Surprised to hear that. I got a perfectly warmed, gooey cinnamon roll alongside my croissant as part of my breakfast EWR>TXL two weeks ago. In fact with the omelette, it was one of the best breakfasts I've ever had on a plane. So much more substantial than what UA used to serve on short TATL flights.

UA/Chelsea catering stations vs vendors
 

Has anyone noticed better consistency/quality from UA's own catering versus where they outsource?

I'm thinking the FA job is all the more harder if the galleys aren't stocked to spec so they're having to dig and search for service items. Additionally they're not flying daily and it does take time to get the hang of things.

Obviously this is not an excuse for bad FA experiences; I'm sure they remember the good ole days of full cart service ORD-LAX with roast carved at your seat and are probably glad they don't have to do all that now. But I do believe the majority are happy to have something better to work with from a passenger interaction standpoint.

I'm in Polaris F SFO-SEL in Feb and I'm fine with the current seat, look forward to the bedding and (hopefully) an enhanced experience. However I'm reading a lot about the hard product on the 747 breaking down frequently and 12 hours with neither IFE or streaming product is not something I'd be happy with.

Looking forward to those first reports on the Polaris with the new hard product on it's intended long haul route

1. Like others mentioned, if UA is not competing for lower prices, then your argument is ok.

However,

1. UA is in business to compete.

2. CEO did not agree with your sentiments, or else we would still be having BF/GF and even 2-4-2 BF seats without doing any retrofitting.

3. Complaints, concerns, and suggestions are ways to improve overall customer service. UA is in business to provide hard, soft product, and service. Who would want a FA to shout/yell/disrespect the customers when they pay premiums of the service? Even the 4-star hotel staff smiles and talks better than some of the nasty UA staff. I can confirm with all others in this threads.

4. If all carriers are in the race of LCC type of service, then your sentiment is correct. UA does not have to compete in all other inflight products and services.

5. With so many more Asian airlines and ME3 to compete with UA, if UA does not step up their game, there is no way they can compete.

POV: The closest INTL flights I took pre-Polaris were SFO-KIX and HKG-SFO. SFO-KIX, FA all smiled in PDB, food delivery/presentation, tried to fix the WiFi. Perhaps the FA was in Japanese culture, but that was a much more pleasant flight than the HKG-SFO BF where staff was a bit robotic, no smile, indifferent communication. OK I get it, 747 BF contains a lot of BF passengers, but there are also a lot of FAs serving different areas of BF cabin.

Verdict: I would take the SFO-KIX service any day of the week, and I believe others would as well.

It's not just EY apartments, it's not SQ First Class Suite, it's not AF First, and we are not even talking about EK Suites. There is a reason people praise for better service. CX 77W J/F is vastly better than AA 77W J/F because of the service, and FA attitude towards the customers.(PS: CX J food is getting a bit worse but that's another topic). JL, NH are definitely better than UA because of the service, FA attitude towards customers. When you misconnect, there is another ground staff standing in the landing gate to escort you to the connecting flight. This applies to Premium passengers, and even economy ones. UA? Only happens in F/GS pax.

You will only improve if there is competition. In two days of the EWR-HKG Polaris Service, I am not optimistic, by looking at all the comments surrounding this thread, but I am hopeful. This Polaris Service has the opportunity to take over AA and DL, with the great cabin lighting, improved service, hard and soft product, but they have to execute better to make this happen.

After my third flight now, I am trying to figure out why the service is seemingly more difficult for the crew. Is it just the drinks/wine flight?

If I break it down I see salad, bread and app all pre plated and delivered on a tray with no salad dressing choice or bread basket, so that should reduce the service impact from pre-polaris service.

Main course, desert and pre-plated cheese with no cracker choice again does not seem more complicated. Is it just that it's new? I've had great crews so it's not been performance, there tends to be a real extra effort needed....maybe in the galley?

Deserts are notoriously hard to serve. All that sand makes a big mess. It is a little easier if you're sitting in a desert isle seat. ��

I flew Polaris TPAC a few days ago, and breakfast order wasn't taken until served around 1h30 before landing.

Also, I had choice of bread from basket for lunch/dinner, and again croissant and cinnamon roll for breakfast.

Recently flew EWR-HKG... A few thoughts:

OVERALL: This doesn't seem that different at all from previous BF service. It's basically the same thing with a few new touches. I think one of the major problems for UA to be a major competitor, aside from the new seat design, is that American FAs simply aren't trained to have the same level of service as Asian or European carriers-- something like you'd get on NH or OS. I don't know if some sort of re-training can actually be done on a cultural level.

I like the pajamas. I think the S/M will fit 90% of people.

