Air France is one of few airlines to advertise a dedicated “Allergen-Free Meal,” so I decided to (attempt to) try it out on my recent trip to Europe.

Booking

For this trip I flew from Minneapolis (MSP) into Paris-Charles de Gaule (CDG) on their 777-200ER. I was able to snag a one-way flight in Air France’s Premium Economy for 40,000 Flying Blue miles. I decided to choose a bulkhead seat since it was an overnight flight, departing at 8pm and arriving into CDG at 11:15am the next day for a total airtime of 8 hours and 15 minutes.

777-200ER Layout

Air France’s 777-200ER layout consists of 28 Business class seats, 32 Premium Economy, and 268 Economy seats. Business class is configured in a 1-2-1 reverse herringbone layout, while Premium Economy is a 2-4-2 layout. Economy is set in a 3-4-3 layout. For those deliberating between Economy and Premium Economy, the seat measurements are as follows: Premium Economy has 7 extra inches of pitch (38in vs 31in), and 19in of seat width vs 17.3in.

Seat Review: 10B

10B is a bulkhead seat in Premium Economy that may feel too close to the galley for some people. But the thicker curtain they hang during the flight keeps a majority of the light and some sound out. Any headphones can cover the rest of the meal service noise. This bulkhead seat has plenty of leg room to the point that I wasn’t sure I even needed to recline my seat. On top of that, right after boarding was completing my seatmate was upgraded to Business class. After wishing each other a good flight, I slid over to the window seat for the view and a little space from foot traffic.

With Premium Economy comes a better quality blanket that economy, an okay pillow, and an amenity kit that includes a toothbrush and toothpaste, an eye mask, earplugs, and some lip balm. Just after takeoff we were served champagne, which, given it is of French origin, was great. We were also given packaged wet towels. I was a little unimpressed by this as many airlines will serve warm moist towels now. Maybe I’m a bit spoiled?

Allergen Info

Air France Dietary Meals

Air France has many specific dietary meals, which can be found under the “I have specific dietary requirements” section. Those meals include: Indian vegetarian meal, infant meal, children’s meal, low-sugar meal, gluten-free meal, Hindu meal, kosher meal, low-salt meal, halal meal, vegan meal, and allergen-free meal. These meals may be requested but are not guaranteed on every flight. The “Indian vegetarian meal” does not contain meat, poultry, game, fish, shellfish, eggs, gelatin, or rennet. The “Hindu meal” avoids pork, beef, and any of their by-products, including gelatin and rennet. The “low-salt meal” does not contain salt in any form, including cheese, smoked meat and fish, salami, and cookies. The “halal meal” is recommended for Muslim passengers. According to the Air France app, “All animal products come from animals slaughtered according to Islamic rites. This meal does not contain pork, pork by-products, or food and beverages prepared using alcohol.” Info on the “allergen-free” meal continues below.

Allergen Request

Air France advertises an “Allergen-Free” special dietary meal. The allergens omitted include: “grains containing gluten, shellfish, eggs, fish, peanuts, soy, milk, nuts (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts), celery, mustard, sesame seeds, sulfur dioxide and sulfites in a concentration exceeding 10 mg/kg, lupin and mollusks.”

However, when researching this meal on various forums, I noticed that people were frequently unable to request the allergen-free meal. When I checked the Special Meals list for my flight to CDG, I didn’t see the allergen-free meal as an option. I decided to reach out to Air France’s customer service chat to at least put a note in my booking that I have a tree nut allergy.

After a brief back and forth with their customer service intake bot, I was put into a queue to speak with an agent. It took nearly 24 hours to get a response, at which time the automated customer service bot asked if I still wanted to keep my spot in line (I did), I was finally contacted by an agent after another 9 hours. The agent began with apologizing for the wait and informed me that Air France had a high volume of requests and they would reply as quickly as possible. In the same message, the agent confirmed that the allergen-free meal was not available on my MSP-CDG flight. The agent attempted to learn more about my allergy to see if one of the other meals would be appropriate, of which there were none. The Air France agent suggested I inform the flight attendants when I board that I have an allergy and that they could advise me on which of the available meals would be the most suitable.

Normally I wouldn’t put much stock in the flight crew being very knowledgeable with ingredient lists, as I have been told on past flights on other airlines that they aren’t given any ingredient lists or allergen info by the catering team. However, the last time I flew Air France one of the flight attendants was able to bring up a full ingredient list on her tablet and was able to tell me exactly what I could and couldn’t eat and why. So I was inclined to trust Air France to a certain extent. The one different is I flew Business class on that flight rather than Premium Economy

A few days later, about a week before my departure date, I opened the Air France app to see what my meal options might be. To my surprise, I saw that I was listed as requesting the Allergen-Free meal despite the online chat agent confirming it wasn’t available. I was pleasantly surprised, but I’ve heard that sometimes people request special meals only to get on board and learn that their meal isn’t actually available, so I decided to proceed as if I wasn’t going to get the allergen-free meal.

On-Board Experience

Once I was onboard, I asked the crew if they had my allergen-free meal request, and I specified that it wasn’t clear if it was available or not. They did not have my allergen-free meal, but the flight attendant was very accommodating and went through the ingredient list. Of the two options, one had a hazelnut topping and the other was salmon. Unfortunately on top of my allergy, I’m also a bit of a picky eater. When I told the flight attendant that I was allergic to one entree and not interested in the other, she offered one of the economy entrees to me after verifying that it was acceptable for my allergy. This was great because I was able to keep the Premium Economy sides, just swapping out the entree. I ended up choosing the “Hunter’s Chicken” which consisted of chicken and veggies in a gravy-like sauce, paired with orzo pasta with peas and carrots. The sides included a dinner roller and butter, a packet of “Brie Bite”, olive crackers, and some sort of veggie salad that was kind of bland. Dessert was some type of chocolate cake but the flight attendant wasn’t sure on the ingredients so I steered clear. The chicken, orzo, and veggies was actually pretty tasty and I would never turn down a dinner roll.

Shortly before landing we were served a light breakfast starting with a choice between coffee, tea, and hot cocoa. I absolutely love hot cocoa, which was very tasty but may need some of the sugar they give you depending on how bitter you like your chocolate. Also with the meal was a small jug of orange juice, a croissant, butter, jam, yogurt, and granola. Checking the granola ingredients, there was no mention of possible cross-contamination with nuts, which was good to know. Overall, I think I actually preferred the light breakfast service to the full dinner service.

Have you tried Air France’s Allergen-Free meal? Let us know in the comments what you thought!