Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

figured since i'll be flying for the first time in about 8 years, and first time since vegan, wondering what everyone's favorite airlines are. what vegan dish did you get? were seats comfortable? power outlets? etc... the usual.

I thought we'd be going Air Canada to Germany than Lufthansa to Poland, but apparently it's Lufthansa all around i'm so uber excited about the trip, but i really can't wait for the flight to see what vegan food i get haha

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I've been a big long-distance flyer for as long as I can remember, but only started 'flying vegan' since late 2008 and I gotta say the food on Qantas changed the way I look at airplane food forever. It was AMAZING. There is this belief that airplane food has to be gross and really crappy (which I've never bought... it's not THAT hard to make good food that can keep for a few hours). Even my sis, who was eating the non-vegan food beside me, got this really well balanced meal with protein + a very adequate selection of fruits & veggies (actual fresh ones not canned) + whole grains, etc. I'd never seen that in my life.

Air France was also really impressive in terms of vegan food. Just recently flying from Hong Kong to Paris, got to have a really diverse bean salad, pesto pasta with veggies and all the fruit I could dream of. They even had a vegan granola bar and more fruit for breakfast. Like I said, in comparison to 20 some years of eating bad plane food, I was impressed by both them and Qantas...

Gotta say though, good thing you aren't flying Air Canada because food-wise (and comfort-wise for that matter), if they had airplanes in the middle ages, they would have been run by Air Canada. Gotta say, I adore Canada for most things, their airlines are NOT one of them.

And yay! I get to take Lufthansa this summer too and discover their vegan food too! We'll see how it goes! This was a long rant, but every time I think of those Qantas and AF flights I HAVE to rave about them.

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Chantal
More me goodness at: http://www.eatdancelive.vox.com

Qantas has been great each time I've flown with them. The food has always been quite nice. Last time from Sydney to San Francisco I got a hot breakfast which was mushrooms, hash browns, beans, tomatoes and an orange juice. It was tasty. You also get as much fruit as you want. I can't remember exactly what I had for dinner but one time it was a mixture of veggies, one of them was asparagus and there was also some cous cous in there.. sorry, my memory isn't that great right now.

The seats are comfy and they have pretty good leg room. I've heard it's better than other airlines. Every seat has its own tv screen but you don't have a power outlet in economy. They have those in premium economy. I think the new A380's will have power outlets in every seat on the plane.

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Lucky that you get any options at all, based on what I've found via service on US-based airlines!

The closest thing (and that's stretching it, since it wasn't even vegan) I've been able to find on my last few trips is the "vegetarian" mystery box of snacks on US Air, which I found cotains 2 tiny pieces of rye bread, about 6 withered grapes, 3 cheese cubes, a small slab of cheddar and half of an apple that looked brown when they showed it to me. About 60% vegan stuff if you exclude the cheese, but everything looked nasty as heck like the fruit had been sitting around for days before being boxed up. All this can be had for just a mere $7 US! I was so hungry that I felt like gnawing off my own arm for food (I accidentally packed my snacks in my checked bag instead of my carry-on - stupid me!), but I couldn't be convinced to pay for cheese I didn't intend on eating, nor could I justify $7 for fruit that looked less than fresh.

Good thing I just pack my own snacks from our warehouse every time I travel (minus this last mistake), since airports here rarely have anything decent that's vegan-friendly as well other than a fruit cup. Vegan food on airlines in the US is tough to come across, unless you're flying a 4.5+ hour trip via first class, where you MIGHT be lucky enough to have them accomodate you for paying 3-4x the cost of flying coach. More airlines here are stating that they do not accomodate any alterations to their offered meal plans, so if you're vegan, you're usually sh*t out of luck. Believe me, I've made my share of inquiries to ask what they can do for me as a vegan, and the most common reply is "Nothing"!

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"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

I exclusively fly Delta since my mom works there and it's free....
But I really enjoy their hummus plate, it has lots of pitas, hummus, peppers, celery, carrots, and some other stuff. It's 8 bucks, which I don't think is that bad, and is better than nothin!

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The (Vegan) Dating Coach
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Flight food have gone up in price here in Europe but the choices for vegans and vegetarians is great! I'm flying to Belgium soon with a company and I can choose between strict vegetarian, asian vegetarian or raw food vegetarian.

