Had the same cups yesterday in F LGA-ORD.

Kind of reminds me of the broken cashews thing, UA saved money by serving broken cashews instead of whole cashews. So now they are going to save money on soda and water 1 oz at a time in cheaper cups.

Hahaha, I've given up on figuring out how to fix these pics... They are taking in the proper orientation and somewhere in the transfer FT changes it (I had a pic earlier that kept showing up upside down, didn't matter how I oriented it prior to upload, always upside down...)

And yes... annoyingly small... ^

Great, now I have to pack my own Solo cups.

I had the smaller blue cups on flights SFO-ORD and ORD-PIT on 5/12.

For me they're fine.

But my immediate reaction was to feel bad for people traveling with small kids. The base of these cups is substantially narrower than the old ones, which means they're more spill-prone. Not an issue for me, given that my daughter's now 8, but if she were a few years younger the new cups would inevitably lead to more spills.

Not to truly defend what seems like another cost cutting move by UA but I'm always surprised by how many people don't finish their PDB with the old cups. Maybe they acknowledged that fact and downsized....just speculating.

Some people don't like to gulp their drinks to finish them pre-departure before the FA comes around and picks up the cup. And that is a VERY small percentage of the cups used on a flight. Most are used in coach during the flight when you can leisurely sip your drink.

The blue is nice, tho.

The plastic cups DL use are huge. Really can't imagine a cost difference with cup size. I know things can add up at scale, but really?

It isn't so much that the smaller cup itself provides the cost savings. But if they can pour one can of Coke into 3 of the new cups versus 2 of the old cups, then they can save money on drinks for PDBs in First/Business as well as beverage service in Economy.

However they did a similar thing in First as well when they went from the larger United glass cups to the long/thinner style that Continental was using.

Guess it's time to ask for a "Double" Diet Coke on PDBs.

Excellent point. So they should get larger glasses, and get rid cans. Just get 1 or 2 liter bottles. Think of the cost savings.

I remember back in the days the cup was almost as big as the can. So the FA would just give you the CAN after. Now one can of coke can make almost 3 cups!

What do you like about them? The blue tinge makes them look cheap to me, as though I'm at a carnival. (I'll leave the obvious next thought unsaid...)

I am not sure if there is a difference in volume. The blue ones seem to be taller, but the clear ones were wider. Strangely, on a recent flight, PDB service was given with blue cups, and a clear one rolled out from under my seat at some point, but I didn't attempt to do a volume-transfer comparison. :p

Are they really smaller? I am in the UC here at SFO and they have them. They do seem narrower at the top but they seem taller. Without seeing them side by side and doing a volume check it is hard to tell.