Much ink has been spent on this website about Vistara’s stance on meal services. Last year (2021), after the second wave, Vistara decided to stop meal service on most flights and replaced it with snack boxes that were handed out to everyone. Vistara was inferring the DGCA circular on low-contact and serving only packaged products to its advantage, as these meal boxes cost them next to nothing in terms of cash outgo but allowed them to claim they are a full-service carrier.

Unfortunately, there were many customer complaints for months (including yours truly), and things came to a head in October 2021, when the airline decided to re-introduce meals. Vistara publicly announced that they were only going to re-introduce hot vegetarian meals in economy class, and these meals indeed have been back on the Vistara flights I’ve flown since. Note that the hot meals are only back on flights above 2 hours block time. Other sectors still received those soddy sandwiches, though. In January 2022, Vistara brought back the non-vegetarian main meals as well, although they have not publicly spoken about this.

Hot Beverages, as per Vistara, were discontinued because of low-contact requirements of the DGCA, however, the other reason was that there are only 4 flight crew that are flying on the plane now, compared to the earlier 5. So, one crew serves Business Class, one is shared between Premium Economy and Economy and two take care of Economy Class only. However, given the wave is easing out, and Air India is providing a full-service meal option on Air India, Vistara has decided to resurrect full-service levels by March 1, 2022.

Some flights have already seen the return of hot beverages. Air India has been doing this since January 2022.

@Vinamralongani @LiveFromALounge Hot beverage service has resumed on Vistara in economy on certain sectors.This evening my family were served tea/coffee on UK955 Del-Bom. Crew also informed, hot beverage service has resumed in Y class on Bom-Blr sector from today.

— GurlinSingh Abrol (@rajabrol) February 11, 2022

The service will be progressively rolled out across all sectors by March 1, 2022.

What now remains to be seen is if Vistara also brings back other amenities such as newspapers, blankets, water pour over water bottles back on board.

Bottomline

Vistara is slowly bringing back the service levels to pre-pandemic levels. This includes non-vegetarian meals and tea/coffee service across all cabins. I guess, I’d say better late than never.

What do you make of Vistara’s reversal of their earlier stance, since DGCA has not changed their guidelines on meal service yet? 

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