Originally Posted by UNITED959
I'm curious. Obviously they begin "cooking" for the flight long before boarding ever begins.
Usually, the meals are already onboard the aircraft when passengers start walking down the jetway. And usually during this same timeframe, the GAs are clearing upgrades.
Clearly it makes no financial sense to stock a 744 w/ 73-80 biz class meals if only 20 are expected. So I'd say board 23-25 meals. But what if, last minute, a family of 4 decides to upgrade and another uber-rich family of 4 comes along and drops $20k for biz tickets? Will UA deny the upgrades and/or CASH if they don't have sufficient food onboard?
Isn't it pretty much a given that F or C will be full on any flight long enough to warrant meal service, either because there are those who demand the extra space and comfort or because MP members are burning upgrades (possible exception -- the 3 class 767 service between ORD and IAD, in which there always seem to be beaucoup empty C seats)?
Given the relatively cheap cost of meals (which can FAs can usually be counted on to eat if the pax don't want them) I'd think it would make sense to cater for full F and C loads and tolerate the nominal risk of throwing food away. Moreover, even if they don't count on every seat being full, I'd bet that UA has gotten pretty good at analyzing and predicting how many meals to cater.