It’s probably fair to say that Thanksgiving will be like no other this year as cases of the novel Coronavirus surge across many parts of the United States and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advise American’s to avoid travel or large gatherings over the holiday season. It may well come as no surprise then that many airlines have curtailed normal Thanksgiving celebrations with passengers on some big U.S. carriers lucky to even get a snack bag.
That’s not the case for at least one airline and the name of the airline still offering a special Thanksgiving menu may well surprise you. In fact, it’s not even a U.S. carrier but Qatar Airways that will serve a traditional Thanksgiving meal in all cabins along with all the trimmings on flights from Doha to the United States.
So what does this Thanksgiving feast look like? Well, for Business Class passengers, the meal will start off with an appetiser of pan-seared scallops with a goat cheese mousse, compressed butternut, beetroot and tomato washed down with a pumpkin and passionfruit lemonade.
The main course is, of course, roasted turkey stuffed with spinach and chestnuts, served alongside mashed potato, broccolini, goji berries and turkey jus. And to finish the festivities off, a dessert of pumpkin mousse cake with salted caramel will be on offer followed by Godiva chocolates.
In Economy, the Thanksgiving lunch isn’t quite so elaborate but passengers will still get to enjoy turkey chasseur with mashed potato and mixed vegetables, followed by a pumpkin cheese mousse. Oh, and more Godiva chocolates.
Sadly, passengers travelling with American Airlines, Delta or United this Thanksgiving won’t be enjoying anything quite so elaborate with all three airlines confirming that they had no plans to serve special meals.
In a statement, Delta said it would continue to offer snack bags as a way to reduce touchpoints while maintaining their “desire to deliver the best in-flight service while keeping customers safe and at ease”.
Qatar Airways, on the other hand, has only slightly altered its normal meal service as a result of the pandemic, removing printed menus in Economy covering Business Class meals with plastic covers.
The airline, however, says it has implemented stringent health and safety onboard its flight while still being able to maintain a near-normal meal service. In fact, Qatar Airways claims to have flown 37,000 COVID-free flights between February and October and says only 0.002 per cent of operating cabin crew are known to have become infected with the Coronavirus.
In the run up to Thanksgiving, the Doha-based airline ramped up flights to the United States, adding additional services added to New York JFK and Chicago. The airline now serves 10 destinations across the United States, with a total of 61 flights per week to San Francisco (SFO), Boston (BOS), Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Houston (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), Philadelphia (PHL) and Washington, D.C. (IAD), as well as New York (JFK) and Chicago (ORD).
