This discussion of meal order issues is laughable when AA has had meal pre-orders for a while now. Why can't UA do the same? Then they can't say "Oh we didn't load enough xyz meals".

For me, when they ran out of a certain pre-arrival meal, the FA told me to order the pre-arrival meal in advance, during regular dinner selection, on my next flight. It worked liked a charm on the return segment. Well at least it worked when I was a 1K last year. This year as a PLT, the FAs may not save a preferred pre-arrival meal for me anymore :rolleyes:

I just did this on my flight home NRT-DEN ysterday. I told them to please save me a pre-arrival Asian meal. So I finally got one, the Yakisoba, and ironically it was awful! Tasted like Oodles of Noodles with ketchup and cardboard discs (which were supposed to be scallops).

No Luck for a GS
 

This year I have flown 15 long haul BF flights I never been asked for my meal before other passengers and I have sat in the middle of the cabin so at least for this GS has never happened this year :(

You're not supposed to get asked first. FAs are supposed to take orders by row and prioritize based on status in the galley.

Just to add a bit of levity to this thread...

The other day I was in in 1A on a transcon 757-300. The FA comes to me and deadpans, "Hi, I see this is your first United Airlines flight so I want to take your meal order first so you may enjoy our new cuisine options."

After a half-second of initial shock (as a GS and 3+mm), we both burst out laughing. And the ribs dish was quite good!

I love FA's like that - really make a difference in an otherwise bland experience. I've gotten to know some of the crews to APAC so when they come up to me they simply say "Mr. Bmwe92fan, I know you've eaten here before so I presume you will be skipping the meal service..." - I smile and thank them - and then they move on to the person next to me / across the aisle - and the look on their face is precious. Depending on how much wine I've had sometimes I just look at them and shake my head no....

I like the fact that the crews actually recall that I don't eat the main meals heading to APAC - and that are comfortable enough to have fun with it...

On SNA-EWR afternoon flight Monday (737 w three rows in F), FA went to 3A, asked for meal choice, and then went to 1A and back through the cabin in order.

Well as GS I do have priority for meal orders :cool:

I find it funny that when ordering the Japanese meal on NRT flights, the FAs almost always ask, "Do you want the special meal?" for pre-arrival... when it's inevitably one of the three choices as it is, and never one they seem to run out of (unlike the main meal). And yes, it's typically horrible.

They ran out of cereal in the first row of C yesterday, too. "You won't believe this, but they only cater 4 cereals for all of C, and the first 4 pax asked for it." In the J/K seats, there were indeed 4 pax asked ahead.

Apparently you don't based on your report upthread ;)

Maybe you should complain to GS about not receiving proper treatment :cool:

The policy is to not bounce around the cabin but to ask everyone their first and second choice (they usually only ask GS for first choice as should get it) then sort it out in the galley by status. So you would get priority based on GS but they should not be coming to you first and bounce around the cabin to the other GS and 1K's.

Actually, there is no policy that you have any more priority over anyone relative to meal ordering. You have priority in meal choice. The actual policy may have you approached last (eg if you're in row 6 of a 75x), but your choice should be available, assuming the # of GSs seated in front of you ordering the same thing is less than the quantity of the selection catered.

DEN-PHL today with 5 rows (20 seats of F). I actually paid for F since it was that or sit middle E- due to late (a week) booking. They did not take orders and prioritize. Asian noodle with chicken salad or a chicken sandwich- but when they got me in in row four, only Chicken sandwich...

I asked what happened to the noodle salad and she just smiled and said "I have a chicken sandwich!". Kind of annoying since I know that 5 people ahead of me were upgrades and I paid cash money to be there. I frankly don't give a crap if they were all GS.

When it comes to TODs, cash is king for UA, but not so much for F food.

Chicken sandwich was HARD. I had a hard time forking it, and I the chicken was all in one quarter of the sandwich. I've been a fan of the new F cabin food up until now.

If I get upgraded at T-120, I show on the upgrade list. So how do you know the upgrades aren't GS? And I assume you read the wiki, so is this just a venting of anger for not getting your choice?

And what if someone paid full fare Y and were upgraded which probably cost more than your F fare?

Flt 6202 YYC-DEN, on a RJ700. I was the only 1K in First and got the last meal on the plane. The FA was about 65 and could care less about anything. I asked about what were the options for meals and she said only a sandwich. I said thanks for the help with the non rev passengers sitting behind me and was told to be flexible.

Do they prioritize 1K and GS separately now? I didn't think so, but maybe I'm wrong.

Anyway, seems like they would have had more than 5 salads unless that flight had only 12 F seats.

I think one of the problems is they always seem to load a too-small number of the more appealing choice. I've been told on ps before that they only loaded two pastas.

The last 3 flights i've taken in domestic mainline first, they have been going front to back without any regard for anyones' status which is a little disappointing as a 1K who paid for first vs a nonrev or silver on a cpu. Either go by status or front to back, just be consistent about it, its frustrating.

This seems to be common on TPAC flights with the Asian "breakfasts" (which I always choose).

First of all, I've never seen them fail to prioritize the first meal, but it seems like they do not prioritize anything after that. I don't know what the guidelines on this are, or even if there are any.

Second it seems like they load 2-3 Asian second meals on any given flight (for what? 50 seats?). The only--and I do mean only--time I ever get one is when I remember to ask the FA during the first meal orders if they will hold one for me (and so far, I've been successful with that).

