I traveled to Barcelona, Spain last fall, and it was my first time flying anywhere in Europe since I switched to a plant-based diet. Granted, the only other time I stepped foot in Europe was a 48-hour layover in Paris on our way back from India when I was four years old (which doesn’t count, in my opinion). I opted to fly United Airlines on direct flights between Newark and Barcelona. The last time I flew United was to India about a year before my Barcelona trip, and even though I had selected the vegan meal option well in advance, I wasn’t given a specific meal on either trip and had to settle for the vegetarian meal. I was not a happy camper. However, this trip was different, so I’m excited to share and review some of the vegan food options on United flights from my trip to Spain.
Since my flight to Barcelona was an overnight/red-eye flight, they first served us a snack and gave me packaged almonds and olives to start. I’m truly not a fan of either, but I won’t complain. I appreciate the option. They followed up with dinner shortly after, and the vegan meal (as seen above) was a seven-vegetable noodle stir-fry, a side salad, and a bread roll with vegan butter. Though I wish the stir-fry had included some tofu or other protein and I had been able to add some hot sauce, it really wasn’t bad compared to some of the other options I’ve had. The salad was decent, and I love bread. They also had a dessert, one of Blake’s seed-based bars, and I was very thrilled to have an option that wasn’t cut fruit.
For breakfast, though nothing to really write home about, it was more than I was expecting. I got cut fruit (grapes and pineapple), to no one’s surprise, but they also gave me a vegan and gluten-free banana chocolate chip muffin. It would definitely have tasted better if it had been warmed up, but I didn’t mind it at all. I’m not a huge breakfast person, so a light snack that early was enough for me. They also provided 100% bamboo cutlery, which was nice.
That rounds out my flight to Barcelona, so if you’re looking for vegan-friendly options in the city, you can check those out here. I also have a list of vegan bakeries. Barcelona is incredibly vegan-friendly, and I had such a fun time eating in the city and exploring new places.
The return flight was during the day, and we received one meal and one snack. Lunch was some sort of Thai vegetable curry, another side salad, and pita bread with vegan margarine. There was no dessert option this time, and I enjoyed this a lot less. The Thai curry was alright, super congealed and lacking protein and flavor. I remember picking at it. The side salad was lettuce, cucumber, and tomato with the provided red vinegar dressing, so I ate that, along with the pita bread with margarine. Again, nothing really to write home about, but not as bad as I was expecting. It was edible.
Later in the flight, ahead of our arrival in Newark, they gave us another snack. I believe everyone else without special meal requests received a handheld pizza, so I was pleasantly surprised to receive something similar from Monty’s Bakehouse (see below), an airline food supplier based in the UK. If I remember correctly, mine was a tomato-and-mint lattice pastry, nice and hot, savory, and delicious. I did quite enjoy it, and I was glad to have it as an option. After some additional research, Monty’s Bakehouse also uses sustainable packaging and is B-Corp certified.
Overall, the vegan food options flying on United Airlines aren’t atrocious. They still leave a lot to be desired (it is, after all, airplane food), so I always pack snacks with me. I will keep flying United though, because Newark is a hub and those flights tend to be less expensive for me, but I am interested to see how these compare to vegan food options on other airlines. You can also check out my review of the options on Qantas Airlines.
Have you had a similar or different experience with vegan food on United flights? Let me know down below!
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