December 2, 2020
UA857 SFO-ICN-PVG
Boeing 777-300ER
I've been debating whether or not to post in this forum, as I'm afraid recently a lot of posts have been quite critical about the service and even critical about passengers for choosing to fly United with the current service levels. If anyone is familiar with the situation of flying from US to mainland China, I'm sure you'd understand that I felt lucky just to be able to get a ticket at all to fly, and that I was able to board the flight with the entry requirements and testing requirements. Tickets to China are just very hard to come by nowadays, and one doesn't have the luxury of choosing among many airlines and connection cities. Also, I understand Chinese airlines flying between US and China put a bag of snacks and water at your seat upon boarding, and that's it for the whole flight.
Anyway, this post is for posterity!
The choices were described as beef short rib, salmon, or pasta. I asked for a bit more detail on the salmon, and the flight attendant said it was had a red curry sauce. I wasn't asked for a second choice. I wonder if Premium Economy was served the same meal, and they got whatever was left from Polaris? Nuts were in a dixie cup, and the salad had shaved fennel and yellow bell pepper, along with the little bottle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
The foil wrapper on the salmon said the thing on the right was risotto. Anyway, this dish was delicious! The salmon was moist and tender, the red curry had a pretty decent kick to it, and the risotto (I saw some quinoa grains in there too) was very flavorful as well. I'd definitely order this again. It was the highlight of the meal service.
The economy class ice cream for dessert. I actually quite like this, and I wonder if the manufacturer is the same as what shows up in the bowls during regular Polaris dessert service.
Midflight, the flight attendant came around with sandwiches to hand out. Yes, it's the same kind you get in Economy. Then later the flight attendant came around with a snack basket, and I chose Cheese-Its and stroopwafel. I think there were also almonds and potato chips?
Breakfast was rather disappointing. Just a heated sandwich. It was a bun-shaped croissant, with a thin layer of Canadian bacon and a thin egg - so quite bready overall. I ordered a tomato juice to be a bit more filling, but I still did have to supplement with a Kind bar I bought from home.
We made a stop in ICN to change the crew. ICN-PVG they handed out individual water bottles and landing cards.
I'm pleased to see the news that the pre-arrival meal should be improved soon.