Kacee

I think that part will depend on the FA.

narvik

Do they potentially serve the special Y meal in J in its original Y form (alu tray)?
That would be pretty sad.

Aussienarelle

This is the meal I have ordered for my flight. It is actually healthier than the Polaris vegetarian meal as that is usually lots of pasta (and carbs). I have been disappointed by the most recent fish dishes in Polaris (very bland and watery) so have been having the chicken noodle dish (since it has some spice).

I agree with all the comments on the topic about plating, availability, etc.

However, I must say I have heard a number of people in Y complain when they do not get their special meal, especially when it is for religious reasons. Mine is for health reasons so am always happy to allow the FA to give my AVML to another pax if they otherwise cannot eat. Flights to Asia are a long time to go without a meal. The good FAs will go and scrounge up a cheese plate or something similar for those affected pax. :-)

ExplorerWannabe

I can see where @Kacee is coming from in terms of the meal load is set by the expected cabin load. OTOH, while many FTers and other frequent flyers look at the special meals as a dodge to avoid the usual garbage served in Y, the actual intent is catering to dietary restrictions. Passenger X presumably still has the same dietary restrictions (kosher, halah, low fat, etc.) no matter where s/he is sitting on the aircraft and it's unreasonable to expect the FAs to know enough about every meal served in J to say whether or not they meat the specified restrictions. I would expect that the special order goes to the passenger no matter where s/he is sitting . It does beg the question of whether someone in Y is going hungry or lucks out in getting the one J meal left over -- and of course, if United catered enough meals to give everyone in J an option, the upgraded passenger could conceivably ask for one of the J meals on top of his/her special meal ...

50Kthehardway

Would a passenger X typically order an economy special meal if knowing well in advance he/she would have had Polaris?

By serving the Economy meal in Polaris, would the back be one meal short? would the extra Polaris meal have made its way back?

I can see allowing the special meal make its way to the front if desired, but "you're not getting off this plane until you eat all of your veggies and don't even think about 'hav[ing] your pudding!' " seems inconsistent with a premium class of service.

ContinentalFan

Using a GPU, I’ve been upgraded near departure—maybe a dozen times a year—and I’ve always had the business class meal. They’ve offered to plate the special (coach) meal a few times, but I’ve declined.

I agree. I don’t bother with customer service. It’s useless. Even complaints through the 1K desk seem to go into some sort of void. I file complaints with the DOT. It gets a response from United. Someone always calls. They also suggest alternatives to filing a DOT complaint! I guess if enough people complain in a given month, newspapers make a story out of it.

Based on my experience on Saturday, the food was taken out of the paper cups that I’m used to in coach and plated nicely. I also got a side of potatoes and some cauliflower. If they’d told me a different fib and said that they luckily had a special meal loaded in business, I probably wouldn’t have noticed. In the end, the closest thing I got to my choice was a fishy story.

Wx4caster

My biggest whopper - I've been sitting on this one for a few months now... I'm not sure how well it will translate to print, it was so surreal one almost had to be there to believe... Apologies for the lengthy post.

Coming back from East coast to HNL, my wife and son went via SFO with a long layover, while I went via ORD, scheduled to arrive home several hours earlier. Upon boarding in ORD, I chatted with two of the FAs for a while since I was sitting in the exit row (39?) in front of the jump seat.

After take-off, the meal carts came out and they slowly worked their way back. As they reached me, an FA from the back came forward and asked the one doing the food service for help with an issue, so they parked the cart in front of me at the exit. 10 minutes went by, then 20, with no sight of the FA (and I'm hungry) so I look back and I see the two of them handling some oxygen equipment. Finally, about 10 additional minutes later the FA returned and the meal service resumed, now with not-so-warm hamburgers.

Fast forward a few hours, as we were over central Nevada, I pulled up the flight status page to see if the wife and son had made it into SFO on time (they had). Then I happened to check on our flight status, and it said, "Delayed - diverted to SFO". WTH?! Did I miss an announcement? I showed the passenger next to me and asked if I missed something - he was surprised as I was.

So I went to the back to ask, and found maybe 5-6 FAs whispering as I approached. Here's where it got very weird...

"Can I help you"

"Yes, are we going to SFO???"

"Who said that?!"

"Well, your website says that". Suddenly they all became visibly concerned.

"Who is this guy, is he Company?! Are you Company?!"

(one of the FAs I talked to on boarding) "No, he's military. He's with us. You're with us..."

(another FA) "Zip it. Zip your lip! Don't say a word, you’re going to be with us for a while. Keep your mouth shut!

For a brief moment I thought I have to be on some kind of hidden video show, but they weren't joking.

FA that said I’m military (I’m not) now gets on the phone: "Captain, they know...Yes, they know!... The internet, we forgot to turn off the internet! They’re going to be asking questions!"

