UA 1717 PVR-ORD, A320
1/27/2025

I booked this on miles at an unusually good rate and found myself checking the upgrade list out of habit anyway. The preorder choices were the canonical chicken or pasta, and I went with chicken.

FAs served warm nuts first; this glass of rosé came from a can in the back, which she was happy to grab for me.



Salad greens were fresh, the roll was warm, and the chicken was not overdone and instead surprisingly tender, to the point where I worried that I might find the center underdone. (It was not.) Not sure what was in the sauce but I am pretty sure that much of it was butter. Good service overall, with fairly frequent refills on the drinks.

Looks like the meatball dish has been replaced. I'm a little scared to try it though with how hit or miss beef is on UA...

Tenderloin is always on my UA avoid list, nothing tender about it. I erred recently as I mentioned upthread with the new Transcon meal selection, and it was so tough the knife couldn’t get through it no matter how much I sawed and pulled. Let us know if you try it!

They are swapping EWR and ORD signature dishes. I see meatballs on flights from Newark this month.

Couple of meals from IAH-ORD dinner this weekend:

Houston signature dish: Seared Salmon (because when you think Houston, you think salmon?)


It was good! Decent portion size and well cooked. The greens were surprisingly good, almost a little crispy (in a good way)? A little bland, but IMO better that than swimming in a greasy sauce. After using the salt and pepper packets it made for a tasty meal.



My husband got the beef melt sandwich and he enjoyed it.

I have had the EWR Signature tenderloin and it was cooked medium rare and tasty, I honestly thought that maybe I was suffering from steak goggles having had a few glasses of wine before boarding, but no it was surprisingly good.

The previous two times I had it was terrible, so UA consistently inconsistent.

RIP ORD meatballs. Glad I had one last shot at enjoying them when I switched to an ex-ORD flight to avoid IAH the day after it shut down due to the snowstorm.

I hope the EWR meatballs are equally good, and look forward to sampling them next month.

This had me scratching my head as I took RSW-IAD last week and no meal. Well the googles tells me that RSW-IAD is 891 miles and FLL-IAD is 901 miles.

I tried the new cocktail, vodka spritz and enjoyed it. I think some of the flavors make it taste sweet, even though I don't think it really is. Also pre-ordered the new Chicago Signature dish which is the beef tenderloin this month. The sauce and sides were good, but beef was very well done which is to be expected on a plane I guess. Nice flavors though. Didn't touch the banana dessert.

this is how UA can get away with mediocre food.

not a swipe against you...just using your post as an example.

I flew a 772 (Seat 9A!) SFO-EWR about 10 days ago. Mid day departure. One of the fastest transcons I think I've ever been on. 4:20 takeoff to touchdown. Thank you jet stream.

PDB open bar, pre-order worked (I chose the haddock.), 1K recognition, towels, then warm nuts and drink, then meal, sundae after.

Haddock was a bit overdone but still good. Mystery red sauce did not go well with the fish. The puree looked like soylent green but tasted remotely like cauliflower. Odd extra piece of garlic toast in the main dish, but it was good. The burrata appetizer was a bit watery but tasted good. The salad was tasty. I continue to be amused by the 'lemon' dressing. I managed to capture the ingredients list to show that it's only got 'natural spicy lemon aroma' in it, the acid is grape vinegar. The roll was good and hot. The sundae was good. When I asked for chocolate sauce he said "do you mean the chocolate chunks?" and put the chips on. It was tasty and not too cold or warm.

I was about to rank it as the best domestic service flights in years when the FAs completely disappeared after clearing dessert. No one picked up my drink or offered to refill it for hours. At 1:30 left in the flight the FA came by and said "Anything more to eat?" No mention of the second meal or the choices or anything and I didn't see any passengers take him up on the offer. I was still full from lunch so I declined. They picked up my empty drink glass only when prepping the cabin for landing.

IAH - EWR - Breakfast 1/30- 6 am departure - PZ upgrade cleared thanks to a very nice FT'er!! (you know who you are )

Proactive crew - supplied me with as much coffee and baileys as they had!

Bread pudding was a 7 overall - nice filling meal with good amount of cream/berry sauce - did not touch the yogurt.




EWR - IAH - 1/31 - 850 pm departure (757-200) - airplane is very old!

Was not able to preorder but the pasta (Mezze) was good dish - took the parm cheese from salad and placed it on main dish. good touch- made it a bit cheesier. I would prefer a ranch dressing to the lemon oil dressing on salad. I dipped a piece of bread into the mezze sauce -- nice touch I thought. Dessert - was my first time having this - wasnt the best - IMO - prefer a cookie or something. Kinda a weird texture given that it was fluffy and semi-cold. Is it supposed to be frozen?

During its "life" ex-EWR I probably had the tenderloin 6-7 times... not once was it inedible (always able to cut it). I would say it was well-done about half the time, medium well on a few occasions, and one glorious time, a perfect medium rare "-". It's not steakhouse quality, but context matters, and it's a nice treat compared to ten ways of chicken.

Is a crime. I’m in the hospital with pneumonia, so not up to a full report. I just feel compelled to warn the world it’s not edible.

I hope the meatballs are good. I ordered them for an EWR - PTY flight on Friday. My wife, on the other hand, ordered the Chicken Bordelaise.