When travelling on flights where meals are included, travellers who need special meals, such as vegetarian or kosher, are, in my experience, typically required to make such a request by phone.

For the traveller, this might mean a 15 minute hold, followed by a 1 minute phonecall.  After all, the operator simply needs to make an entry into a database somewhere.

Why don't airlines offer seem to offer travellers the option to select their special meal request through an online interface?  Or do I just have the bad luck to happen to fly with airlines where this request can only be made by phone?

Examples: [Air Transat](http://www.airtransat.ca/en-CA/Travel-information/Special-services/Special-meal-requests), [Korean Air](https://www.koreanair.com/content/koreanair/global/en/traveling/classes-of-service.html#in-flight-special-meals) both require to contact the service centre by telephone.