PTahCha

Domesticated? Was Martha Stewart onboard?

amartin1979

Just wait until they move to a full BOB model on TPAC routes. They already do it on routes where they have no foreign competition. Guam to Honolulu and Hawaii to the mainland. And these flights are often longer than TATL. The only reason why UA keeps TATL and TPAC service levels with some complementary meals is because it would not be competitive with the foreign carriers otherwise.

EWRMAN

depends which foreign competitors

greg99

It has been a number of years since I've flown from Europe in Y, but I was really surprised to find that the pretzel roll sandwich and potato chips were the pre-arrival snack.

It was far less substantial (and I thought less "tasty" (relative standard)) than the French toast and fruit that I was served on the same route eastbound.

And while I dozed off for a little while, so may have missed it, I didn't see them do a pass through with the BoB, although it was available in the back.

In the FA's defense, though, they were minimum crew.

Greg

mduell

Am I the only one in this thread who doesn't see this as an issue?

A 10 hour period, where you're largely sedentary and often sleeping, with a lunch or dinner before it and breakfast after it... sounds like something most people do every day.

JBord

Yes, I routinely go about 12 hours, and had the same reaction as you. As much as I hate to say this, on some flights I don't need to eat as often as they serve. On a short TATL from EWR, I had dinner and then they served breakfast less than 5 hours later. I had a few bites since I didn't know how long it would be until lunch.

greg99

True, but you're illustrating the point that others have made: that which is acceptable on a TATL out of EWR/IAD is not necessarily so on a TPAC flight.

SFO-HKG feeds you lunch in the early afternoon, and then nothing but BoB until roughly 2AM body time. Most people would not eat a small lunch (like that which UA serves in Y) and then nothing for dinner.

I prefer the BoB to the little sandwiches, but I do think the meal service is inadequate, and have to supplement with panini or something that I get at the airport.

Greg

B747SP

On a recent TATL route CDG-SFO the flight attendants gave out crackers and cheese as the mid-flight snack, and then offered BoB snack boxes for sale. I felt very hungry after the flight. One meal and a small sandwich for a 12-hour flight were simply not enough food. FAs certainly figured out that passengers would be even more grumpy had they distributed the crackers and cheese as the appetizer before the meal, so they kept those as the mid-flight offering. I wonder if the management knows about this practice.

kluau88

I pretty much echo these comments. There is something wrong when the service is the same on a 8 hour flight to Europe and a 15 hour flight to Asia. While the sandwiches may not have been the greatest in Economy at least they were of some substance compared to what is in a BOB snack box, which some would see more as "processed junk food."

An interesting statistic would be to see what is the average flight time of a pmUA INTL flight and a pmCO INTL flight.

thejaredhuang

Flew IAH to MUC last week, meal consisted of:
Crackers+Milk Product (I refuse to call it cheese when the label calls it a milk product and when it doesn't taste like cheese)


Pasta (ravioli) or Chicken/mashed potatoes + cold roll, chickpea salad


Vanilla ice cream


Pre-arrival:
Cold croissant with strawberry jam.


I haven't flown TATL in Y for 6 years but this seemed worse than what I received TPAC in January. In all honestly I think they could save time if they just kept the old service. IMO its the same exact food except they just space it out into "3 courses". The ice cream is an upgrade on a cookie/cake they used to supply. Pre-arrival for was "breakfast" and was unacceptable. Maybe if the croissant was warm it would have been passable but there was no protein.

On the return I flew LHR-IAH. Pretty much the same options but pre-arrival for lunch was the warm turkey sandwich.



Overall it was par for the course from United however the IAH-MUC croissant definitely needs to be eliminated. The one really good aspect about splitting the meal into courses is that you can get drinks twice. Normally I would need to ring my bell as one 4oz cup of water isn't enough for me.

RandomBaritone

No, it's not just you.

I find the rhetoric about how cruel UA is being by not offering free food during an 8-10 hour sleep period to be baffling. If you routinely eat while sleeping and need a midnight snack, bring it on board or purchase it. It's not rocket science.

spin88

nearly (as in 90+%) everyone who has posted after being on these TPAC flights has not been happy.

The west coast flights leave at 11-noon, and people get fed at 1-1:30 pm biological time, and no most folks don't fall asleep (some do, some don't) to then not feed folks until 11 pm or midnight (and then a very crappy light "snack" at most given the portion size) is not going over very well.

TPAC west bound it is less of an issue ex-Japan, but ex-HKG (or China) the flights leave at noon-ish (hkg is 11:30 am) and the current "savvy" plan feeds folks a crappy/small/junky meal at about 1 pm, then nothing until a yet smaller/crappier meal at about 11 pm biological time.

While I agreed the heavy medication to cause sleep is probably the way to deal with any United Airlines flight I can assure you that no other airline flying TPAC on these routes is only serving two meals, let alone of the low quality that UA serves. Every other airline serves three meals, and of better quality. I've recently been on CX, Asiana, JAL, and ANA, all blow United's doors off. United is not only not competitive, but starving folks is not going over well.

greg99

Agreed with all (and it's applicable to the early bank of eastbound SFO/LAX-Europe and all of the westbound flights, as well).

It's not a function of being cruel. It's just unpleasant to have to think about carrying food (other than granola bars/candy/etc.) that will still be viable after many hours unrefrigerated.

Greg

GS8101

On a recent west bound TPAC, my daughter brought two sandwiches on board.

sincx

It's a plot to sell snack boxes. Nothing more, nothing less.

I expect minimal complaints honestly because people are so used to paying for everything at this point.

People that still fly UA t-pac are still flying UA for a reason (i.e. company policy, lack of trust in Asian airlines' pilot training standards, close to 1MM, concerns about English, GPU lottery, etc.) and they aren't going to switch to an Asian carrier just because they have to pay $7.99 for a mid-flight snack box.