RobOnLI

You would think it's loaded 50/50 (hot/cold meals) but on a recent flight it wasn't. I almost never pay attention to the food catering since I'm a 1K and 99% of the time get asked for my meal choice before most people.

On a 12 F cabin flight they loaded 4 salads and 8 hot entrees. The salads were gone by row 2 (I took the last one) and everyone else in row 2 (E/F) and row 3 were stuck with the hot option or something from the back. So at least on this flight it was a catering miss since quite a few wanted the salad and not the hot chicken option.

I don't know how often these "glitches" happen or if they're even glitches in the first place. UA must have decided 4 salads and 8 hot meals was the "right mix" for that flight. Or, catering screwed up and loaded the flight wrong. Good thing the FA tends to count their meals/type before offering them up to passengers.

-RM

lincolnjkc

I would actually have been shocked if it was catered 50/50 -- I would expect something like 75/30 (note the very slight over-catering) based on historical data of preferences. That said, I'm not sure how accurate that data is given that many people will accept the 2nd option even if it's not their preference.

But just because all of them have been requested by Row 1 doesn't mean (if you're a 1K/GS you can't get your preference) -- the policy is still to front-to-back requests and ask for preference then to sort in the galley if requests outnumber availability. Given my general pickiness (and odd tastes) I haven't experienced, to my knowledge, bumping someone or being bumped -- but half the time I'd prefer the Classic box anyway.

HNLbasedFlyer

That actually looks like the right mix to me - I'm hard pressed to think of a flight where salads are so heavily requested over a hot item like chicken. 50/50 would really surprise me and I'd be less than thrilled with a salad as my meal.

AirbusFan2B

lincolnjkc

And some GS and 1K who do fly a lot but aren't status enthusiasts likely don't know because I can't recall the policy having been officially communicated to the audience -- it's not listed as a benefit in https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...r/default.aspx nor is it even hinted at in https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...y-benefit.aspx (not that I'd really expect it to be -- but I'd expect if it were anywhere there would be a hint of it somewhere on one of these two)

VegasGambler

That is not even close to being true, "mathematically" or otherwise.

narvik

I still almost never even get asked for a second choice.
It's just: "What do you want for your main meal, and what do you want for breakfast?"

tomwhom

That's my observation two weeks ago on UA2 SIN-SFO flight, FA asked almost everyone (1A, 1B, 1D, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 3D) second choice except me(2D). First I was a little surprised then I thought it maybe due to my 1K status.

ExplorerWannabe

I almost always got my first choice even as a Gold but then I usually only do 1 international trip a year.

fumje

Just flew IAH-ORD on 738 (16 F seats), and there were 6 salads / 10 hot (both chicken), yet 10 people ordered salads. And that was even though I was sat in 4F, could see the attendant was in trouble, and ordered the noodles. A couple passengers in row 1 opted for snack boxes instead of the hot item.

However, looking at the aggregate of my experiences, I would say that catering has the right mix more often than not.

onthesam

It's not all that big of a deal. I do believe however that the policy for prioritization applies across the regional fleet (in addition to mainline). So too did UA who gave me $125 ETC .

BlueSky72

wpcoe

I'd be highly surprised if the folks who determine the meal ratios get much, if any, feedback from crews. Where else would they get historical data?

These days, with the company-issued iPhones the F/As have, it might be easier to convince some F/As to give feedback. If you think to the pre-iPhone days, do you *really* think any sizable number of F/As would bother to submit feedback on how meal orders went?

Now, here's a random thought: Why doesn't UA provide a program on the iPhone to process meal orders? F/A would simply go through the cabin and ask "1st and 2nd choices, please," and go to the galley and press a button and -- voila! -- a list of who won which entree, based on the company's criteria and maybe even more granular, e.g. give a Gold passenger their entree choice over a Silver, etc. With such a program, they could additionally collect real-time data on which entrees are most/least popular. And, even see when a GS or 1K doesn't get their 1st choice and issue an apology e-mail and/or an ETC?

msg75

Similar experience this week to several above:

Mrs & I seated in 2CD on E175 with 12F seats. No GS pre-boarded and we were the only 2 to pre-board as 1Ks (we were the first people in the F cabin).

After takeoff FA asked 1A "Salad w/Chicken or Pasta Salad?" "Chicken"...same with 1C, 1D, & 2A...all asked for Chicken.

She gets to us and asks Mrs_msg what she would like (Mrs is Plat, I'm 1K)... she asks for Chicken.

FA turns to me and says, "Sorry she just got the last chicken. Would you like the pasta salad?"... "Ummm, if that's my only option."... "Yeah, she just got the last one."

Now, of course I would let the Mrs get whatever she wanted of the 2 choices, but that's beside the point. The FA obviously went front to back (what if there was a GS that boarded late in 4A?).

While in the scheme of things no big deal, is it still that hard to follow procedure? I can't believe that there's an FA in the system who has not been briefed on this, so at this point apathy/indifference is the only logical conclusion.

On a deeper note, since SAFETY is the first priority of the flight crew, knowing this FA's attitude and disregard toward basic customer service procedure, I wouldn't have full confidence in her handling of safety procedures should they be called upon.

findark

For whatever reason, it seems much, much more difficult for crews to do meal priority correctly when the second choice is also the last choice.