Recently flew LAX - LHR in F. On the way over I got the new interior and while I enjoyed the service and the seat itself the quality was disappointing. On the way back it was an old B777 config which was insulting. The video screen did NOT work. the seat was old and thread barren and the food was mediocre. IF I had to pay full boat for that I would of been livid. In addition, I noticed that the amenity bag was unfit for a homeless person. Its an overnight flight and UA was too cheap to give F pass a set of pj's, like they do on LH. I was spoile by LH quality (and I"m talking about tired A340's). The FA's were great! Service was great! The food and wine was McDonald's like. Kind of sad. Has anyone else felt or experienced this?

I've definitely had a couple flights in F where the FAs did the best job of service with what they were given. Until the folks on W Wacker cough up the budget, UA could truly have the best people in the business and it won't change the fact that the bean counters have tied the hands of the sommelier, the catering dept, and the guy who orders amenity kits.

Apparently some people will keep paying full boat for a mediocre product...so until passengers vote with their wallets, I can't fault UA for giving the least possible to get the sale done.

What McDonald's serves wine?

Not to go too far off topic but McDonald's does indeed serve wine and beer in France, Italy and several other European countries. That being said I agree with the OP that Int'l First and Business are in decline and SMI/J & Co seem to have no interest in spending money on those cabins. This could very well come back to bite them in short order.

Especially since it is those very cabins that generate the big $ on the long haul flights! I have to say I've been increasingly disappointed with the inflight film options up front lately - not that many new "hit" movies.

Precisely. SMI/J doesn't understand that the "little things" (wide choice of hit films, mid-flight snack on long-haul) mean a lot and that cutting amenities in profit generating premium cabins could lead to financial catastrophe.

If the F cabin really was generating all that much "big $" then the company would have announced that they are increasing the routes and aircraft where they offer it, not that they are cutting them. The C cabin is a bit different but it would be hard to argue that they are reducing the quality of that product either directly or vis a vis other competitors given the new products that both carriers have been rolling out.

What about the UA product has become markedly worse in the past year or so since the merger? Things have been rather mediocre in F for years now. This isn't so much a merger thing as it is a market thing. As the new UA cuts the number of markets where they are offering a money-losing F cabin I would expect that it will be possible for that cabin to see some increases in quality as the margins will support it.
Have you looked at the AVOD selection on the PMCO aircraft? With 150+ movies (not counting dupe titles for multi-language and such) there are lots to choose from. As for the lack of a mid-flight snack leading to financial catastrophe, well, that's a bit of a stretch.

So I'm guessing things were awesome on UA before SMI/J because there was a ton of films offered and fantastic food? (I don't remember either of those in Y).

AFAIK, long-haul flights on CO and UA have a mid-flight or pre-arrival snack and Y on the 777s and 752s have AVOD that features up to date movies. The 767s have 8 channels on a loop. Oh, and all of the TATL planes have power in Y (EmPower on the 767s and 110v on the 757s and 777s).

Smisek has already talked about bringing the UA longhaul fleet up to snuff.

The ones in France do, and just like UA's predeparture drink in IFC, it too is presented in a plastic cup.

Presumably they won't even serve you the (French) Champagne on the ground on UA F since they have to pay duty (on a higher priced bottle)? Not that many American carriers do. But CX, for example, breaks out the Krug wherever you are.

The entertainment on UACO flights pales in comparison to what is offered by others. KLM doesn't even have international first class, and they have 3-4 times as many movies available. In July they were showing the newest Harry Potter film, while it's still in the theaters, was UACO doing that? Has UACO ever had current movies in flight? KLM has at least one every month, something you actually want to see. I know international carriers do as well, though LH also is pretty crappy IMO. We know there will be defender of UACO here no matter what anyone says. But on these so called high yield customers, UACO isn't delivering what others do, and in time they will end up not selling their product well to overseas customers. Already my business associates in Germany refuse to fly UA (for the time being they will fly CO, for the lie flat seats). But, one of my associates got on a UA 777 with the old seats, and walked off...walked over to Lufthansa and took their flights.

The little things count, and trying to defend them away isn't going to change that.

Oh please... The new Harry Potter does not even premier until tonight. I highly doubt ANY airline would buy, or even be able to buy, such a blockbuster in pre-release. Yes Smisek needs to replace some old UA seats (PMUA) had started that process... But in general they are not as bad as you describe. Also, good for your associate who could afford to walk off a plane, and plop down an additional $7K for an amazingly available comparable flight... All while getting his bags off loaded!^

LOL

I agree UA's flrst leaves a lot to be desired all round - meals, service, cars to/from destination for full fare F, PJ's. I think post merger UA will see the revenue opportunity for keeping F a real product in key markets as a major long haul carrier. I have been flying UA since 2000 or so, and cannot think of a time where there is more potential for the carrier to be a leading player in the F market out of the US, given its global network post merger. They have smart management, a growing service culture and a better product. I hope these start to think about how to improve F now, for launch in 2012 or 2013..

I wish that I can snag one of those seats with broken Video so that I can be comp :-). I would be very happy to get any F seat on the long haul flight.

The old systems absolutely do. The new systems really do not. With 150+ films covering a broad range of genres, languages and eras they offer a pretty impressive option. Does KLM really have 500 movies? I doubt it. In fact they advertise "More than 80 movies including recent releases, classics and world cinema." That's roughly half of what the CO AVOD system offers.

The new system is absolutely competitive with many other carriers in the premium cabins. Definitely not the best, but also not the worst by a long, long way. The old seats and the old IFE suck but they're on the way out. I wouldn't get too hung up on that aspect of things.