Gluten-free options in grocery stores and restaurants have expanded in recent years to the point where it’s almost easy to forget that wasn’t always the case. But the keyword is almost.
The Telegraph reports that an airline passanger ordered a gluten-free breakfast for his nine-hour, $1,311 flight, and was surprised to receive only one solitary banana.
The banana came with a sticker printed with “GF” — for gluten free — and was served to him with the standard packet containing cutlery, napkin and salt.
The passenger, Londoner Martin Pavelka suffers from the digestive condition called coeliac and was on the second leg of his flight from Tokyo to Sydney on All Nippon Airways.
“All other passengers were served a full breakfast meal consisting of eggs, sausage, mushrooms, bread, and yogurt,” he told the Evening Standard. “This was a nine-hour flight. Although definitely gluten-free, the banana did not keep me full for very long.”
Pavelka said the other passengers were snickering a bit over the ordeal. “At the price I paid, you would expect something more than that. This isn’t Easyjet or RyanAir.”
A spokesman for All Nippon Airways apologized but insisted other passengers were also only given a snack for breakfast.
He said: “ANA takes great pride in providing an exemplary customer experience for all passengers, and for this one passenger we did not meet his expectations. We have apologized to him personally and as a result of his experience we are reviewing our policy on gluten-free options and how they are served.”
