Baze

I have asked many (probably 10) FA's about this and the consensus is, if it is during a standard meal time they will provide a snack box free. If it is a flight outside meal times you have to pay as you would not have gotten a meal anyways. 9 of the 10 said this so I would lean more to this is the policy. I won't say it IS the official UA policy but when 90% of polled FA's say the exact same thing I would lean towards believing it. They definitely don't advertise it and don't make the offer of it and when they do it they tend to keep it on the down low. I know I have ben in the exit row on flights and they have run out of snack boxes and I seen a couple go up into F. I was a little pissed as I was hungry. And before you all go saying why didn't I get something in the airport, blah, blah, blah, it was an extremely short connection that I barely made and there was no time to stop and get something. I won't get into details about why it was an extremely short connection. That is for another thread at another time if I choose to talk about it.

So when you are in F it is a nice thing to get a snack box. When you are in Y and see snack boxes go to F and there are none left for you, you get a little pissed.

bmr12

It's pretty ridiculous to serve food (for which one must pay) in coach while offering nothing to eat at all in first. At an (unacceptable) minimum first should be given the same opportunity as coach to purchase the food that is on the plane.

N1120A

After the merger, it was made against policy to comp snack boxes to F and some sUA FAs even got in trouble. That was compounded by the poor catering quality and the shift toward more red meat on flights, which more sCO style. Enough people complained that snack boxes came back as options when something ran out in F. I'm not sure how that works with the new meal service, given that there are 3 choices and they seem to cater a bit more food (still was kind of bad the other day, when they only catered 3 salads on a flight out of LAX, but tons of "Tandoori" Chicken and stuffed pasta).

Anyway, it seems that this was one of those non-"meal time" flights, whatever that means. Still, I'm a little surprised they didn't pass the snack basket and/or offer a small snack.

That is fairly surprising, as they changed that policy back to the old sUA one a while back. Was this an sCO or sUA flight?

PMUA also served meals on appropriate segments.

blueman2

Same thing x2 on regional flights. You have to be in Y to buy BoB. They refused to even sell it to me in F, until all Y pax were given the chance to buy. Even when NO meal service in F.

United's logic on customer service completely escapes me.

Michilander

+1

fumje

But I think you're recognising that flying on a UA airplane is inching closer and closer to becoming a state of privation. And that is really the point, rather than some 'entitled' or 'not entitled' calculus for the limited benefits, a limitation that is only being imposed by a—in my opinion short-sighted—relentless effort to cut costs.

There isn't some universal supply of snack boxes; there is just United's revenue and United's costs, and the question of where its passengers fit in to that dichotomy.

abaheti

I'm fascinated that this vocabulary has spread to the front line employees. They must really be hammering it home.

Personally, as a vegetarian, I've been forced to resort to the boxes when there is no food option. Some FAs just hand me a box, some charge, some say they are going to charge and then never do. YMMV.

emcampbe

There is a note on meals on the e-receipt UA sends, when you see your reservation online, and you can see it when viewing flight status. While you certainly don't need to like that there was no dinner service on a flight that length, it certainly shouldn't have been a surprise, and if it was, you missed it in several places. Now you know where to look next time.

As to your carry-on bag, how big was it - does it meet the carry-on dimensions and/or fit in the sizer (which is actually bigger then the dimensions? (And using - but I was allowed to bring it on last time doesn't address that). Or did you board late and there was no room in the overhead. On mainline, that is the only time I have been "forced" to gate check a bag.

I hate to bring up PMUA vs. PMCO, however, my experience is PMUA has tended not to charge, and PMCO does. And we've done this a bit since my wife is veggie, so it's often the snack box or nothing.

That's refreshments only, now.

Actually, doesn't matter what you want to call it, SFO-YVR is J, not F. For some strange reason, flights to Canada, with the same service standard as domestic flights, are business, while domestic flights are F.

IME, short flights are now showing, at least on flight status, as "no meal or snack available, beverage service only" for F/J (to/from Canada) when there is indeed the snack basket. I flew ORD-YYZ in F a couple of days ago and that's what it said but there was indeed the basket, and that's what it says for my flight today.

I do give them credit for rotating the items in basket a bit every time though - either different products or flavors. Yesterday I saw Biscoffs and I don't think I've seen them for a long time - the popcorn is kettle corn sometimes, cheddar popcorn others, etc. I loved seeing the Dancing Deer cookies I really like on one flight a while ago out of ORD, but haven't seen them back since, so I wish I'd see them back more.

spin88

OP, sorry about your experience, its frustrating to be on a flight at the end of the day (particularly when you have connected and this is your second flight, or had to dash for the airport so no time to eat) and have paid for First Class, but find the experience is really United's version of First Classless. Hopefully you did not try the coffee, that is vial, as is the ETOH beverage selection. Basically United now offers its own version of the "Big Front Seat" experience.

The take away is don't pay for First on United, fly another airline (VX, DL, AA, AS) that offers better service. Its not surprise that United's yields are down very sharply compared to competitors, people leave as they find the UA experience is bad.

This issue (no "snack plate") in F on long flights - including TCONS - has been discussed a lot in the thread about new domestic food. Many of us said that it was a bad move - the little bit of savings would be swamped by the further damage to the brand - and your Post is just a real live example of this.

I would write to UA, tell them that given this experience you are unlikely to fly them again (if this is true) its important for them to have feedback to ignore.

euslaner

I was on UA 408 SFO-IAD Sunday (upgraded with RPU plane downgraded from 3 class 777 to 2 class 777, with old style F seats). I don't like cereal and get sick eating eggs (the options were eggs or French toast). The purser gave me a second fruit plate since my seat mate didn't want hers and then got me a Tapas box from Y. I didn't have to pay for it. Didn't think much of it before reading this.

notquiteaff

Tell the OP of this thread

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ing-issue.html

DELee

spin88:

I'd highlight that the OP self identifies as a GS. Also since the flight was on a 757 between IAH and SFO, that's a 757-300 - a sCO flight. I see this thread as a result of a sCO crew who didn't care who was in that F seat and what that person paid. Given the rolleyes, the OP could contact GS but, as you've highlighted before, the current management at UA actively is not seeking ways to improve service to HVF - just ways of cutting costs and copying what it can from DL.

David

sfo

Have a flight from YVR to SFO in First, the original time of the flight was to include a dinner service, UA pushed back the time by 2 minutes, guess what no dinner service, now it is refreshments. Not that I really care, as I will go to the MLL and have some decent food prior to boarding the flight.

cmculp

Hence United's longest domestic flight, departing HNL for its 13 hour trek to EWR at 8:10 is a snack flight...because it is 10 min out of the dinner window.

kettle1

Unbelievable. to the bean counters in Willis Tower!