Earlier, I wrote about how Air France was accused of serving passengers fake kosher meals on a long haul flight. The company has now responded, and has a different version of events than what was claimed. Let’s first discuss the initial claims, and then I’ll share what the company had to say.
Passenger claims Air France crew faked kosher meals
DansDeals reports on an incident that happened last week, on an Air France flight from Mauritius (MRU) to Paris (CDG). A party of eight (ranging in age from three to 73 years old) was traveling together on the flight, with everyone having ordered kosher meals.
When the travelers checked in for their flight, they were informed that their kosher meals weren’t available. After takeoff, a flight attendant reportedly served these passengers meals with “KSML” written on them, which is the standard abbreviation for a kosher meal.
A member of the group quickly realized what had happened — the claim is that the crew had seemingly just taken standard meals, and written “KSML” on them, given that kosher meals weren’t loaded.
While a member of the group warned others not to eat the meals due to them not being kosher, some of the kids had already started to eat. So a complaint was filed with the lead flight attendant, who investigated, and reportedly confirmed that another flight attendant had in fact just written “KSML” on the meals (as I’ll explain below, this is a claim the airline denies).
The lead flight attendant wrote up a report, but all Air France did was send the passengers each a €30 voucher.
This is disgraceful @airfrance
Last week, Divora Marinelli, flew Air France from Mauritius to Paris.
She confirmed kosher meals for her party of 8 ranging from 3 to 73 years old.
But when she checked in for her flight, they told her that her kosher meals were not available.… pic.twitter.com/TogQsclTK4
— DansDeals (@DansDeals) February 24, 2025
Air France’s version of events is a bit different
Here’s the statement that Air France has issued regarding this incident:
Air France is aware of an article reporting the experience of customers regarding the non-compliance of their kosher meal on a flight from Mauritius to Paris CDG. Due to a supply shortage at the local caterer, customers were informed when they arrived at the airport that their special meals would be unavailable and that vegetarian product trays would be provided as a replacement. Once on board, these trays were served to them, marked by the local caterer KSML, purely so that they could be identified by the crew to facilitate service.
Air France regrets this confusing identification and points out that the crew never intended to mislead customers about the quality of the tray offered and that customers were well aware of the vegetarian meal served. The crew also did its utmost to offer them suitable catering items to enable them to eat. In accordance with the company’s commercial policy, customer service proactively sent compensation to customers on arrival at their destination, due to the unavailability of the pre-booked meal.
My take on this puzzling kosher meal situation
As you can see, there are two very different versions of events here. To state the obvious, if the passenger’s version of events is accurate, then that’s completely unacceptable. A crew should never fake a specific meal, as that’s inappropriate, for obvious reasons.
However, the airline rejects that this is what happened. Of course I wasn’t there, so can’t say anything with certainty, though a few thoughts come to mind:
The fact that the ground crew proactively communicated to passengers that their kosher meals weren’t loaded suggests to me that the airline was acting in good faith, and trying to find the best solution possible
If you ask me, I also don’t think the airline has much responsibility if someone accidentally ate the food as a result of that; it was communicated in advance, and the food was obviously not a standard kosher meal, as it wasn’t wrapped, didn’t have the standard kosher labeling about the kitchen it was prepared in, etc.
That being said, I also think that the caterer marking certain meals as “KSML” was a bad move; it’s entirely possible this was well intentioned, but obviously the importance of certain types of catering may have been lost on people working in a foreign, contract catering facility
There’s an additional point I’ll address, regardless of the extent to which the airline was at fault, as I don’t completely agree with Dan’s take on this:
If this were a nut allergy situation, Air France would have a major PR disaster and lawsuit on its hands. Should kosher meals be different?
For these purposes, I do think kosher meals should be treated differently than a nut allergy. That’s not in any way to minimize someone’s sincerely held religious beliefs. However, the stakes are a bit different.
If someone has a nut allergy and is served something in spite of that, they could die. If someone has a dietary restriction or preference, it’s not going to kill them if they’re accidentally served it. Again, that’s not to diminish that someone has a certain belief, but I think we have to value the preservation of life over other preferences and beliefs.
I think this raises another interesting point. What should the appropriate compensation be if a meal with a specific dietary restriction isn’t loaded? Is the €30 per person voucher unreasonable because the kosher meal wasn’t loaded, or because of whatever misunderstanding arose? I can totally understand that the latter is viewed as a bigger issue, but otherwise, I’d say €30 is roughly fair compensation for a special meal not being loaded.
I mean, that’s way more than airlines spend per person on catering, and there’s not an extra cost to order a special meal. I do think if you have a specific dietary restriction (no matter what it is), it’s wise to bring enough of your own food and snacks, just in case it’s not loaded.
It’s especially common to have catering snafus at outstations, and for that matter, you never know when there will be irregular operations, and you’ll be rerouted at the last minute. Heck, I always travel with some extra protein bars that’ll keep me full, since you never know when you’ll be on a delayed flight without food.
Bottom line
A passenger has accused an Air France crew of serving fake kosher meals on a flight from Mauritius to Paris. Passengers had reportedly pre-ordered kosher meals, and were informed before the flight that they wouldn’t be available.
To the surprise of the passengers who had ordered these meals, they were presented with meals that had the “KSML” abbreviation written on them, which is the term for kosher meals. While the passengers claim that the crew had scribbled this on the meals, the airline has a different version of events, and claims that this isn’t true.
Air France explains that it was communicated in advance to passengers that kosher meals hadn’t been properly catered. The intent was that vegetarian meals were provided as replacements, and they had “KSML” marked on them, to indicate which passengers they were intended for. Obviously that wasn’t an acceptable alternative for these passengers, though the airline insists that the communication to passengers was clear, and that the crew wasn’t the party that scribbled this down.
What do you make of this kosher meal situation?