TUI vegan food review – long haul flight

Every time I catch a long-distance flight, I try to capture the vegan meal options on board in order to give other plant-based travellers a preview of what they might be offered. I’ve already covered Finnair and Air France, now here’s the kind of thing you can expect from a vegan meal with TUI.

Flying with TUI

This was my first flight with TUI and I wasn’t delighted that they charge you extra for baggage the way that a budget airline would. I appreciate that they sit at the lower end of the long haul services, but I was still forking out for a 10 hour flight. That being said, it still came in significantly cheaper than the other options – hence my booking with them. This overview covers the TUI vegan meals for a flight from Manchester to Cancun. 

TUI’s vegan lunch and dinner

The main vegan meal was a creamy ‘cheese’ lasagna, served with a bread roll, vegan margarine, and crackers. This might possibly be one of the best meals I’ve had on a plane, with the portion being so large that the burly Liverpudlian man sitting next to me commented that it looked better than his standard option. 

Unfortunately, TUI dropped the ball at the last minute. Can you guess what dessert was? Yup, fruit! Come on guys, you were so close! It’s 2022 – surely someone can gather up a bit of dark chocolate at the very least?

TUI vegan snack

An hour or so before landing in Cancun (at around 3pm), the TUI team handed out lunchtime snacks. Once again, they hit it out of the park. While my non-vegan counterparts were served up small (and painfully sad looking) sandwich trays, I was handed a monster sized vegan hummus and carrot baguette. At first glance, this filling choice sounds a bit ‘salady’, but I was pleasantly corrected. The bread was fresh, and there was plenty of hummus to stand as the main filling. 

And, there’s more! After YEARS of flying vegan, TUI threw in something I’ve never seen provided to vegans as standard … dairy free milk for tea and coffee. Delighted! Great job team TUI. This came with a chocolate and cherry dessert bar – not mind blowing, but I enjoyed the variety provided here. 

TUI vegan breakfast

Flying back to Manchester, we were scheduled to arrive early, so breakfast was the final meal of the trip. This was probably the least appetising of the list. Our little boxes contained 4 potato tots, 2 (rather soggy) vegetable sausages, and some tomato puree – it was labelled as ‘Veg sausage mushroom provencale’. I was hungry, so I ate it, but Iacked the genuine excitement I had for the other meals. 

Do you get free drink on a TUI fight?

Yes! On TUI long-haul Dreamliner flights, both meals and drinks are complimentary. For the price of the flight, I actually felt that they were quite generous with their free alcohol offering – wine, spirits, and beers were offered with every meal. 

I would recommend that you take an empty bottle on to your flight so you can ask the team to fill it with water as required. There were long periods of time when the cabin crew didn’t come by with the trolley, and I heard a number of passengers complaining about being thirsty. The staff were always happy to top up my bottle. 

TUI vegan food conclusion

I’m going in high for this one – 4 out of 5! TUI were so close to bagging a full 5 points for their plant-based food offering, and I’d go as far as to say they’re one of the best I’ve ever seen. However, they lose a top score for the sad fruit dessert (the 80’s called, they want their menu back). Breakfast could have been better, but the offering wasn’t any less than that given to the non-vegans.