They don't want to.

And don't even think of a "Book the Cook" option ala SQ. UA catering can't even come up with different meals over several months, perhaps longer; do you think they could suddenly start to perform the magic of offering a multitude of meal choices for premium pax?

UA has ~8600 longhaul F and J seats compared to SQ at ~5400, but also considering SQ do lots of regional sectors of up to 4 hours with book the cook, where UA's shortest Polaris sector is 6 hours.

Tl;dr: not at all

Hi, cruiserchris! Welcome to FlyerTalk! Yes, the Saks pillow & blanket seem to be standard on domestic routes that use planes with the lie-flat seats. We got them on our one-hour flight from New Orleans to Houston on an internation-config 757!

The only food service was Snack Basket, so we munched on kettle chips and slurped Bloody Marys while watching the first half of the laughable Independence Day sequel. Good times!

I'm not asking for a "multitude of meal choices." I'd simply like to pre-select my meal from the existing menu choices for a goven flight. Since AA has mastered this ability, I don't see why UA doesn't want to compete.

Agreed. I am with you. A little thing like this will earn passenger loyalty. In this case, it is likely to be a huge undertaking on UA's part.

I think only the Japanese meals can be pre-ordered, is that correct?

Earlier this year I decided to use AA miles before they were devalued for a personal trip across the pond with MsHalls120. It was her first time on AA in business, and she was leery, given that all of her up-front experience had up to that point been on UA. We flew AA metal over, and BA back. On both flights we preordered meals. Last month and this month MsHalls120 and I flew TATL on UA, and on both flights she asked "why doesn't UA offer pre-order like American?" I told I didn't know why, but it made no sense to her, and the next time I book UA in business I fully expect to hear "why aren't we flying AA/BA?"

I flew SFO-TPE on Dec. 14 and return on Dec. 19. A few quick reactions:

-FAs were generally friendly and helpful on both flights, though it was still slightly awkward asking for the pajamas and mattress pad (on the outbound flight, I asked before departure and was told to ask again after takeoff). It'd be nice if they'd just offer those items (or provide some guidance about when to ask).

-Pajamas are nice: comfy and better-quality material than I was expecting. Sizing seems a bit odd, though. I'm 5'10" and roughly 185 pounds, and usually wear a men's large in most clothing. But the L/XL pajamas were too big for me, and the S/M fit perfectly. That means neither size would fit well on an average-sized woman or a small man.

-Mattress pad is nice, but if you tend to move around in your sleep (as I do), it doesn't stay in place very well. Some way of fastening it to the seat would be nice.

-New pillows are a substantial improvement

-The duvet might have been nice if the cabin had been cool, but it was so warm (on both flights) that I didn't want a blanket at all. I'd recommend turning down the heat.

-Food on an airplane will never be like a top-quality restaurant, or even close. But this was the best airline food I've had. For example, the beef tenderloin was a bit overcooked, but still much better than I was expecting (I'd like it medium-rare, it came more like medium, but at least it wasn't well-done).

-It'd be nice if they'd speed up the service (or offer the option of speeding up the service). I expect that some people like a relaxed pace for the meal, but I wanted to eat and get to sleep.

-I had the mid-flight grilled cheese and soup on the outbound. Soup was great. Grilled cheese tasted like it had been cooked hours before and then reheated for me (both bread and cheese were much harder than if it had been freshly-cooked).

-No bear. That's what I was expecting, given that I was flying at the end of the 2nd week, but I was still hoping for a bear (my 2-year-old son would have been delighted if I'd brought a bear back for him).

They will, just ask.

Is this called "Executive Style" on Polaris just like it is in PS BF? You get served first and everything is one tray - perfect if you want to eat, but also maximize sleep :)

As a bigger gal, I'm delighted that the L/XL are more XL. You can always sleep in something a bit too big, but not really a bit too small...

I think this is just the crews figuring out how to juggle all of the various new requirements, from the wine flights to setting up the new dessert cart contents. I too have found it pretty slow, compared to the old service, but I think that will improve.

Executive dining does give you "everything" on one tray, but that's really just the appetizer and main. It's great for short TATL when you want to eat, or weird TPAC like SFO-AKL where "dinner" is served at the equivalent of about 1am, and you want them to hold your main meal until mid-flight.

But - when you do that, you do miss out on dessert, cheese, the good strong tea (which is all that keeps me alive some days...), some of the other perks, etc... In theory crews could rustle them up for you separately, but I've had mixed results (pre-Polaris) on making that happen when I've ordered Executive. Particularly on the 747s, they start shifting carts around after the main meal service, and they just don't have the full dinner service stuff accessible anymore.

Executive dining is great when you just want to eat your main and go to sleep. But I suspect roberton may have been wanting the full meal service, just at some reasonable pace! I think that will come in time... the FAs are still really struggling their way through some of the Polaris options. :(

I was in Polaris BF from IAD to NRT on 12/3 and then from TPE to SFO on the 12/21. Overall not a big difference, foods a little better and there is more stuff on the seat to store somewhere. Maybe once the new seating is installed it will all work more seamlessly but for now it's kind of a patchwork. The biggest issue is the FA's need more training. I spoke to a few who like the idea of raising the bar but are a little frustrated at the lack of advanced training; I'm sure this will get better with time but OJT is not the best way to change a culture, which I think is the goal. I did receive the Teddy Bear on the NRT flight but not on the return, I guess we don't really need more than one.

I didn't know about the executive dining option (or perhaps I knew at one point, but then forgot), so thanks for pointing it out, kirkwoodj and Kryssa.

But I love dessert, so Darlox is right that I wouldn't want to miss that. I think my ideal would be executive dining plus dessert -- which is pretty close to being a sped-up full meal service. Polaris seems to have gone the other direction -- slowing things down significantly.

I think if you asked for the "executive dining" option and a "any chance I could get a couple of the small desserts from the dessert service?" nicely, you might have some success. Totally dependent on the FA crew you get. I wouldn't expect the sundae service though :p

I have never done executive dining, but I frequently do not eat when everyone else does and tell the crew to hold my meal for later. After all, who wants to eat a full meal on the way to SYD when it would be after 3 am Chicago time? I do this for most Asia flights and many times to LHR. (I'd rather have a good meal close to landing rather than the lame landing service.)

Nevertheless, I have ALWAYS received my sundae when dining like this. Most times I remind them to keep it for me, and they respond that of course they will - why would you even need to ask? :p . Only one time was it a little soupy, but that's not bad after 50 flights of doing this.