Booking through a travel agent? How to make sure your halal meal request reaches the airline

Why an agent booking needs extra care

When you book yourself, you see the meal selector and can check the result. When an agent books for you, the meal request travels through a chain: your instruction, the agent's notes, the booking system, and finally the airline's catering list. A break at any point leaves you with a printed itinerary that looks fine and a tray with no halal meal on it.

Agents are generally able to enter dietary requests, but several airlines say plainly that a request has to be tied to the right carrier, passenger and flight, and that late requests cannot be processed. The practical aim of this page is to turn a vague phone call into a clear, checkable instruction, and then to confirm that it landed.

The same advice applies whether you use a high-street agency, a corporate travel desk, an Umrah or Hajj operator or an online agency with a call centre.

Tell the agent exactly what you need

The word halal can mean different things to different people. Airlines work with fixed meal categories, and the agent needs to pick one. Decide in advance which of the following describes you.

Common requirements

• A standard Muslim meal. Airlines usually call this MOML. Delta's agency page, for example, states that its Muslim meals are halal certified and contain no pork, pork by-products or alcohol, while ANA describes its Muslim meal as excluding pork products, gelatin, alcohol, alcohol-based flavouring extracts and seafood from species without scales or fins. Definitions differ, so ask the agent to read the airline's wording to you.
• A combined need. If you also need a diabetic, low-salt, gluten-free or child meal, say so. Some airlines allow only one special meal code per passenger, so the agent should ask which takes priority.
• A stricter standard. If you want meat certified by a particular body, tell the agent, then ask the airline directly whether it can meet it. An agent cannot promise that.

Write the instruction down in one sentence, such as: Muslim meal, all passengers, all flight segments, outbound and return.

One request per passenger, per flight

Group and family bookings are where requests most often fail. A note on the invoice that says the group eats halal is not necessarily the same as a meal code attached to each traveller.

• Ask the agent to attach the request to each named passenger.
• Ask for it to be applied to every flight segment, including connections and the return.
• For children, confirm whether a child or infant meal is a separate code from a Muslim meal, and which the airline allows.

Delta's agency guidance, for instance, tells agents to apply the request to all segments and to create a separate request for each passenger in a group. Other airlines may be less explicit, which is a reason to ask your agent to confirm that this is how the entry was made.

Which airline is actually operating the flight?

Agents often sell one ticket that includes flights marketed by one airline and operated by another. The meal is prepared, loaded and served by the operating carrier, so the request has to reach that carrier.

Points to settle with the agent

• Ask who operates each segment, not just whose name is on the ticket.
• Ask for the booking reference held by each operating airline, so you can contact them directly.
• Check whether the airline accepts special meals on partner-operated or codeshare flights at all. Hong Kong Airlines, for example, states that its special meals are not available on special, charter, interline or codeshare flights, and ANA tells codeshare passengers to contact ANA to make the request.

This page does not cover codeshare rules in depth; the page on halal meal requests on codeshare flights deals with that case.

Deadlines the agent has to meet

Special meals are ordered from the caterer before departure, so airlines set a cut-off. The cut-off is the airline's, not the agent's, and it varies widely.

• Delta's agency page says requests must be entered at least 24 hours before departure.
• Hong Kong Airlines asks for orders at least 24 hours before departure, including through a travel agent, and does not accept new or changed requests inside that window.
• SriLankan Airlines asks for requests at least 48 hours before departure, and lists a travel agent as one of its request channels.
• ANA gives different limits depending on the channel used, and tells passengers who bought at a travel agency to make requests through that agency.

These are examples from the pages consulted; deadlines can change, so ask your agent for the figure for your specific airline and date, and ask them to enter the request immediately instead of nearer the day.

Get a useful written confirmation

Oral assurance is not proof. Ask the agent to send you a message that names:

• The meal type or code requested, such as Muslim meal (MOML).
• Each passenger's name as on the ticket.
• Each flight number and date.
• The airline's own booking reference for each carrier.
• The date and time the request was entered.

A reply that says food is arranged tells you nothing. If the agent sends a copy of the booking record showing the special service entry, keep it with your travel documents. It is also useful at the airport if the airline has no record of your request.

Verify directly with the airline

You do not have to rely on the agent's word alone. Once you have the airline's booking reference, you can check.

• Look up the booking on the airline's website or app, where the airline allows agent bookings to be retrieved, and see whether a meal appears against each passenger.
• If it does not show online, phone the airline's reservations line and ask them to read back the special service entries on the booking.
• Ask the airline to confirm that the meal will be loaded for your date, rather than merely that the request exists.

Delta's agency page suggests calling its sales support or reservations to confirm that the request was made, and also says passengers should tell the gate agent and a flight attendant. Some airlines will not show agent-made requests in the passenger's online account, in which case a phone call is the check to use.

Re-check after any change to the ticket

Changes made by the agent are a common point at which special meal entries disappear. Re-issuing a ticket, moving to a different date, swapping a carrier or splitting a booking can create a new record without the old service request.

• After every change, ask the agent to confirm that the meal entries are still there.
• Ask whether the new departure is still outside the airline's deadline.
• If you added a paid meal in addition to the special request, ask whether both survived.

Delta's agency guidance says to re-request the meal after voluntary changes and, after a schedule change, at least 24 hours before the new flight. The same habit is sensible with any airline.

The related page on reconfirming a Muslim meal after a flight change goes into this in more detail.

Checklist, and what to do if it goes wrong

1. Decide the meal type and tell the agent in one sentence.
2. Ask for a separate request for each passenger and each segment.
3. Find out which airline operates every flight.
4. Ask for the airline's cut-off and the date the request was entered.
5. Get written confirmation naming the meal, passenger, flight and booking reference.
6. Verify with the airline directly, online or by phone.
7. Re-check after any amendment.
8. Tell the crew at boarding that you have a Muslim meal booked.

If the meal is not there

Show the written confirmation to the crew, accept a suitable alternative if one is offered and note what you were given. After the trip, write to both the agent and the airline, with your documents attached. Where the agent failed to enter the request, the agent is the first party to ask for a remedy, and a trade body or consumer authority in your country may help if the response is poor.

Frequently asked questions