Flying Gluten Free on Aer Lingus with Celiac (Economy)
Dublin is an amazing city and Ireland an amazing country, both for the sights and for their very impressive attitude towards food allergies and intolerances, which made for some wonderful food options on my nearly week-long visit. Flying home after many impressive meals featuring Irish stew, fish and chips, and even tacos (like I said, they’ve got options!) was sad, but I was hopeful Aer Lingus would outpace their cheap-seats reputation and bring some of that same excellence to their gluten free meal.
[Hint: they did not, but from what I saw, no one was writing home about their regular meal either.]
Aer Lingus gluten free overview: 6/10
Ordering a gluten free meal on Aer Lingus
One of the great perks of a cheaper airline is that they try their best to do everything online and avoid phone calls. For special meals on Aer Lingus, that means using a special form on their site. Like just about every airline, requests need to be done well in advance – 48 hours in their case – though I’d suggest doing it as soon as possible to ensure it’s in the system. It took them less than a day to process my request and email back a confirmation of my confirmed GFML (gluten free meal).
What Aer Lingus served on the plane
Not long after takeoff, Aer Lingus began their meal service, coming out in typical economy fashion. Usually when I’ve flown long-haul, someone from the cabin crew stops by early to confirm the special meal, or they bring it out in advance of the main service. Aer Lingus was not aware of my order when they got to my row, but when I mentioned it, they went back, found the tray, and brought it out a few minutes later. Whether they actively tracked down my specific meal or just had a few extras on the plane given the free-from-any allergen approach of what they served up, I couldn’t tell you.
The main tray was 10/10 on safety as everything was wrapped, labeled, and free from just about anything that could impact anyone. The entree was a vegan, vegetarian, lactose-free, Muslim-friendly, and obviously gluten free sweet potato curry served with quinoa, a fake roll of some sort, a muffin, and a small side salad. The sides were fine, nothing special, but certainly safe and edible. The entree itself was unimpressive to put it politely, lacking in both calories and flavor. Free-from-everything meals are rarely a culinary masterpiece, but I’ve had versions that at least tasted exciting; this one had no redeeming attributes beyond being unconditionally safe for me to chomp down on.
A second meal was served up far later in the flight, which looked like a hot-pocket-type sandwich. The fully gluten version didn’t look impressive for anyone on board, and this time when they came by offering me the normal item, I didn’t even bother asking if they had something gluten free in the back and skipped the service. That’s the good thing about packing plenty of snacks; I had much better options ready to go, even if they were cold ones. I believe snacks may have been available for purchase on board, but again, it wasn’t something I needed.
Rumor has it, the flight from the US to Dublin is even less appetizing though I’m not entirely sure what that means they would serve.
Airport food options
Dublin (DUB) airport GF eats
Like so many airports in great gluten free cities, Dublin is seriously lacking with very few decent eats anywhere. There are, of course, the usual packaged snacks, a handful of sandwiches, and local treats centered around the main international terminal, but hot, good meals were hard to find.
Dublin is also a pre-clearance airport for US bound flights, meaning that you go through American customs before ever getting on the plane. That’s great for when you land, but the flights leave from a very small, isolated part of the Dublin airport with even less food. I didn’t see anything remotely gluten free there beyond a couple of bags of chips. If you are going to eat a meal at the airport, do it before you jump into the customs line (or maybe while you’re standing in it, because that line gets long).
San Francisco (SFO) airport terminal-1 GF eats
While the one small entree and my bag full of snacks easily got me through the flight, I was beyond excited to have a few hours at SFO to walk around and eat! Not only is SFO a great airport to hang out in, it’s got Kitava, a 100% gluten free spot which just happened to be just a few gates away from where I deboarded in terminal 1. Because customs is entirely done back in Dublin, you walk off the flight just as if it were a short US domestic trip. Kitava’s menu isn’t extensive, but a safe, fresh, and hot chicken and rice bowl was a very welcome sight after a long flight.
Also in that terminal is Starbird Chicken, a shared spot well known for chicken strips and fries. Their gluten free reviews are all over the place from people who swear by the experience and those who swear it glutened them. I’ve eaten there twice including grabbing a chicken box just before my connecting flight (it was a long layover), but I’d say skip the airport location if it’s busy, especially now that they’ve added more items containing gluten to the menu, and entirely if you’re really reactive (we all want no gluten but being sick for weeks is different). It’s a lot tastier than Kitava in my book, but it definitely introduces some risk.
My take on flying Aer Lingus while gluten free
Much as I would like to see proper meals served even in a cheap economy seat, I obviously know that’s not the reality of modern air-travel. But when I consider the other gluten free meals I’ve had on flights just about as cheap, or even cheaper than this, Aer Lingus is definitely the loser by a long shot.
Take KLM’s PDX to AMS flight (which I’ve booked for as cheap as $217) which also serves a free-from-everything main entree, but with significantly better flavor and texture. Plus, they give you both a gluten free mid-flight snack and a hotel omelet with sides for a second meal, even though their flight is a good deal shorter at 9.5 hours. Or there’s the Finnair flight I took from Helsinki to Miami (for 17,500 Alaska Points), which featured a decent meatball entree complete with a very solid side cake, and a really nice chicken and rice second meal on a flight just a few minutes longer than this one. Nothing to shout from the rooftops about but there certainly are better options, food wise.
