‘Gluten Free Coeliac meal’ of chicken in a tomato sauce with rice and veggies, a small salad, melon and a gluten free roll. Most of the meal was tasty and more importantly gluten free as I felt great afterwards. The roll was pretty rubbish and quite clearly gluten free as it was as hard as a brick but I was pleased with the rest of my meal.

Later on in the flight we were given a ‘light snack’ of a scone with butter and jam. At first I thought they had

In-flight gluten free scone

In-flight gluten free scone

forgotten about me but a few minutes later a gluten free version of the same thing was put in front of me. Much tastier than the earlier bread and far less obviously gluten free, I happily munched on my gluten free scone whilst listening to Bon Jovi and playing mindless in flight games.

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KLM and their ‘special meal’

Oct
15
By Laura

I was travelling on my first gluten free flight less than a week after being diagnosed. It was a KLM flight from Glasgow to Chicago with a change of plane in Amsterdam. A couple of days before the flight my boyfriend had called the airline to try to change my meal to gluten free. Our flight had been advertised as an NWA flight but operated by KLM. The woman on the other end of the phone was very nice and understanding of my situation, saying that her own brother was a Coeliac and ‘making sure I get a gluten free meal when I travel is very important.’ After checking our booking, she returned with the news that as it was KLM who were operating our flight, they don’t actually provide gluten free meals and would I like a fruit plate? Admittedly I do love my fruit but seriously, this is all they could offer me on an 8 hour trans-atlantic flight? I of course said I would take the fruit plate as the prospect of sitting with nothing whilst everyone was munching on their dinner didn’t sound like fun to me. Also, the last 5 or 6 flights I’d taken had been with cheap airlines who didn’t provide food and I was determined that if I was paying for something to eat on this flight then I would get it!

I came well prepared for both flights to and from the States with seed bars, bananas, rice cakes and other gluten free snacks as I didn’t want to have to rely on my fruit plate. It turned out to be an ok plate of fruit, more so on the return flight where they had invested in a more interesting variety but if I hadn’t brought my own nibbles I would have been starving! Personally, I am a huge fan of fruit anyway but any fussy or hungry Coeliac probably wouldn’t have been very impressed by KLM’s ‘special meal’.

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