Originally Posted by SteveHK

So I happen to be personal friends with the lady who runs the entire BOB program and had dinner with her last night. One of the major issues is that flight attendants give out so much food without charging or ringing it up in the system. Since there's no data on things that flight attendants just give away, the operations data thinks that United is throwing away tons of food from every flight, so underestimates how much fresh food needs to be boarded. It's a systemic problem. She regularly tells flight attendants even if you're giving it for free, at least put it in the system as a 'comp'. FAs regularly complain to her that there's not enough food on board, but they're preventing the airline from knowing how much is actually eaten.

(Speaking only for myself, not on behalf of my employer)