Gluten Free on the Go: 10 Gluten Free Travel Tips When Flying

This month’s gluten free on the go feature comes courtesy of Adam Bryan who is the founder of the amazing resource site Gluten Free Guide HQ.   This site is by far one of the best gluten free resources on the web right now. It’s gives a plethora of tips about:

• “What restaurants offer gluten free options?”
• “Are there any restaurants that almost eliminate the risk of cross-contamination?”
• “What on earth can I eat at McDonalds, Taco Bell, or any other fast food restaurant?”
• “Since I’m a Celiac, can I eat out safely?”
• “How can I eat at a restaurant comfortably without getting sick?”
• “Where can I get a juicy cheeseburger on a freshly baked bun?”

I’m fortunate to have Adam’s expertise on how to create a stress free no hassle gluten free airline experience. Check out his article below and be sure to follow his twitter (@Urbantasetebuds) and facebook pages as well as purchase his book The Gluten Free Fast Food Guide at Amazon.com10 Gluten Free Travel Tips When Flying by Adam BryanWinter is just around the corner and that means more opportunities for travelers to take holiday vacations and trips.Whether if you’re taking a Thanksgiving trip to Disney World, or seeing relatives in England for Christmas, preparing for a trip that requires air travel can sometimes be a hassle. First of all, it sometimes become quite difficult trying to find something suitable to eat at an airport. And second of all, most airlines don’t serve gluten free snacks on their flights. I mean seriously, it’s almost like as if they don’t even serve peanuts anymore. Instead, airlines have opted to serve mini-pretzels, in which 99.99% of the time are not gluten free. So how do you create a stress free travel environment especially when you have to venture into unknown airports and airlines? Well that’s where these 10 extremely helpful tips and tricks come in!Booking Your Flight1. Order a gluten free meal for your flight. If you know for sure that you will be flying internationally, be sure to request a gluten free meal (GFML) when you book your flight. (This only works if your flight will be serving a meal. Now if you are flying domestically and still want a gluten free meal, a few airlines such as United Airlines, Delta, and Virgin America do offer gluten free meal options, for an additional cost, unless you’re flying first class. So just be sure to do your research first. Here’s a pretty awesome gluten free airline meal list for most major airlines across globe. Plus this will tell you if your airline has gluten free meals that are Celiac friendly.Packing2. When packing your bags for your upcoming trip, be sure to bring along a few snacks with you. Preferably, you should bring prepackaged items such as chips, or pretzels, candy bars, etc. Fruits are only suitable for domestic flights (within the U.S.) and not internationally only because every country’s customs laws vary.At the Airport3. Now if you did request a gluten free meal (GFML) for your flight, be sure to check in with the gate representative to ensure that your meal request was received. This can be done when you’re checking in at your flight or when you’re at the gate.Tip: Now if the airline that you ordered a meal from dropped the ball and didn’t process your meal request, be sure to find a suitable food place within the airport to get yourself another meal. There’s more on this on tip #4.4. If you are eating at an airport, be sure to check out the food directory to see what’s available.  Since a majority of these fast food restaurants in airport food courts are chain restaurants, chances are you can find their gluten free menu online. You can check out this handy list of gluten free restaurant menus to help you make safer choices.5. If you didn’t bring any snacks with you to the airport and you know that your flight is long but doesn’t serve any food, be sure to stop by a snack shop at the airport. These places are usually disguised as magazine stores but they do have a snack section. The safest bets are always fruit cups especially if you are unsure if other snacks contain gluten or not.6.  Bring an extra meal with you. Airlines make mistakes, so there may be times that airlines forget your meal completely or worse, they have a meal waiting for you, but it has gluten written all over it. If this happens, you’re basically going to have to starve for the entire duration of your flight. BUT, this can all be avoided if you come prepared with a second meal. This tip isn’t always necessary but it’s always a great thing to ensure the safety  and comfort of your belly.In the Airplane7. The last tip is to double check the “gluten-free-ness” of your inflight meal. Like I mentioned earlier, airlines do make mistakes so there may be times that they items with gluten in your meal. I mean seriously, there have been incidences when people have received toast or soy sauce with their gluten free meal. So always double check your meal.So by following these 7 steps/tips, you’ll be sure to never go hungry when traveling through the air. Thanks for reading and happy travels!