MrAndy1369

Here's my idea. Please share any feedback/suggestions.

UA should seriously consider re-investing in their premium products and doing a full top-bottom redo of all soft products, as well as simplifying the nomenclature of premium cabins, such as:

United First
United Business (3-class)
United BusinessFirst (2-class)

For all premium cabins, right now, servingware (plates/bowls/forks/cups/linens) are a dizzingly overlapping, confusing mix of pmCO/pmUA, and are old. CO servingware was introduced more than 10 years ago; UA about 8-9 (correct me if I'm wrong). New servingware would be optimal for a refresh of the premium products UA has to offer, as well as restoring confidence in the products being offered. It may seem silly, but just getting new-style servingware may help people to want to try F/J again.

First (Int'l) should retain the current, traditional white linen UA offers, with bigger, round plates/bowls and gold trim. Gold is a nice color for a top-notch premium cabin (and IIRC, UA used to print gold boarding passes for those in F). Maybe a bread basket with white linen for every customer, like LH does (IIRC).

Business (3-class), as well as domestic F (non-transcons) should get a beige or plaid linen tablecloth and a stylish tray placed on top of the tablecloth, as well as square plates/bowls (similar to what DL does now).

BusinessFirst (2-class) and domestic transcon F should get a navy blue tray linen, atop a white tablecloth. As for servingware, slightly-smaller-than-Int'l F round plates/bowls with blue trim should do the trick.

Coffee mugs and ramekins should be standardized, but having color-specific trim to said cabin (neutral white styles for all cabins are OK as well). Forks, spoons, and knives are bigger in Int'l F and BusinessFirst/transcon F, but standard in 3-class Business and regular domestic F. Cups should be fully standardized, with wine glasses having taller stems in Int'l F and BusinessFirst/transcon F, but shorter stems otherwise. Napkin linens should be white across the board.

As for the food, Int'l F/BusinessFirst just needs some minor modifications to be more competitive and to try more inventive menu items. Domestic F is a different story - fresh new offerings must be introduced, post haste, before more customers decide domestic F isn't worth their money and the product spirals even further downwards.

Short, regional midcons (ORD-Texas/Colorado/Boston/DC, etc, for instance) should get close to what what they currently get, but healthier menu choices. Calzones, the McMuffin, etc. should be eliminated.

Longer midcons (IAH/ORD-west coast; LAX/SFO-midwest; DEN-east coast; EWR-midwest): AA/US offers appetizers on longer midcons - UA should take a page out of their playbook and offer an appetizer on dinner flights, as well as a light ice-cream dessert service (which AA offers).

Transcons: treat those as BusinessFirst 'lite' like CO used to, with coursed, plated service consisting of an appetizer, salad, main entree, then sundae/fruit&cheese, each served separately. Redeyes should focus on a full pre-arrival breakfast instead of the snack service currently being offered. Lunch/dinner service should be identical, with breakfast being a full breakfast of champions, not the current offerings. AA has recently began offering 3 choices on all transcons, so UA should follow suit. Printed menus would be nice, or UA can save money/paper and go ahead of the curve by trying orders using handheld tablets or whatnot. If UA wants to differentiate transcons between markets, perhaps this would work as a compromise:

Premium Transcons (JFK/EWR/IAD-SFO/LAX, or just JFK-LAX/SFO p.s.): full coursed service, as outlined above (would be nice to expand p.s. to EWR/IAD for premium traffic from LAX/SFO)

Regular Transcons (EWR/IAD/LAX/SFO-opposite coast): appetizer and salad served at the same time; entree; sundae service

Hawaii would most likely fall under premium transcon standards, with the exception of SFO/LAX-HNL service, or maybe a compromise between premium/regular transcon service (bring back the old BF-lite service CO used to offer on Hawaii flights!)

For all flights: preordering. AA offers that, it's amazingly easy and ever-so-convenient. Another brownie point for more revenue F!

Obviously, those ideas will COST MONEY. Yeah, they will. BUT! Here's the thing. Customers will love the new service, they'll invest in more paid F fares, they'll see the new ads, hear about the great new service, and actually want to pay full-fare F. What may be a very expensive investment on UA's part may come back in dividends sooner than we think.

What do you think of my ideas? Do you think UA will ever consider implementing them? Any feedback would be helpful, as well as additional ideas.

mh3265a

If we truly had a merger of equals and they took the best of both airlines your idea would likely have been implemented in some fashion.

Unfortunately, because this causes money I don't see this happening anytime soon. Your point about having different plates etc... is a fair point. I feel the plates and glasses are more consistent now but still some old stuff in cycle. I assume they'll continue removing old glassware over time.

Would love to see a better soft product but without any real competition in the airline industry there is no real impetus to do this. I think UA believes AA will continue making decisions that cut back on cost like DL has done. If AA goes a different direction then maybe we'll see some real enhancements.

UTex09

All good ideas. All ideas that cost $$ for UA, thus we won't see any of them, I fear.

zabes64

If they were really interested in this they'd have done it already, but they are not. They are relying on lack of choice as a reason to fly.

There are so many things that are not standardized that I feel something that will cost them money and include more items they can only use on specific flights will just not happen.

jsdc

Lack of choice is a powerful force. I would love to be able to entertain the option of changing carriers, but I live in DC, and most of my flying is to SFO, LA, Denver, and Kansas City, with relatively frequent trips to Germany.

jpc83

If we're going to play this game, how about wine choices that are better than the bargain bin at specs. i.e. Meiomi as the minimum, not the top end, wine.

austin_res

Good ideas. They will cost UA money and the only way they will be implemented is management is convinced they will bring enough revenue to offset the costs.

Keep in mind as AA goes through its merger with US, AA will look to cut costs which could mean cutbacks in their inflight service.

mgobluetex

Hey, don't you go disrespecting Specs!

FLYMSY

First, get rid of that ridiculous Business"First" name. There is nothing first class about UA's business class product.

transportprof

Perhaps UA or CO was the first to try and palm off Business class as First Class? Could this be what the name BusinessFirst refers to?

FLYMSY

Perhaps, an enhancement?

mgcsinc

These sorts of threads (and I'm as guilty as anyone) always kind of remind me of a high school student council election campaign. "And if I'm elected, I'll ask the principal to give us free donuts every morning!"

DaviddesJ

I want a system where I don't have to fly on the same plane as the person who wants their own special dishes and silverware.

jpc83

No insult intended! But I should at least have the option to drink a bottle of wine that costs more than $8 when I'm spending upwards of $1000 domestically and $4000 internationally.

And look, we know the airlines read these boards, Pointing out actual improvements vs. complaining about how much UA sucks actually gives them a data point to possibly look at. Do I expect them to improve? No. Do I hope they do, yes, obviously.

entropy

no offense to the OP, but its pretty silly to suggest improvements when UA's actions indicate that they are doing everything to make cuts to the product, not the other way around.