A few seconds later, the pilot comes on with an announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen. It turns out we're experiencing a little stronger headwinds than we were expecting, and as a result they did not quite load enough fuel for our trip today. To be safe, we are going to have to make a stop in SFO to pick up some additional fuel".

One FA laughs and responds, "I *can't believe* he just said that. We're going to SFO alright, but not for fuel. What a crock!"

After ~10 utterly bizarre minutes, they allowed me to leave after reminding me to keep quiet. As I walked back to my seat I looked out the window and saw the fuel dump. Finally, as we were nearing landing, the second of the two FAs I had initially spoken to returned to the jump seat. I knew she was French, so I asked her for the scoop in my broken French, "Is this about the oxygen?"

“Oui”.

After a long discussion, I discovered that all the cloak-and-dagger and the near “threats” from the crew, was because there was a passenger in back who had brought on his own oxygen device (which turned out to be not FAA-approved) and it was blowing the electrical circuits - so they banned him from using it. Instead, they had been giving him oxygen from their supply. Now, I do not understand if they just didn’t have enough oxygen to spare for the rest of the crossing, or what, but they were diverting to remove him from the plane. They were afraid that if he found out what was happening he might either a) become irate, or b) panic, leading to a potentially serious medical event. After what they put me through in the galley, *I* nearly had a serious medical episode!

We landed and the Captain had to make up some other excuse for why passengers should not get out of their seats (so that personnel could board to extract the passenger). Meanwhile, I had texted my wife and son to come to gate 86 for an impromptu reunion after they announced we could get up and deplane! Writing this story reminds me… they also announced that we were all going to get vouchers for the inconvenience, but I never got an email, and I forgot to pursue Anyway, they never did explain to the passengers what had really gone on. I saw the evicted passenger talking to CS when I deplaned. The French FA told me he was actually going all the way to the Philippines, and that this was not the first time his device had done this!! In the end, she said that he was very understanding, and UA bought him a ticket on a non-stop flight from SFO to Manilla.

Aussienarelle

We are on the plane (SAN-SFO) and the app notifies me the flight is delayed due to waiting for crew to arrive on an inbound flight. Says 10 mins delay. (Ends up leaving 30 mins late.)

I was surprised as the cockpit door was closed and thought safety checks needed to be done to ensure plane was airworthy and the plane had been at the gate overnight. We seemed to have our full compliment of FAs.

Time keeps ticking by and pax in 1B asks which crew member is missing. FA seems surprised that the app has provided that update.

I was in 2A and getting annoyed the Direct TV was not working - it did not work for the whole flight and the PDE was not working either. The screen displays a message that there is no TV coverage outside the USA. Another pax asks about the no WiFi, no Direct TV and we are told our flight is not being picked up by the satellite system. Huh? UA apparently now has stealth planes.

Anyway, finally the FA comes back to the pax in 1B and informs him the pilot was stuck in traffic coming from downtown. If anyone knows SAN that is the most ludicrous any of us sitting in FC had heard. Our flight departed 30 mins late. I used to live in downtown San Diego and walked to the airport many times and within 20-30 mins.

1. Any other city you could get by with that excuse, stuck in traffic coming from downtown but SAN?

2. And a plane cannot be found on a satellite system (or the plane was not within the USA on a SAN-SFO flight).

(As an aside to an otherwise bizarre morning flight great service by the male FA in FC. Pleasant, polite and effecient.)

Say Vandelay

I tried to SDC and was given an option of the flight I wanted for $0. Clicked through in the app and got an error so I called UA. They said it didn't go through because the fare class wasn't available. However, a flight search shows S9. When I told him that he said, well your ticket doesn't allow same day confirmed even as Platinum.

getagb

Sad. HUACA

wanderingkev

Sitting on the tarmac at RDU on a 320 ....... Captain ...sorry for the slight delay folks we are just getting MX to check out a hydraulic leak......nothing unusual ,Airbus's tend to leak a little oil in the mornings (that's how you capture 50% market share by making incontinent planes )........audible grown from 20% of us on the plane who are some form of engineer and mutterings of "just stick to flying the plane buddy"

Phil Level

Seriously? The pilot said that over the PA???
If I see oil in my driveway in the morning under my car, I know that it needs to be serviced...

TGIFlyday

Ok, I have a funny one. I was on a flight to LHR, in J, and the Purser was taking entree orders prior to takeoff. The gentleman behind me was apparently on his first flight in J as when he asked the Purser which Starter was better, the salad or the other one. Without missing a beat, the Purser said "Sir, on your first flight you get both!".

chavala

OK a bit OT since it didn’t come from a UA employee, but...

Last TPAC flight in J, the couple behind me were complaining to each other that there were no prices on the menu.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Maybe you misunderstood them - maybe they wishing UA's costs were on the menu to see how little UA spends on meals?