Uhm, yes.

I don't care? I bought an F seat, I should get my choice of F'ing meal. I'm totally comfortable with that in the reverse situation.

See how that works?

The FA was not following the wiki. No way, no how. Everyone after row 3 got a sandwich or nothing. Unless everyone in front of me was GS- and frankly, like I said, I don't care about a GS on an upgrade over an F fare.

It's not like they couldn't collect the data and load based meals based on historical data. Or like someone said, pre-order the meal. It's like we are back in the 1950s and their are propellers on the engines.

On SEA-IAD, lunch on A320. I'm a 1K seated in 3B. FA was fantastic, she took 1st and 2nd choices from rows 1 and 2 but just asked me and 3A what we would like for lunch ^

But United does. Their airline, their rules. I agree with you but not so much that I'll choose another airline over it. My other primary airline--Air Canada--does the same thing. High status upgrade trumps no status paid premium.

I sympathize with your point. As a less frequent flyer but in paid F its annoying to not get your choice but I know the rules when I purchase the ticket. The consistent observation across the food and beverage program is that the airline does not care about customer satisfaction. The recent improvement in meals aside the QA/QC efforts for catering are abysmal.

Unacceptable! Did you write her up with 1K Voice? I would have made a bigger stink on board if the other passengers were non-revs and asked them directly to give up their meal choice, but this FA needs some policy re-training and it won't happen unless you bring it to UA's attention.

I wrote a long letter to the 1K Voice and they said they were sorry to hear that this happened. They were so sorry they gave me 5K of points as compensation. It's a joke really to United as it seems they could care less. And I know that the Skywest FA hate the idea of serving a meal vs a 6 month old snack box.

5k points is not bad for a meal mishap like this - and being Express, the FA will probably never hear anything about it. It's always best to deal with these issues onboard unless you're the non-confrontational type - the non-revs should never have accepted a meal preference while you were inconvenienced, it's clearly spelled out in their non-rev instructions and you shouldn't feel ashamed speaking up about it onboard.

YVR-IAH morning flight couple weeks ago, I was in 3rd or 4th row. I paid attention as FA announced 3 choices ahead of me, but was down to only 2 by the time she got to me. I enquired as to being asked first since on GS on flight. She said they go front to back, "I can show you the operations manual if you want". Wow. Apparently the printer at YVR cuts off a character for the manifest, so they couldn't tell I was GS. Nice words? No. Snark--> after exiting the lav the FA shoved the ops manual in my face with the pertinent line highlighted. I was pleased to fill out my survey after that flight, but of course got no feedback. Inconsistent behaviour across the system, plus doesn't help if FA gives a bunch of attitude. :td:

50 bucks to not eat a J meal? Im going to complain more!!

Call GS CS. They will take care of the situation. They always have when this has happened to me.

i understand and used to be of this opinion...paid first shouldn't lose priority to someone else...they paid more. but then again, if u are going to prioritize vs. $$ spent, then probably that upgraded GS or 1k probably should trump the no status paid first

And who knows what "paid first" versus "upgraded economy" even means dollars wise? I just did a flight change from an instant-upgraded expensive Y economy fare to a discount P first-class fare on the same route and got a $1200 refund. It is a fallacy to think that "paid first" versus "upgraded GS or 1K" tells you anything about who paid what.

This entire thread is ridiculous. The issue is that United does not board enough meals so that each passenger has his/her own choice of entre. There is not a respectable international carrier that does not board enough options that each passenger has the choice. My recent flight on Etihad completely changed my perspective on this. United is running the premium classes like they are a third class airline, at best with respect to catering. No guaranteed first choice entre, low quality wines, club soda instead of sparkling water and ridiculous coffee, not to mention not having espresso and cappuccino like other premium cabins.

A simple solution: online ordering of a meal choice for confirmed B/F passengers up to x hours before departure would fix most problems except for last minute upgrades. Of course we've been asking for this for years.

It's not that simple, as then they have to implement a process for conveying the information to the caterers, as opposed to them just having a standard load for each flight. (Not that I disagree they should do this, but it's not trivial.)

The process already exists to handle special meal orders - just add the entire menu plan to that same interface and let people pre-order from the same webpage/process.

So, when the FA shoved the ops manual in your face did you actually read what they were trying to get you to read? If so, what did it say? Sounds like a golden opportunity to read the actual instruction the FA's are supposed to follow.

Two mini-paragraphs were highlighted. One mentioned front-to-back, then other prioritizing GS and 1K. The problem with execution was that I could hear the 3 options offered to rows 1 & 2, but only 2 options when she got to me in row 3. Ideally should have been asking for 1st & 2nd choices ahead and still offered me 3 options, then sorted it out after all pax asked. THAT is what is in the manual.

I'm a vegetarian, and my pre-requested special meals internationally (in C) are boarded maybe 60-70% of the time. When UA actually allowed special meals domestically (don't get me started on this cut for non-ps), it as closer to 25% of the time... so I wouldn't really rely on that system as the benchmark. UA just can't get operations right.

I'm flying AA DFW-HNL and LAX-DFW next month as was floored when I found out I'm able to choose my meal online 30 days in advance. I had no idea any of the domestic carriers did this. wow.