The food seemed pretty similar. I did get both of my first choices for dinner and breakfast, which was nice. I do think there should be an optional full third meal service... 16 hours is a very long time (and we flew east, so it was actually almost 16 hours in the air). Maybe I just eat a lot...

The mid-flight snacks were nice to have (grilled cheese + tomato soup was OK; I did enjoy the mushroom chicken + rice). The cold wraps/sandwiches available on the cart were very boring and flavorless.

The dinner and breakfast main courses were bland. I have had that short rib on P.S. flights numerous times. The only notable difference was the amount of dessert (more-- yay).. but that's about it! I would have been happier with the domestic beef + horseradish polenta I've had in domestic F (that polenta is TASTY). UA hyped up a real change in the menu-- a change that did not exist.

My main FA seemed completely uninterested in what she was doing; she was actually a bit curt with me more than once. The FA on the other aisle was lightyears better-- was more than happy to get me pajamas and one of the mid-flight snacks.

Not super impressed-- but used a GPU so can't complain too much. Going back on Dreamliner from NRT-- if nothing else, I physically feel much better after flights on those!

I disagree they are trained, but that they wont adhere to the new service standards.

And the employer has little recourse when the employee chooses to not adhere to those new standards.

Flew EWR-GLA and CDG-IAD in Polaris (752 and 788 respectively) and I have to say I wasn't expecting much over BF and I still wasn't terribly excited by the onboard product (yes, I know the full hard product is still a work in progress).

While the pillows/blankets are an improvement over BF they take up a tremendous amount of space when not in use/during boarding and I found it awkward to manage. (and on the 752, the extra stock in the overhead bins makes a noticeable dent in the available space for luggage).

Although I'm a picky eater so my observations should be taken with a grain of salt I didn't care for the food -- salads were bland and the dressing awful on the 752; on the 788 I couldn't get either my or my fiancée's dressing bottle open--the lids were stuck on tight and even trying to use the napkin for extra traction didn't get it to give way), and the ravioli was both cold and overcooked at the same time (actually, on the 788 trip, I don't thin anything was warmer than room temperature).

788 also had the bonus of inop IFE/FA call/reading light/120V outlet/USB port for both of our seats -- apparently had been written up the crews on previous segments, but not fixed. Got a "We're sorry" card for that, and so far the only response has been a vague promise of "bonus miles" without anything posting to the account as yet.

On the other hand, the crews were amazing in both the professionalism and sincerity of their service delivery.

Just landed on 935. Food was indeed much better than my inbound. I had the chicken tiki masala. It was delicious. I gouged my thumb trying to open the balsamic bottle. Pajamas were stuffed into one overhead bin. The blanket is nice and thick but found the tie strips rather annoying. The all male (well for business) crew was great--responsive, polite and professional.
The experience was tarnished overall not by United but by the moron next to me in 7B who's feet were so horrible smelling I almost couldn't eat. He had no socks on and most of the flight he had his disgusting feet on the panel. To top it off both his big toe nails were black from fungus infection. GROSS. I made several visual cues by waving my hands in front of my nose and also pinching my nose but {he} didn't care.
By the way despite the good rating seat guru gives for 7A the light from the cabin shined right in my eyes so basically I was blind and asphyxiated.

Just flew F class RT SFO to HAM and back through Newark. All flights "Polaris" service. It was a step up from previous combo First/Biz class flights. Almost too many pillows and blankets but didn't complain. I sort of liked knowing what I was getting as well. Supplied amenities were upgraded a bit as well. Overall a small step forward. Downside on all the flights was all the children/babies flying during the holidays even in first made it nearly impossible to sleep. Look, I like kids and I am not a total jerk but it was really crazy.

I knew they changed up the cheese course, but dang.

Speaking of cheese there were 3 cheeses. All were hard cheeses and one of them was a stinky blue or Stilton. Yuck. They really need to add a Brie or cammemberet. I passed on the salmon starter, sundae and the arrival snack which was an antipasto salad or salmon sandwich.

Also channel 9 was on ^^^

The first officer and pilot were also married.

1. NRT crew is usually good. They can be quite Americanized but at least they have inherited the authentic Japanese culture and service.

2. Which side of the aisle are you on? I really should have shot for the better aisle in the EWR/HKG leg depending on the quality of the FA. Is yours aisle served by the lead FA who is Asian/American? We will be in K/L aisle so let's hope that will be better.

3. Instead of worrying about complaining too much, you really should write to the Customer Relations. My guess is Customer Relations are getting better, and I do think they will listen to your comments and suggestions.

PS: Please all the bad EWR-HKG crew is in HKG now so I am not screwed by the flight tomorrow.