PTahCha

If it's a short-than-normal meal time flight, a prepacked cookie is place in lieu of freshly baked cookies. Although, there should have been rolls.

elitefreak

That looks like German potato salad, which is supposed to be on the tart/vinegary side.

goodeats21

ORD->SMF (Sacremento, CA)
Lunch

PDB of choice




Separate drink service with warm nuts



Entree choices: Pumpkin ravioli, Steak Salad, or Chicken and Sausage jambalaya.

Jambalaya was tasty. The rice was a bit skimpy, but overall, no real complaints. Nice having 3 choices on the mid-con.



Desert was a small dish of citrus sorbet. Was OK, but nothing great. I think sorbet is a bit difficult to pull off on the plane. Unless the temperature is just right, the texture becomes an issue.

Unrelated seat mate had the ravioli and stated it was very good.
(Sorry for the pic size. I have scaled them down in photobucket, but apparently it takes a bit of time to update to the new size)

goodeats21

LAX->EWR (New ps service)
Redeye Snack

Note: for a detailed write up on my overall new ps experience, see the direct link to my post in the "ps transitions to EWR" thread here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...l#post25651242

PDB of choice



Snack was a caprese sandwich (I think the bun was asiago) and served with chicken tortilla soup. Small chocolate on the tray for dessert.
The soup was very good, but the sandwich was so-so.

A muffin was offered as the pre arrival service, but I declined. So sorry no photos of that. It seemed "baked on board" and offered from a bread basket type of service.

goodeats21

EWR->LAX (new ps service)
Breakfast

This was a pretty disappointing flight. Again, details in the other thread; direct link to my post here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...l#post25651242

PDB of choice


I had a mimosa which was served in a plastic wine glass. I assume it was prosecco.





New style menu. A single piece of heavier card-stock. One side had the food menu, the other side had the drink menu. Interesting to note that the drink menu has no indication whatsoever about wine.

No service for the next 1 hour, 15 minutes while the FAs socialized in the galley. Then, the tray drop with both courses at the same time, including the first drink service. Mimosa now served in a soda glass.



I ate the entree first, while it was still warm. It was tasty and well presented. After I was finished with my entree, the bread basket was offered with a choice of cinnamon roll or biscuit. No second pass offered.



Bottle of water offered about 2 hours after meal service...when I asked them for something to drink and mentioned there was usually a bottle of water on ps.

We started descent and the announcement was made to prepare the cabin for arrival. Shortly thereafter, a rather hurried distribution of a poorly-baked pre-arrival cookie on a paper napkin was made.



FA then started to offer drinks (in plastic cups ), but only made it through row 1 before having to sit down for landing.

Overall, a very poor showing.

(Again, sorry for the pic size. Some are scaling down immediately, others seem to be taking their sweet time. At least for a short period, you can get a very close up view of a plastic-cup mimosa.

cmd320

Have to agree. This is basically what I expect to find on a standard domestic flight, not a premium transcon. In this market, at least for breakfast, the soft product is a pretty sizable distance behind B6, VX, DL, and even AA.

goodeats21

DEN->DAY
CR7 - Dinner

Great service on this flight. FA was very attentive and proactive in service.

PDB of choice

Dinner was choice of chicken sandwich or chicken salad. FA made a point to specifically describe each dish, including that the chicken salad came with a side of fruit and the chicken sandwich came with a side of cabbage salad. ^ Nicely done.



Also served a glass of water with each meal tray, which I thought was another nice touch. Not sure why she didn't take the plastic off the sandwich though.



Under the hood. Sandwich was not nearly as dry as previous UAX experiences. However, there was a mushy part on the bottom of the bun. It apparently got wet at some point.

Another FC passenger passed on the meal service. FA offered a snack from the back without hesitation and the guy was very happy to have a can of Pringles to snack on during the flight. (The fact he was washing them down with baileys-laced FreshPoo is a whole other topic).

If only some of her proactive hospitality would become infectious, perhaps us 1Ks wouldn't have to "surprise and delight" ourselves by begging for a comped drink in economy on other flights.

cerealmarketer

Let's just say PS breakfast hasn't been a strong suit under either regime.

Here's how it looked in 2010 before the merger changes:

http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/unite..._Ub0FT9CA4-lSA

And 2009...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/southbound228/3577404216

Surprised the FAs are serving the fruit at the same time as the main, given the large fruit bowl. For the last couple of years that's been served separately.

Doesn't cost anymore to do it that way and makes a nice difference in experience...

Kacee

Aren't they supposed to be served as separate courses on ps?

And I'm sorry, but this sounds to me like the bad kind of CO service - drinks only with the meal, everything on one tray, then disappear for the rest of the flight. (And just so this doesn't sound like CO bashing, as a former CO Plat, I've had plenty of experiences with the good kind of CO service too )

goodeats21

Yes, they are supposed to be served as separate courses. Even on the menu it is described as "start" and then "main".

Apparently someone on board mentioned it/complained about it as it caused quite a stir with the 2 FAs serving FC. Sitting in Row 1 was quite an experience on this flight.

Those details, and more, are in the other post, though it has been edited a bit.

cerealmarketer

Ah got it. I thought they had been newly instructed to serve it all at once - and pax complained, but FAs were afraid to do it the 2 step way for fear of getting written up.

That's better.

goodeats21

It should be served as separate courses, for sure. Being served all at once means either your entree gets cold while you eat your starter, or you have to eat the courses out of sequence, which is what I ended up doing.

Anyway, after the other customer complained, the FAs were apparently peeved that they got "caught" going the lazy route and were consoling each other with labor board protections if they were disciplined for it.

Also a personal pet peeve of mine to be ignored for over an hour after take off instead of getting a first drink service, but I don't know the official service standards for that on a breakfast flight.

EWR764

Still, the meal service guidelines have prescribed multi-course service on transcons since at least February, and the pre-merger CO service on all transcon flights was multi-course as well until 2012 (and 2014 on EWR-LAX/SFO), with menus.

Sounds like a lazy, apathetic crew. This will continue to be a gigantic problem at UA until they find a way to achieve a joint contract... then there are no more excuses. Notwithstanding union protections (just meaning they won't lose their jobs), this kind of poor service needs to be called out by United and can no longer be tolerated.

qukslvr619

Always enjoyed the line they used to post out to the FA's at CO: "OnePass is our frequent flyer program not how we conduct our meal service."

Though this isn't a UA unique issue and I've seen it on every airline. More often than not its a rush to get everything out, pick-up trays, and dim the lights. Granted I prefer having the meal broken up into several components, but then the issue I run into with that is that it takes forever or FA's don't refill in between courses. I don't get what is so hard to do the following:
Step Elapsed time from Row 1
-Meal/drink orders through cabin 5
-Deliver drinks and warm nuts 15
-Deliver course/meals two rows at a time* 30
-Top up drinks/wine pass thru 35
-Bread pass 40
-Move to next row, rinse, repeat 45
-Wait 10-15 mins, clear trays two rows at a time, top up drinks 60

Should this take 60 mins? Well you'll get the arguments from the FA's saying it should only take 30 mins because passengers want to relax/watch movies/work/etc. I have no problem with my meal taking that long if they actually refilled the drinks between all the steps.....but more often than not they will just drop off the meals and so it will be a good 20-25 mins before the last row has their meals delivered and FA's will come back through for refills...its usually to pick up your tray and then ask if you want a refill.

cerealmarketer

That's brilliant