Flying (strictly) Gluten Free on Finnair

Helsinki makes GF feel like easy mode, well, at least easier. But heading to the airport, one just never knows and yet, I figured Finnair would get it right given the prevalence of Celiac across Finland. Fast forward to the important part and yup. I mean it was still economy plane food but it was probably the best GF plane food I’ve had in economy so far (I grant, that’s a low bar) and certainly the most actual meal experience. So let’s jump in to the good, the meh, and the CC risk, shall we?

The basics: This flight was part of a longer trip back from Helsinki to Portland and booked using airline miles via Alaska. It was a pretty great deal burning around 17,500 points and $60ish in taxes/fees for a simple economy seat waaaay in the back.

Flight time was about 11 hours with two meals included and no mentions of snacks.

Ordering the meal: I booked via Alaska and shot Finnair a note to confirm my meal. Looks like something you can do online closer to departure, or maybe always on the right ticket, but I didn’t see the option when I first went looking.

Once booked, this showed up in the Finnair app and site, making it 97% confident it would show up. And it did.

The plane food:

Our plane was shockingly empty (ok, maybe not a shock given the absurdity of traveling into the US right now) but it did mean I had the chance to snag a full row to myself and confuse the heck out of the flight attendants. After confirming I was me and that I did indeed want a GF meal, everything came out exactly as expected.

The first meal was served about an hour and a half in featuring GFML/NLML (lactose free) meatballs with coleslaw (not my fav), a roll (always appreciated), and a cake (absolutely my favorite). Now I had just had an absolutely amazing meatball dish in the airport a couple hours before as shared below so the taste test was basically doomed from the start but even still, it was decent.

Not something I’d buy in a restaurant but something I’d gladly eat again. The roll was typical dry GF bread and the cake pretty solid. All said, a nice enough meal and leaps and bounds ahead of the fruit cups and free-from-fun food I had on the way over with KLM. Everything came labeled, covered, and the baked items were fully wrapped giving me little doubt this was all CC-safe level eats.

As has usually been the case, the second meal was a much simpler dish but I would argue much better and certainly better than the photos suggest. This time it was a decent sized chicken breast well seasoned and properly warmed up with a side of quinoa and two lonely looking broccoli. Flavor was impressively good and getting solid protein and some fiber was certainly welcome. Once again, the package (just a box) was clearly labeled and looked to have been prepped sealed.

That was about it beyond drinks. No snacks were offered up but as I had brought plenty of bars, chips, and had the last few pieces of dried fruit to polish off before customs, it was hardly an issue.

The airport food:

If Finland isn’t on your radar, it should be both for the sights and the “OMG, there is food all over!” vibe (they have a lot of Celiacs, so no shock there). But of course, this does not always translate to the airport experience and so I was totally stoked to discover that I had not just an option but all sorts of options.

Since one never knows what the plane will be like, I elected to splurge a bit and had an early lunch at Nordic Kitchen (multiple locations around the airport). Much of their menu was GF and so I figured one last chance for meatballs. The dish that came out was absolutely amazing for an airport, GF or not. Even now knowing that the plane would serve them again, I’d have still picked it.

I also snagged a mini cinnamon roll (GF of course). While not nearly as good as a fresh one from say Stockholm’s Happy Atelier bakery (sooooo good), it was decent enough to wish I’d had a second.

Finally, there is a great grocery store before security (yes, in the airport) full of fresh and prepared food. Obviously you can’t bring everything through but perfect for a pre-check in drink and final snack grabs.

And the bottom line: Sure, it was still 100% economy food and it does stink to have no choice in what you get but that’s a lot less of a stink than getting nothing or than getting yet another free-from-everything meal. Finnair did a superb job and I’d love to see what things are like in a fancier cabin.

But as always, I brought snacks too. You never know (and I certainly needed them for Miami too, that airport has nothing and I mean nothing, but more on that in another post)!