Flying gluten free with British Airways

For those of you have noticed my absence, I returned this weekend from a two-week trip to Uganda and was so busy beforehand it’s been a while since I blogged!

So, as I am still pining after the amazing trip I had with the charity Amigos, I felt it only right to document my in-flight experience!

I flew with British Airways – and luckily managed to get the exit seats both there and back, so enjoyed a spacious, comfortable flight!

I requested a gluten free meal before my flight, and here’s my top-to-toe rundown of my gluten free experience – mixed reviews all round!

London – Entebbe

My gluten free meals included….

1. Chicken paella – this was suprisingly tasty! Quite spicy but actually really nice, so a good experience for that!
2. Bread roll – kind of like a brick. I tried to slather it with spread and even salad dressing but couldn’t even manage half. Kudos to BA for trying, but really, it was a little like stepping back in time to BG (Before Genius)
3. Side salad – simple, does what it says on the tin.
4. Fruit salad – I picked at this and enjoyed it, fairly standard really, but good to have something which you know is safe to eat!

I also had a gluten free sandwich which, in all honesty, did not impress me at all! The label showed it had been made two days previous. I though smoked salmon was an odd choice of filling (surely there are a lot of people who don’t like that – personally would have gone with tuna if I was going down the fish line….) and the cucumber was slimey. Not good.

This came with grapes – which were good! Overall a mixed review – I would give the flight out there 7/10 – and a lot of that is for effort and the tasty paella.

Entebbe – London

Last time I flew with BA back from Uganda they forgot to pack my GF meal and I ended up eating from Club (business class) so I kept my fingers tightly crossed!!

Unfortunately, there was no such luck this time, and my meal included….

1. Chicken and mushroom casserole with mashed potato – Interesting. The concept was good, and it was quite nice, but I think someone might have spilled a whole bucket of salt into mine. Now I ALWAYS add salt to my food, but this was just too much and I managed to just about eat half.
2. Same sides as last time – ignored the bread roll and got no side salad…only dressing, which I found a little odd. Oh, and more grapes.

The ‘breakfast’ comprised of a second smoked salmon sandwich (again 2 days old, this time I didn’t bother even opening it), even more grapes and – I was very pleased to see – a yoghurt! So that and some strong coffee tided me over until my return home!

Overall marks for this meal, probably 6/10 – to be honest, it wasn’t anything amazing, but then, I guess you never expect any miracles from economy flights, so from that perspective I guess it was quite good!

Unfortunately, sitting on my own both ways I didn’t get any photos (didn’t want people to think I was the odd girl sat taking photos of her food on her own…) but I promise next time I will!

Instead let me leave you with this photo with a gorgeous family in Uganda….missing it already!!!

What have your flight experiences been like? Had anything particularly good or bad? Comment below and share your stories!