Originally Posted by
Maxwell Smart
I recently used e-500's to upgrade my wife and daughter on UA265 RIC-ORD (a 740AM departure and a total scheduled time of 2:09 departure to arrival, flight time of 1:40) while I sat in the back, and had assumed that while there wouldn't be a full breakfast service, there would be some sort of snack, maybe even a fruit plate, since this was a 'mealtime' flight.
I was rather disappointed that other than a beverage service and a pack of biscotti, they got nothing.
This is in stark contrast to a recent (June) DEN-SNA flight I took (2:20 total time) which had dinner and dessert service in F. (great crew, they all got GTEM certs from me.)
Has all forms of food service for 'short-haul' been discontinued? If so, I'll have to re-think burning upgrades for such routes anymore.
RIC-ORD has never served meals in F. Disappointing, I know.
Even more disappointing because the two daily mainline frequencies are in the middle of what most folks would consider a mealtime:
UA265 RIC 7:41 AM ORD 8:50 AM 733 2h09m
UA1243 RIC 4:45 PM ORD 5:54 PM 733 2h09m
UA350 ORD 1:10 PM RIC 4:07 PM 733 1h57m
UA174 ORD 6:40 PM RIC 9:33 PM 733 1h53m
Even back in the "good old days," only one of the mainline RIC-ORD flights served a snack in F. At 642 miles, RIC-ORD is longer than IAD-ORD, BWI-ORD, and DCA-ORD, most of which serve meals.
DEN-SNA is significantly longer at 845 miles, so that's not a valid comparison to RIC-ORD.
I'm sure UA would not be insulted if you rethought burning upgrade instruments.
