Finnair Business Class Catering Fail

While airplane food will rarely be of the same quality as what’s available on the ground, I think there’s a basic standard that most of us expect, especially in business class. Along those lines, this is pretty bad…

A disappointing vegetarian Finnair business class meal

Twitter/X user @aaltoantti flew Finnair business class from Osaka (KIX) to Helsinki (HEL), which is quite a long flight, and pre-ordered a vegetarian meal. Online he shared pictures of the meal he was served on this 13+ hour journey, and it’s most definitely not something that you’d expect to be served in business class.

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The main course simply consisted of rice, broccoli, and baby corn. Perhaps even worse, the salad just had two pieces of lettuce and a lemon wedge. Honestly, this would be disappointing in economy, let alone in business class. The only place I’d expect to be served something like this would be at Fyre Festival.

After reaching out to the airline, the traveler was reportedly offered 3,500 Avios as compensation…

How can airlines get things so wrong?

Airline catering is complicated under the best of circumstances. As much as everyone likes to complain about it, personally I’m consistently impressed by the logistics, both in terms of preparation and how it’s served. The fact that airlines are able to serve semi-decent meals (at least in premium cabins) takes a lot of effort.

So, what exactly went wrong here, and how can Finnair pass off something like this as a premium cabin meal? Obviously this was catered at an outstation, so the airline doesn’t have the same level of control and oversight as you’d find at a hub catering facility.

Still, airlines work with airport catering companies to design meals, so it’s not like Finnair should be surprised by what’s being served. That raises the question — is this actually what Finnair agreed to with its catering company as the meal for business class passengers, or was there some sort of a catering snafu? Is it possible the standard vegetarian meal wasn’t prepared for some reason, and this was substituted in?

Now, in fairness, last year I stayed at Shisui Nara, a Marriott Luxury Collection property (Nara is also in Japan, and not far from Osaka, funny enough). I ordered a vegetable appetizer, which looked like the below.

So maybe Shisui Nara and Finnair in Osaka share a kitchen? I don’t know. 😉

To be constructive, I think this is also a good reminder to always pack snacks when you fly, especially if you have any dietary restrictions. You never know when you’ll have a serious flight delay, so a protein bar (or something along those lines) can always come in handy. It shouldn’t necessarily be that way, but…

Bottom line

While airplane food is rarely anything to get excited about, there’s a certain standard of quality you expect, especially when traveling in a premium cabin. A Finnair business class passenger on a recent flight from Osaka to Helsinki was offered what looks like an inexcusably basic meal, which you wouldn’t even expect in economy.

Here’s to hoping this was some sort of a catering mistake, rather than what Finnair actually intends to serve business class passengers.

What do you make of this Finnair business class meal?