News and notes from around the interweb:
- Oy. Air France didn’t load kosher meals, so flight attendants just handwrote “KSML” on regular meals.
This is disgraceful @airfrance
Last week, Divora Marinelli, flew Air France from Mauritius to Paris.
She confirmed kosher meals for her party of 8 ranging from 3 to 73 years old.
But when she checked in for her flight, they told her that her kosher meals were not available.… pic.twitter.com/TogQsclTK4
— DansDeals (@DansDeals) February 24, 2025
- If you were to pick a fight with someone, that could be extra dangerous, they might be armed. But in an airport you assume they didn’t bring weapons through security. Does TSA remove a deterrent to fights?
I’m at the airport on a layover and there’s a rowdy customer at the restaurant I’m killing time at
The thought occurs to me: The airport is probably the safest place to pick a fight with a stranger, right?
Guaranteed no guns or knives. Truly a fair fistfight, one would imagine
— Nick Gray / How to Make Friends (@nickgraynews) February 24, 2025
- There’s real movement to expand London Heathrow, finally adding a third runway. The U.K. government realizes that moribund economic growth in the country has had real consequences. And a plan to accomplish this with private dollars means it won’t tap already-squeezed government finances.
British Airways, though, doesn’t want more Heathrow capacity because of its virtual stranglehold on competition at the airport. More capacity could mean more competition. But the winds are firmly at the back of the runway construction. So the current tactic is delay – questioning the lack of government subsidy (‘airlines and passengers will pay more’). American Airlines has joined this fight.
- Where else are you supposed to put them..? (HT: Dennis)
- 20% bonus on transfers from American Express Membership Rewards to Qatar Airways Privilege Club through March 31. (There is also a current 20% bonus on transfers from Citi to Qatar, through March 15.)
- TIL.
On the kosher meals: Dan, the author of the article that Gary linked to, asks ‘should kosher meals be any different than a peanut allergy’? No. That’s not the same. A peanut allergy could literally kill someone. I respect and tolerate that these folks truly believe their religion, but a non-kosher meal won’t kill them. Pork won’t kill believers of Islam. Meat during Lent won’t kill a Catholic. Hindus won’t die from eating beef, either. So, Air France gave those passengers €30 meal vouchers (which obviously wasn’t ‘good enough’ for them). I am sure those affected will negotiate further, or sue the airline. Not sure how that goes, but good luck to them.
On fights in airports: Nick might onto something, but the reality is that there are simply fewer ‘lethal’ weapons in the secured area–like, if you instigate, some folks could try to throw a chair at you. Here’s an idea: How about minding your own business instead?
@1990
Minding your own business?
What’s that?
Aren’t you supposed to video fist fights, stabbing, shooting, etc?
Then post them so they show up on VFTW.
Now I’m confused.
@Jay Gee — Now?? Thought you always were. ‘Mind your own business’ was specifically within the context of not picking fights with strangers in airports. If only you could read.
@ Gary — Peope should just bring their own food if they can’t eat what is offered to everyone else. In reality, Kosher meals are generally presumed Kosher because they are LABELED as such. Clearly, the FAs shouldn’t have mis-labeled these meals, but they do drive home the point that people rely on product LABELING to make these choices. Should they?
@Gene — Yup. It’s almost as if these ideologies are as much a ‘human-construct’ as say labeling a carton of food. It doesn’t make the food ‘magical,’ but some can say it does. Then again, if we want to live in a totalitarian theocracy, ‘blasphemy’ is literally punishable by death in certain countries (you know, like ‘bone-saw’ Saudi Arabia, or Iran, etc.) Is it time to ‘stone’ the apostates? I think not.
Airlines mess up meals all the time. We need to move past the woke DEI everybody assumes bad faith at every turn. The meals are edible and, as pointed out above, this situation is far different than an allergy where it’s actively dangerous to eat the wrong thing.
You know that old saying – if you’re looking for something to take offense to, you’re gonna find it whether it’s there or not. Seems like too many people are looking for something to take offense to all the time and this nonsense is just another example. Time to stop whining, kids!
I believe that Air France was being cheap with the 30 Euros in a voucher for each person denied a meal that was ordered and within the guidelines of their dietary restrictions. On a 12 hour flight there would typically be two meals so there should have been at least twice the amount (buying food on an airline is expensive) and the vouchers should have been usable at an airport restaurant upon arrival (also expensive food). I have got food and beverage vouchers twice. On a delayed NWA flight in Narita, I burned the voucher on four Scotch on the rocks since the food outlets were already closed and the drink outlet was closing. Lined them up and slowly drank them to waste time. The two vouchers given by NWA in Minneapolis were useless there since the food outlets were closed (NWA did cover a room.) I kept them and burned them in BUF on fast food to go, which was enough for an entire meal for my parents, my wife and myself.
@Raylan — You must blame ‘woke’ or ‘DEI’ when you stub your toe. What an odd thing to blame here. Obviously you did take offense, so maybe you’re acting like the ‘kids’ you speak of. Hmm.
Having dealt with the kosher world over the past 25 years, I can tell you it’s a PITA, on the order of dealing with vegans, but the one thing you shouldn’t do is try to fake it. (Yes, vegans, you are just as annoying as those who follow other dietary laws. Medical conditions like allergies or celiac disease are a different catagory, but “gluten sensitive” is just BS.) And the next time I show up at your house after you come to mine and complain about the food, I’m going to declare myself carnivore and demand a nice juicy steak.
Those who keep kosher know all the rules and there was undoubtedly something else they could eat, AF just needed to be upfront about it. Present them with a list of what’s available and ask what works. Fruit plate? Vegan meal? Hard boiled egg? Cheese is tricky but can work. Just ask.
Re: Fights and TSA
See: Spirit gates for details.
The main issue with the Air France FAs is them knowingly deceiving the customer by purposely mislabeling the meals as Kosher when they weren’t. It’s one thing to forget to load KSMLs, it happens, and kosher travelers know to bring along food (although it is not always possible to bring along your own as what happened in this case). But to deceive the customer by mislabeling is very bad, especially when Air France did not even bother responding to the incident or retraining their FAs.
First rule about “Kosher Club”: Don’t say non-Kosher, ever. If a Kosher person reasonably believes they are eating Kosher food, based on the food’s labeling or the server’s representations, and it just so happens the food is not really Kosher, the Kosher person has not violated the law of Kosher, because they had no reason to know the food wasn’t Kosher. In this situation, the FA should have never revealed or admitted the food was not Kosher, and the entire problem would have been averted
@Mike: “In this situation, the FA should have never revealed or admitted the food was not Kosher, and the entire problem would have been averted.”
Unless of course the meal was a ham and cheese sandwich…