kirkwoodj

Pathetic

johnden

I actually prefer the mango sorbet, at least domestically. It is a nice lowish-calorie end to a meal on a 4-5 hour flight.

On a 10-14 hour intl flight, I definitely miss the sundaes. I hope UA can step it up a bit over the domestic offerings and offer a choice of either sorbet OR a better non-frozen dessert.

DELee

No - the point is that supposedly Polaris service and food and seats and all of it accoutrements are now UACO's flagship high end service. Ok, we get that their supplier is having problem producing acceptable seats, that passengers who've purchased and flown have been drinking too much of the good wine, that the sundae service globes are breaking when they get too cold, etc.

Many of those who've posted on this thread are the very customers who want a decent sundae and have directly expressed their desire for it to return. It matters to them.

What is being done about it or any of the above? It's been three weeks since _this_ thread started. How about all of the other issues? Who's taking responsibility? Who's stepping up? What's the plan?

For all of their vaunted social media skills, UACO's not said anything. If folks get to hide from their mistakes, then UACO will continue to do worse because no one is being held accountable.

David

wxguy

Mango sorbet -- in a bowl, not cardboard -- served today in First Class on UA895 ORD-HKG.

fly18725

Wow. Just because United hasn't given an update on social media doesn't mean that nothing is happening.

You can't go to a restaurant supply store and buy new dishes for an airplane. Anything that goes on an airplane needs to be sourced to precise specifications. You then need to get sufficient quantities in hundreds of cities around the world and provide training to vendors on how to manage the product. It takes time, potentially months, to do something that seems as simple as providing a new dish a sundae.

Ber2dca

I've found the little apple pies to be far superior to the sundae to be honest. I never quite got the fascination with the sundaes some people have given you can pop into McDonald's and get the same or better for a pittance.

Plane-is-home

especially with that strict and complicated process one has to wonder why no HALT testing was performed on the original selection of bowls before placing the orders.

artvandalay

Somehow, eating a sundae with all its adornments upstairs on a 744 at 37000 feet gives me a different vibe than what I have to endure to eat a sundae at McDonald's. Better?

Like it or not, sundaes are a signature UA dessert.

halls120

They are, and I hope they return before my next international flight.

JVPhoto

I'd hate to see some of you at a 4 year old's birthday party.

spin88

But you can go to your food supplier and say "we need a good high quality desert in the meantime" Instead they said "just toss in 16/28/50 cheap coach ice cream cups and a few plastic plates"

It is just so short sighted, reminds me of Broken cashews or Freshbrews. United is spending a LOT of $$$ to advertise Polaris. I think they are crazy to do this when the hard product is the same old last gen stuff by and large, but the counter argument has been "well the soft product"

So some guy who either left United during Jeff's reign of ruin, or normally flies another airline, decides to pop $2400-3200 (PS) or higher for other J to fly United. Deserts are a high impact point for restaurants. You are judged on it. Perhaps no one at United has any frigg'n idea what impacts NPS scores re food, but desert is high, high, high on the list. So what does UA do? They go with cheapo icecream product, the same stuff served in Coach. They did not even source a quality brand (say Movenpik, or even Hagen Daz)

Just pathetic, but sadly emblematic of the rot that has infected this airline after Jeff.

And by the by, the wine on PS remains pathetic. What Delta serves on DeltaOne is a whole other order of Quality.

If United threw it, they would buy a white layer cake from Costco.

BlueSky72

I totally agree. It's just such a treat to get a comfort food dessert and I always had it, even when I was stuffed. My guilty pleasure! I hope it is back soon, I'm flying at the end of the month

halls120

I agree that it's going to take time to procure new ice cream dishes. Question. What did UA do with the serving dishes pre-Polaris? Junked all of them?

Does United really serve more than 100 international destinations on UA metal with Polaris product?

DELee

As one who works in an industry where everything that goes into and around systems is specified and tested for the environments that they operate in, I am very well aware of these requirements. (Not sure I'd like to be one who'd have to get the spec written and verified, but that's another matter).

However it is clear that someone and the UACO's systems missed something. You have a public facing seat to your customer base and only use it when a) you have something really fluffy or b) when things go pear shaped. How about c) that you need to communicate with your best customers- since these are the GSs and corporations who keep the UACO aircraft aloft.

I also have a fair background in manufacturing and am very well aware of the challenges of combining volume production with exact materials sourcing and specification. I'd also then ask UACO and its suppliers about where the escape(s) occurred in this whole supply chain.

As spin88 commented, it is not like no one, including pmUA and pmCO hadn't ever had glass serviceware before that handled the temperature extremes involved in sourcing and serving ice cream sundaes. And it is clear that UACO really, really does have access to a global supplier base. So do the analysis, fix the problem, do the math and let the customers know when to expect either a) when they can get their sundaes back or b) that they don't know how to fix the problem but that it is being worked. That is the spotlight that UACO has to live in and needs to accept its responsibilities, both in terms of service and communications accordingly.

David

kirkwoodj

No way, would be sheet cake!