Can you request a low-salt meal on an Air India international flight?

Short answer: yes. Air India offers a Low Salt Meal, code LSML, on its international flights. It is listed on the airline's special menu as a vegetarian meal prepared for passengers on a low-sodium diet, with minimum or no salt added during preparation. The catch is timing: like every special meal, it must be pre-ordered - at least 24 hours before departure - and it cannot be arranged at the airport or once you are on board.

What LSML actually is. A special meal coded for low sodium: the kitchen adds minimum or no salt while preparing it. Two honest caveats. First, "no salt added" is not "sodium-free" - ingredients carry their own natural sodium, so this suits a reduced-salt diet, not a strict medical sodium count (your doctor's limits rule). Second, on Air India's current menu LSML is listed as a vegetarian meal - if you need low salt with non-vegetarian food, call customer care and ask what they can do for your route.

How to book it. The airline's own instruction: request your special meal at least 24 hours before the flight. In practice you have two doors - the Air India website, where you add the meal to your booking through the manage-booking flow, or Air India's customer care, who can attach it for you. Booking at ticket purchase is easiest, but adding it to an existing booking works the same way. Just keep the 24-hour line in sight: inside it, the kitchen manifest is closed and the cabin crew cannot conjure an LSML from the regular trolley.

If part of the journey is a partner airline. Air India says it directly: if your flight or part of your journey is operated by a partner airline, contact that carrier's customer care. A special meal request does not travel across airlines on its own - each operating carrier needs its own request for its own leg.

Confirm it actually stuck. After adding the meal, check that it shows in your booking details. A quick re-confirmation with customer care or the app a couple of days before departure costs two minutes and catches dropped requests. On board, when the crew takes meal confirmations early in the flight, a polite "I have a low-salt special meal" reminder helps them find your name on the manifest.

Neighbours on the special menu. If low salt is one of several needs, Air India's list also includes a Diabetic Meal (DBML), prepared with no added sugars and restrained salt, and a Low Fat Meal (LFML). One special meal per passenger is the usual practice, so pick the code that matches your primary medical need - or ask customer care which fits best.

A sensible backup. Special meals occasionally go missing even when booked correctly. Carry a few unsalted snacks from home - plain nuts, roasted chana, fruit - so a manifest error is an inconvenience, not nine hours of hunger on a restricted diet.

How TripKeeper supports this. Dietary needs shape how we plan flights - which codes each airline on your route actually offers, when the request windows close, and what to confirm before departure. Send us a trip-planning inquiry and we will bake it into your itinerary.