All the reason UA should move to a pre-ordering system like AA and (now) DL does.
UA should also have a chart distributed to FA's, with a list of F passengers who are paid F, CPU'd, and then OP-UP'd at no cost. The FA can then determine how to prioritize meal orders, based on status of payment towards the F cabin and elite status.
IMHO, a fair tiered level would be, for meal priority, from top to bottom:
-Paid F tickets (elites, then non-elites)
-TOD upfares (elites, then non-elites)
-CPU by GS, 1K, other elites
-Non-elite paying passengers who got bumped to F (due to oversales, etc.)
-Employees on free travel
Thoughts? That way, passengers who paid something tangible to get into the F cabin would get prioritized meals, then upgrades/non-elite bumps/employees on free travel gets the remaining choices (or, in this case, nothing). More fair that way, IMHO.
Originally Posted by
mjcecil
All the more reason to request a Kosher meal if you're going to book as an F passenger. That meal then becomes tied to your record, and you'll always get it if they are capable of serving it on the flight.
If I'm not mistaken, UA
only offers special meals for 2000+ mile flights, so in this case, it wouldn't apply (AUS-EWR is less than 2000 miles).