Kacee

I think you're mostly likely to see sCO skipping around to take orders from 1K/GS, as that was the short-cut way of adopting the UA policy.

Stereotypes not necessarily accurate though, the only time in recent memory I was denied choice was by sUA on an airbus where she went front to back with no priority.

findark

Right, I don't think the "no priority for 1K/GS" is a sUA/sCO thing, just bad/lazy crew. It's the bouncing around the cabin asking 1Ks first which I associate with sCO crews.

narvik

Okay, that's what I thought.
I actually don't mind the bouncing method. Similarly to lincolnjkc in post #419 it's ONE acknowledgment of status I actually appreciate. Although yes, it has a sort of DYKWIA vibe to it.
It's funny that after all these years one can still recognize the sCO and sUA crews. My most flown route is on a sCO 772, and most are sCO crews. Every now and then there's a sUA crew however, and there are subtle differences.

WineCountryUA

Doubt you found a sUA FA working a sCO 772. That's a violation of the contacts -- maybe a crossover pmUA FA now working as sCO. With the joint FA agreements, this issue will go away hopeful early next year.

CO DCA

I've had the skipping around on all of my flights in 2017 and they've all been on Airbi or E170/175s, with the exception of a 737 and that was front to back. The frequency of it makes me think its a policy change.

It amazes me that something so simple is so inconsistently applied.

saltydog75

The other potential advantage of asking for a second choice from everyone is to take into account people who are OK with multiple dishes and people who strongly prefer one. A simplistic example: assume a seafood dish, a beef dish, and a chicken dish are offered. A pescatarian traveler could say seafood, no backup. This indicates they'll only eat that one. I could say seafood, but give beef as my backup. The pescatarian trumps me if it comes down to one of us for the seafood.

In fact, they really should ask for an ordered list of preference. That would really make sure meals get optimally distributed. Here's how it would work: the FA's would list the three choices and ask: "Do you have a strong preference for any of these dishes, and are there any you don't want?". They have three categories on their notepad: 1 ("strongly prefer"), 2 ("will accept"), and 3 ("don't want"). The pescatarian above would be:

1: seafood
2: none
3: beef, chicken

I'd be:

1: none
2: seafood, beef, chicken
3: none

And someone who avoids beef but likes both chicken and seafood would be:

1: none
2: seafood, chicken
3: beef

If there's one of each, then we know the pescatarian gets the seafood, the no-beef person gets the chicken, and I get the beef. If they're only asking for 1st and 2nd choice, they're lacking a crucial datapoint. If me and no-beef both say seafood #1 and chicken #2, they have no way to know I'm OK with beef and no-beef isn't.

Not sure if that makes sense to anyone else. :-)

WineCountryUA

People would attempt to game the system and list they strong preference as #1 and provide no backup. And it is exceptionally rare they need to go to a third choice. Making the system more complex to both the passaenger and FA plus taking longer to explain are not what is needed.

KISS

wxguy

sCO 753 BOS-SFO recently, I was in 6E. There was one other GS in 5B (he boarded early as well). I could hear the FA well many rows away as he went front to back. He clearly asked each passenger for first "and second choice in case I can't accommodate your first choice." For Mr. 5B and me, he only asked for first choice. Sounds like this is a good implementation of what we think is still the policy.

saltydog75

I can assure you it's not the only thing I've made overly complex. Why, it's practically a daily activity for me. :-)

N104UA

I like it but would be hard to implement, plus I believe UA has good data sets on the number of dishes to load (ie 47 F and J pax on a pmUA 777 they know that on average X will order beef, X will order chicken, X fish, and x vegetarian) then they maybe add 10% to X and there you go, it is also route dependant on BOM and DEL flights they will know to board less beef. Although I would be interested to see if they keep any stats on how often a pax doesn't get her 1st choice.

How do they figure this out? They count the number of meals that come off the aircraft uneaten.

I have only once in international J not gotten my first or second choice and that was because they only boarded 26 meals for a pmUA 763 for all of business class out of AMS.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

4E in a 4-row front cabin yesterday SFO-OGG. FA came to me almost immediately after boarding, introduced herself, and cited the meal choices. She also said she recognized me from another flight. The guy in 4F wondered why he wasn't asked, so I explained the (misapplied) process and gave him the bad news regarding the last seat in F on the starboard side. I told him about the 16 meals loaded and that the paneer would probably be left, but that he might be able to order something from back. He was indeed offered the paneer and immediately asked for a cheeseburger instead, so he was actually happy in spite of the process.

NH_Clark

I wouldn't be upset getting that cheeseburger ^

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I don't know if it was a mistake or not, but got two ketchup packets in the condiments box Saturday instead of one. I was always thinking that's one thing that needed to improve. The extra one was not forcible removed.

CMK10

UA 762 IAD-IAH on a 764 this week. The flight attendant started taking orders with 1AB, then 1D, and so forth all the way down the aisle then back up the right aisle from the rear in a horseshoe pattern. I was in 3D and have no status so I didn't care but if I had status and was on the right aisle I'd have been annoyed.

WineCountryUA

If prioritization was done in the galley after getting all requests, per policy, then it should not have been a problem.