<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by RalphUA:
Yes, as a former United F/A, I admit, that is annoying. But here's the reason for that design:
The entire tray, with both main entree and side dishes, are all loaded in a special cart that enables the main course to be cooked/heated thoroughly, while at the same time, allows the salad, fruit, or dessert to remain cool. Essentially, inside the cart (which holds about 30-odd trays), there's a cooking AND refrigeration mechanism that operates simultaneously.
Now, the culprit of the tray not balancing evenly is because of a flap that extends below the hot entree. The flap is necessary to secure the entire tray onto the "hot" cooking part of the slot. Each tray needs this flap and slot to remain secured inside of the meal cart.
And for the record, it's not "United's" design, but the chosen design of the cart manufacturer. And not all of UA aircraft are equiped with these "new tech" carts, which means you'll have an improperly balanced Y-class meal tray if you're flying only on certain aircraft.
A lot of airlines use this type of cart.
</font>
So that's how they do it! I've always wondered.. Thanks,
RalphUA, and welcome to FlyerTalk!