Shameful! Beware Of Fake Kosher Meals On Air France
by Daniel Eleff – DansDeals
Last week, DansDeals reader Divora Marinelli reached out about fake kosher meals her family received from Air France on a flight from Mauritius to Paris. She has now shared her experience on DDF as well.
She had ordered kosher meals in advance from Air France, but when she checked in for her flight, they told her that her kosher meals were not available.
She was traveling with 8 people, ranging from 3 to 73 years old, and they were upset that they weren’t told in advance that their 12 hour flight wouldn’t have kosher meals.
(Pro tip: The HotLogic and Hot Logic Max work with the in-flight power from your plane seat and can warm up your own meals that you bring onboard.)
After takeoff, the flight attendant served them meals with “KSML” written on them, which is the industry abbreviation for a kosher meal:
Divora soon realized that the flight attendant had merely taken a regular meal and written KSML on it and told them it was their kosher meals.
She quickly went to tell the others in her party not to eat the meals, but some of her kids had already started to eat the meals. Her son even asked the flight attendant if the meal was kosher and she responded that it was.
She went to speak to the lead flight attendant, who investigated, and confirmed that another flight attendant had just scribbled KSML on the meals and gave it to them. The lead flight attendant wrote up a report, but all Air France did was send them a 30 Euro voucher each for not having the meal.
If this were a nut allergy situation, Air France would have a major PR disaster and lawsuit on its hands. Should kosher meals be different?
Air France did not say they would retrain or even speak to the flight attendant involved or whether they would retrain other crewmembers about kosher meals.
We reached out to multiple Air France contacts last week, but none of them responded to this story, even after repeated requests.
It’s a good reminder to always assume that the airline won’t have your kosher meal and to only eat a kosher meal if it is properly sealed.
In 2018, Wow Air was caught lying about kosher certification on their in-flight meals.
I have been on flights where the flight attendant thinks they’re doing a favor by opening the seal on the kosher meal for me, and are mortified when I tell them to keep it, as it’s worthless to me if served without a seal. Hopefully, they won’t do that in the future.
We were served this “kosher meal” on Thai Airways from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, though I had no idea if the juice or coffee creamer were kosher. We tossed it.
Even Delta has meals scribbled with KSML on it, though at least whole fruits are kosher:
Either way, shame on Air France for this situation and for failing to respond to it. Be sure to keep your eyes open for fake kosher meals.
Have you encountered fake kosher meals during your travels?
You can like, comment, and repost this X post to let AirFrance know that serving fake kosher meals in unacceptable and they need to train their staff better:
