erdehoff

UA lets you select or request a certain selection of meals online. The online FAQ lists a number of meals (including the one I medically require, the gluten-free meal) that are available but that cannot be selected online; you have to call customer service (for us lowly 2Ps, that means India) to get them to attach the meal request to your itinerary, which may or may not actually result in your getting the requested meal, as I've found to my cost.

So what's the deal? UA can't spare a few lines of code to include all of the "medically necessary" meal options on the Web site, so they'd rather I use cell phone minutes (we crazy kids don't have home phones, don't you know) and struggle to make the Indian CSR understand what I want?

I am grateful to UA for providing the option of a gluten-free meal, which is medically necessary for me, but I wish they wouldn't make me jump through hoops that, say, a diabetic or a vegetarian can avoid.

(I'm not sure whether this is true of other airlines, as UA is the only one I fly in F or international -- mods, please feel free to move this to TravelBuzz or elsewhere if more relevant.)

heffa

Yeah, I heard that they wanted to do it, but they couldn't find any programmers who understood how to program .bomb anymore!

beamMeUp38

I think it would be a good idea to implement this and many of some other minor little things in .bomb.
Frequent traverlers do not like to wait to be connected to a CSR. If we could do it on the Internet via .bomb, a lot of us would probably just use the Internet and free up the phone line and thus lower UA's operational cost...

But perhaps such improvement is too difficult to implement since it needs to integrate with the database and if the programs were not professionally coded in the beginning, the task will be prohibitively expensive...

PVDProf

Can an MP CSR code your meal preference into your profile, so the request is included on all your .bomb reservations? I can set all the choices available online, but I don't know about the others. The profile feature was mostly successful back when the cold seafood meal was the best thing in Y. (Still might suggest calling for each flight since it's necessary for you.)

linsj

Even if it were in your profile, it's still necessary to call to be sure it gets boarded. I used to have diabetic meals in my profile, but they rarely made the flights unless I confirmed them 24 hours in advance.

erdehoff

Grr. Sounds like my best option is to make 1P or better in hopes of avoiding the ICC, then... (14K to go!)

FlyinHawaiian

I just sent UA Customer Relations a flame mail to complain about their process. My special meal wasn't boarded on my outbound flight (yes, I forgot to call, but it's still in my profile) and they boarded the wrong special meal on my return (Hindu meals should not have butter and cheesecake).

asya999

I run into that issue all the time. I get diabetic snacks that are all pure simple carbs. Meals are okay but when it's a snack flight, forget it...

erdehoff

FlyinHawaiian, I sent the same thing last night (well, a very strongly worded if borderline polite e-mail thanking them for giving me the chance to use the air sickness bag for the first time). Maybe if we do it enough they'll take another look at their catering practices, though I can't say I'm holding my breath.

I usually bring snacks and meal replacement bars just in case, but the most recent incident took place on a redeye for which I went straight from work to the airport and I was so frazzled I forgot to pack emergency rations. Won't make that mistake again.

c.l.i.a

Is it possible to do so or I have to call reservation? Any advice would be appreciated.

Sorry if this was asked before.

FlyinHawaiian

You can place your special meal request in your profile, but I have less than 50% success with that.

The only way to get a reasonable success rate is to call reservations. Even then, it's not 100%.

MatthewLAX

Do you ask for a SkyKit each time your special meal is not loaded?

FlyinHawaiian

Of course I do!

c.l.i.a

Thank you for moving my post here.

Thank you for the advice.

trekwars2000

I did a search and couldn't find anything. I just changed from the normal meal to a special meal in my profile. Do I need to call in 2 days before my flights to request the meals or does my profile suffice?

Thanks.