I have a vague recollection of hearing (back in the '80s and '90s) that some people purposely ordered the kosher meal on flights, even though they didn't keep kosher, because they thought the food was better. No idea if that was true or just an urban legend, though.

@MichaelSeifert One thing I have seen is that special meals do seem to get delivered first.

If you really just want to "try" vegan food, then I can think of a great many better places to do so than an airplane. Airplane food does not generally have a good reputation (there are occasional exceptions), and that reputation extends to what they serve as "special" meals too.

It probably depends a lot on the airline and the departure airport. A major airline from one of their hubs? They just have tons of such requests every day, one more or one less won’t make a difference if it’s properly flagged in time in your PNR. Small airline from a small airport… bigger issue. Though sometimes they simplify things by having a single standard meal (or a small number) which fits many categories at once.

@GregHewgill especially as taste is dumbed down in aircraft (can’t remember it it’s due to the altitude or the lower humidity or some other reason)

I find it strange that someone would look at it that way. Most vegan people request a vegan meal for ethical reasons. They presumably care less about any inconvenience for the airline than about not supporting the killing or exploitation of animals. If this reasoning is accepted, then one would presumably want as many people to order vegan meals as possible. If it is not accepted, then one would presumably not want even vegan people to order vegan meals.

The only time I've been on an intercontinental flight, I asked for kosher menu beforehand (even though I'm not Jewish) because I really dislike seafood and didn't know better. However, I got served the same food as my wife. When I asked the stewardess, it went like this: "-But can you eat it? Allergies? -No, but I asked for kosher, it's here on my boarding pass [showing it]. -Ok but can you eat it? Are you religious? Why you want kosher?"... I didn't feel like arguing, so I just took the normal food; but it seemed to me that asking for special food does inconvenience the staff, indeed.

@MichaelSeifert People still do it today.

That said, many airlines do offer people the ability to pre-order selections from the standard menu prior to their flight. This entices people to see that the standard selections are good and choose one of those rather than select a special meal.

Picking vegan over meat is never a bad thing. The CO2 emissions from meat “production” (not to mention from the airplane) will “inconvenience” a lot more people.

Requesting a special meal just because it might be better is a gamble. There have been times when my special meal seemed better than the standard one but there have also been times when it was much poorer. In a few cases, where my request was lost or forgotten, I was given a choice from the business class menu. So, you might luck out or you might just get a bread roll and a banana. So, try it if you wish but request it advance not on the plane. If you demand a special meal on the plane then you might deprive someone else of a meal acceptable to them.

@MichaelSeifert Not exactly an aspect of quality in my case, but on certain airlines I do regularly request special meal options because I know I actually like their vegetarian or kosher options, but do not like their usual ‘standard’ offerings.

@unforgettableidSupportsMonica this is an aside, but I'm genuinely curious: how is "Asian Vegetarian" different from generic Vegetarian?

Sometimes you gotta just cutoff where you care about things. Flying sucks. You're paying for service, don't worry about it.

@Eugene: I've edited my original post to add an explanatory link. Once you've read this comment, feel free to delete your comment, then to flag this comment of mine as "no longer needed".

Thx! Leave the comment, conversation context is important.

@Michael considering that flying once will make void switching vegan for the whole year, if you have such considerations, you should not fly....

I think if it were more effort then it should be more expensive or they should make it harder to obtain (e.g. require you to call the airline and wait 40 minutes before someone is available for you, etc.). If you have a set of options to choose, then you choose what you feel like eating and ignore all those "vegan food is only for vegans" opinions.

(And if they offer things like, "vegetarian", "Asian vegetarian" and "Oriental vegetarian", then they are asking for it. The difference between those three is not dietary restrictions but a pure matter of preference).

I once ordered vegan meals for fun. I received an Amy's frozen dinner, which was higher quality than the standard airline food. For breakfast, I received the same bagel as everyone else (no cream cheese), but inexplicably I got a banana with it.