I think you should be OK; each station is funded differently and I am guessing that the bar tender was referring to JFK explicitly. I am under the impression that JFK has never been a high priority with UA. Sometimes I think that UA only provides service like the JFK to LAX/SFO transcons because AA does. There have been dramatic personnel cuts there recently, even after the tremendous hemorrhaging of jobs post 9/11. In PDX, my point of origin, UA cut the RCC staff by one person throughout the day and even reduced the number of free newspapers considerably.

In the SFO first class lounge last Sunday, UA provided some very nice munchies at about noon but it was snarfed up by passengers in the fairly crowded lounge within about 15 minutes. It seemed odd to me that none of the food was replenished by 1:30 when I departed the lounge for my flight to TPE.

Regarding others comments made about switching to other carriers such as AA, I know quite a number of 1K flyers (some million milers) who have already done so and they seem very pleased with the overall level of service provided. I would seriously consider testing the waters myself if AA served PDX somewhat better than it currently does.