The Houston chef is also (iirc) handling the catering for the AMEX lounge at IAH. And he's considered to be reputable. So, maybe he can bridge the gap? Not holding my breath as others have said. Don't need a celebrity chef to tell you salad shouldn't be frozen :\

It's easy to be dismissive of this project but, as always, it depends upon both budget and attention to detail. The wine project has worked out ok for customers - clearly the budget was there and the only problems are that there has been no training so FAs remain clueless as to what they are doing.

Food is much more complicated. The research has gone into what food works well on planes (from a taste and a storage/reheat point of view) and any competent airline caterers will know what to do. But so much depends upon the handling. Is it stored correctly? Is it reheated correctly? Is it plated correctly? Is it served quickly after plating? Etc. etc. Without significant FA training, it's difficult to see that UA's FAs, who have never really considered these things to either be important or even a key part of their job, will embrace the change and deliver what UA is looking for.

Given that I�ve had some great experiences with United FAs that prepare and plate the food really well, it goes to show that it can be done. But currently, it is only the ones that take initiative and have pride in their work. Which sadly is a small minority.

I�ll add AF to the above list. And while I like what UA is doing, are they going to spend more money on product quality? Are they going to add an extra FA so that the crew has the time to serve the improved product?

💯

The list I had is no means complete. I would add Austrian as another one. Forget about international long haul, even their intra-Europe short hops serve delicious meals in J.

Ben over in OMAAT has a story about how Kirby does not eat on board United flights. And Kirby has been on record about this in other interviews/podcasts.

I get that each person has their personal reasons for what/when they eat, but when you are the CEO you are supposed to experience the product and services of your company.

Flying back home on Austrian once, my wife said her meal was the best of our trip. I thought she meant it was the best airplane meal she had on this particular trip, but no--she was saying it was the best meal on our entire two-week vacation and we had eaten pretty well on that trip.

At least pretend you like your "product" like the McDonalds CEO

Houston cuisine?
Yeah, no!

Give me NY/Chi/LA/SF!

Also optimistic - domestic dining has gotten significantly better in the last year or two and it's time for Polaris to follow. Like any other opex item it won't last, but hopefully is a nice facelift for a while.

Uhm, no. At least Kirby is being honest.

Is this an attempt to make passengers perceive an improvement in onboard services, and use it as an excuse to increase fares?

I think anyone who drinks wine AT ALL would agree with that. But that's also why I roll my eyes at this celebrity chef branded "partnership". Had United done a big marketing blitz about a partnership with Wine Spectator (or whatever/whomever) and then made marginal improvements to the actual wine being poured, I'd conclude that they wasted money on a marketing deal that could have been better spent on the product.

But with the wine, they just spent on the product. In fact, only those of us on sites like this know at all that they DID improve the quality of wines they're pouring. There was no public bragging, no big marketing campaigns, no celebrity tie-ins... Just a drastically improved product.

They could have done the same with the food. Spend money on the product, roll out better stuff without bragging about it, don't spend that money on marketing or branding tie-ins, and let the word spread.

Prices are more set by the competition than anything else.

Presumably there is a correlation between this, and https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...is-suites.html
and come August we are going to see intensive promotion of the combination of the two, and somehow also tied in with a UA branded credit card, giving the impression that a credit card from UA will get you fantastic food, whilst sitting in a great seat on a brand new plane, being catered to by the friendliest FAs in the world.

I flew ANA business from KUL to NRT the other week and the inflight meal blew my mind. I had a perfectly cooked filet with a nice peppercorn sauce on the side. There was even some smoked duck as part of the appetizer.

Every time I fly another airlines I'm constantly reminded how much better it could be as opposed to the gruel they serve on united. Lets hope this project brings some renewed effort into make the inflight experience a bit better.