They’re not bananas about this measly meal option.
A passenger on board a Japan Airlines flight was outraged when he received a single banana as his vegan meal — and a pair of chopsticks to eat it with.
Kris Chari was traveling from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Tokyo when he ordered the vegan meal for the seven-hour flight.
Chari reported his disappointing meal on the air travel forum FlyerTalk, saying he had thought it was a pre-breakfast snack — not the whole meal.
“Before takeoff today my flight attendant confirmed that I ordered VGML and that my breakfast was a banana, by which I mistakenly assumed she meant that breakfast included a banana,” Chari wrote on Feb. 21. “When she served the banana after takeoff I assumed it was just an underwhelming appetizer — however it was actually the whole meal service!”
Chari then told a flight attendant he was “frankly quite shocked” to learn that the banana was a catered meal.
‘It was cute of the crew to serve the banana with chopsticks, though!’
Kris Chari, hungry airline passenger
“It’s a bit insulting to be served a single banana while others are given a much more substantial and flavorful menu,” he told Insider. “It seems especially essential given the expansion within the variety of vegans and vegetarians.”
Yes, there have been two meal services throughout the flight, a snack and lightweight refreshment and lunch.
Nevertheless, the much heartier “snack” options for non-vegans was seared tuna with a Moroccan eggplant salad, cheese with orange salsa and a baguette, based on the airline’s menu.
Although Chari admitted it was a “really good banana” — actually “top-of-the-line” he’d eaten recently — the confused passenger was still appalled it was classified as a complete meal.
“It still seems more appropriate as a snack,” they wrote. “Is catering out of [Soekarno–Hatta International Airport] typically this underwhelming?”
Nevertheless, “it was cute of the crew to serve the banana with chopsticks, though!” he quipped.
Chari described his subsequent vegan lunch as “barely seasoned spaghetti” and said although their other meals with Japan Airlines have also bad up to now, nothing has been quite as “insubstantial” as the only banana.
The non-vegan lunch options included grilled beef tenderloin, a cheese omelet, ratatouille, grilled salmon and chicken sausage.
The airline’s website shows a “vegetarian vegan meal” option with a photograph showing halal sorbet, a baguette, a dish with rice and multiple vegetable-based looking bowls.
Chari and Japan Airlines didn’t immediately reply to The Post’s request for comment. Nevertheless, a rep for the airline told Insider, “We apologize for not having the ability to meet expectations.”