Have you been to Poland before? Where are you going etc? If you need some help I can ask my gf to give you some advice on where to find vegan food maybe. I only know Lodz but I think she knows her way around Warsaw and maybe Krakow.

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i was there last maybe 18 or so years ago, long before being vegan. i'm staying with family in a little town porajow, population 2,500 haha but luckily, about a 30 minute bus ride gets me into a larger town which apparently has the 3 major supermarket chains with lots of veggie options ... won't be anywhere near lodz, warsaw or krakow, but much appreciated apparently there's soooooo many vegetarian restaurants in poland it's scary, considering the image you first think of poland (meat meat meat)

i'm also on a polish forum and i was surprised there was a thread there on being veg in poland, which helped tons http://www.polishforums.com/vegetarian_ ... 709_0.html

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called to confirm my meal, i didn't mention it was veggie (if i said it was veggie she may have just said yes without checking), and she said "vegetarian non-dairy?" ..... so that's good hehe

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I agree, Air Canada is pretty cheap on their food. It changes all the time but I remember once being asked if I wanted a can of pop and then being asked to fork over $5. I don't think that lasted.

I'm surprised at KLM being "royal dutch airlines".. dutch being generally very tall people. Yet they have the least legroom of any flight I've been on consistently over several flights. I had more leg room on China Eastern Airlines... yes, there is something wrong with this picture. I had more leg room on a domestic Chinese airline (a big country of lots of little people) than I did flying KLM (an airline from a small country with very tall citizens in comparison).

Lufthansa is the best I've flown so fair. Air Italia wasn't too bad either.
I'm amazed their Dash 8's can pull quietly off the runway so quickly with pretty much the same turbo prop engine's that make for a migraine inducing flight on any of Air Canada's Dash 8's. The Lufthansa one's seem to be 5 blade props and take off a lot faster and climb a lot more steep than the Air Canada one's with very noisy 3 blade props.

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I've had nice flights on Southwest. Hope you dont have to deal with the TSA in the US. I hate those guys.

we have our own version

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I'm sorry to hear that, I hope yours are easier to get along with.

Bumping this up. I'm going home tomorrow, flying Virgin America from JFK to LAX, then V Australia from LAX - SYD.

The food on the flight from SYD - LAX was pretty terrible. At the time of my booking, there didn't seem to be a vegan option when I was selecting my meal preference, so I chose the one that seemed safe, which was "raw vegetarian". I thought that since V Australia markets themselves as a "cool, hip, progressive, new airline", the meal might be good. It turned out to be a few slices of tomato and some carrot sticks, for every meal! Wasn't too impressed. So I made sure to call them the other day, to ask if they had any regular vegan meals and it turns out that they do. It will be interesting to see what I get this time.

I have packed some clif bars and builder's bars to snack on too.

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I fly Delta and give my mom my Sky Miles. I dunno what to pack for food. I always get really hungry so I am going to pack a peanut butter sandwich, a banana, an apple, and some powdered protein I can mix up in my canteen, I think

Either way, I am flying out of San Diego International next week and I am going to get groped by TSA. No avoiding it, I'll probably just make eye contact through the entire thing to make then uncomfortable.

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I've flown the Air Canada and/or Lufthansa combination quite frequently to Germany. (They are "partnered" Star Alliance airlines.). In terms of comfort, it really depends on the specific plane you get more than the airline, at least between Air Canada and Lufthansa. Lufthansa's fleet is generally newer and more comfortable, but Air Canada did some upgrades on the cabins in their older planes in 2008.

As for vegan food . . . to be honest, I'd say it's pretty bad. It's more a diversion on a long flight than something enjoyable or filling. One benefit is that "special request" meals are served before everyone else. The vegetarian non-dairy option generally has NO protein. (Apparently food services think the only vegetarian protein option is cheese!) I always pack some Larabars (or equivalent) and/or some nuts as a protein source for the flight and the first few hours on the ground (until I find my local vegan source . . .).

One improvement you will probably notice if you haven't flown for 8 years is in-flight entertainment. I think all Lufthansa and Air Canada overseas flights now have seat-back monitors and a large selection of movies, TV shows, etc. (so that each passenger can watch what they want, pause the player, etc.) Only the newest planes have power outlets and/or USB chargers. (I had these on maybe 1 of 4 of my last transatlantic flights.)

Have a great trip . . . though if the weather continues, it may be colder there than here!