kirkwoodj

I blasted the weak food on my recent "How was your flight?" survey.

1kBill

These steps are simply amazing to me. The airlines have finally gotten people to the point where many will now purchase reasonably priced premium seats with better service, and then they start cutting back on those services.

Shooting themselves in the foot, I imagine.

qukslvr619

I wonder if they actually pay attention to any of the information in those surveys though? For that matter do they even bother to consider to look at what AA offers for a comparative flight on ORDSAN? AA may not be fantastic, but it isn't offering a few cucumbers and slices of salmon for breakfast.


I don't want to sound like a broken record, but it just doesn't make sense from the perspective that after such a volatile year for UA that they would be so short-sighted to degrade the premium product offering. I'm not even saying that I'm expecting that they would spend more, but with all of the ancillary revenue add-ons it would suggest they are collecting more per passenger not less. So what gives? Is it just greed? How do you differentiate yourself from competitors and make people want to choose you if you have a subpar product?

uber1K_Flyer

This is 1K Voice’s response to my reporting the food problem.:

I'm so sorry we didn't provide you with the meal that you expected on your flight on October 04, 2017 in First Class. I can only imagine your disappointment as you were looking forward to a pleasant dining experience. I'll certainly share your feedback about this specific concern in order to make necessary changes if warranted.

So they sound surprised I was disappointed.

rch4u

That explains the pathetic EWR-SNA dinner above.

goldelite8

This is the new norm. They call it a "protein bowl" and it has been offered to me numerous times over the past few months (including BEFORE the 9/1 changes) as a breakfast choice. In one iteration of the bowl, the egg was removed and all that was there was almonds, hummus and carrot sticks. At 6 AM! FAs I have spoken to are upset about the changes, as well, since this affects what they can eat! Keep writing, including to those at the top of the food chain.

qukslvr619

Well would you expect any less though?

Sounds like a certain boilerplate response.....you'd be hard pressed to find a reply from UA saying "while we understand that you are disappointed with our new meal offerings, we've implemented changes to cut costs without actually considering that our customers may not like the changes." What you got was basically a nice way of saying "yeah we know it sucks but we won't really do anything".

EWR764

For those who intend to stick with UA going forward, please consider sending complaint correspondence after each flight (particularly paid premium) with a noticeable catering downgrade, I certainly will be.

The yo-yo effect is incredibly frustrating, and it is upsetting to see the positive catering improvements over past 18 months or so thrown completely out the window.

bocastephen

I've been calling out issues with catering and F+B for months, if not over a year - the only time I stopped was during the brief period when meals were upgraded. With the downgrade, and the ability to get a free snack box or hot entree in coach as a 1K, I am trying to understand the value proposition of paying for F vs buying two adjacent coach seats with deeply discounted coach pricing.

Actually I'm trying to understand the entire value proposition of United domestic F product altogether - for someone who is already a 1K, I'm just not seeing it at all.

Maybe that's why they are giving it away to Kettles for $10?

dmurphynj

funny you say that ... I had a flight DFW-EWR a few weeks ago where I “Phantom” upgraded. At the gate I saw my name clear from #1 on the upgrade waitlist. When the GA paged me, he apologized for a screwup in processing the list. He explained he was shuffling around seats in F for someone and while he was redoing one reservation the system auto upgraded me into an open seat. He apologized and told me he moved me back into Row 21 and then kept the middle seat next to me empty to make up for it.

Awesome way for him to handle it proactively and as I was flying home I got to thinking .... “this is actually better than the upgrade would’ve been.”

I had the 1K-no-cost “bistro menu” burger which was quite tasty indeed. Certainly no downgrade from a domestic F meal, minus the china plate.

so yes - with the F&B downgrades lately, the economy menu is every bit as tasty as - and in fact sometimes more interesting than - domestic F meals!

StuckinITH

Today, on the ORD-TUS flight, the breakfast in First was a platter of cheese with no bread, crackers or whatever else should be there to go with the cheese. And the cheese for sure was inedible, just the "plastic" type. Also, they seem to have changed the brand of the club soda. It was now Dasani sparkling water.

I don't know if I was supposed to post this here as the flight was operated by Skywest Airlines.

MrAndy1369

The ORD-SAN breakfast is a bad joke. This smells of Kirby, and is eerily reminiscent of the September 2014 AA meal cuts, which was instituted during Kirby's tenure there.

PTahCha

Redeye SEA-EWR. Snack choices were calzone or salmon salad. Picked the salmon salad, and it was pretty good - similar to the lunch offering, where the cold salmon was on a separate plate, and the salad greens were topped with cranberries, pumpkin seeds, and sliced apples, along with raspberry acai dressing. Chocolate is now a square of Ghirardelli salted caramel chocolate.

fly747first

So many underachievers with no vision in the airline industry these days...

physioprof

Had this dish for lunch on EWR-SNA yesterday, and I really liked it. The grits are tasty. The other of the two options was the paneer, which my wife had, said it was delicious.