Passenger Furious at Japanese Airline Over '1 Banana' in Vegan Meal Order

"I thought it was just an appetizer for a long time"

On the 24th (local time), foreign media including the British Independent reported that a Japanese airline served a single banana to a business class passenger who ordered a 'vegan' breakfast.

The passenger boarded a Japan Airlines (JAL) flight from Jakarta, Indonesia to Tokyo, Japan. Before takeoff, they requested a vegetarian meal (VGML), but the only item served on board was a single banana. The passenger said, "After receiving the banana, I thought it was an appetizer for quite some time."

[Photo by Pixabay]

However, no other food was provided no matter how long they waited. The passenger expressed on the airline information site FlyerTalk, "It was the best banana I've eaten recently, but I still consider a banana a snack," adding, "I received almost unseasoned spaghetti for lunch. That was disappointing too, but not as much as receiving just a banana."

The Independent contacted Japan Airlines to inquire about this case but did not receive a response.

There is also an opinion that this controversy is a misunderstanding. One netizen said, "Japan Airlines JL720 (Jakarta-Haneda) is known not to serve breakfast but only lunch," adding, "The airline probably did not give the banana as breakfast, but it might have been provided as a snack."

Meanwhile, this is not the first time an airline has been criticized for providing inadequate vegan meals.

Last year, a woman on an Air Canada flight repeatedly requested vegetarian meals but only received a bottle of water.

Also, a travel blogger posted a video on TikTok showing that they received a meal consisting of leftover fruit from a business class passenger’s meal, which caused a big stir.

In 2020, a British Airways passenger requested a vegan in-flight meal but was served butter and cheese. The passenger tweeted, "This might have been expected 15 years ago, but even now, when vegetarianism is so popular, vegan meals still come with cheese and butter."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.