UA 869 Meal Timing (SFO-HKG)
 

I'm taking UA 869 in a few days. Since I'm traveling with my kids, I'm trying to figure out the best schedule for them to sleep during the flight. Does anybody know offhand about what time they'll do meal service(s) so that I can plan around them?

I'm thinking that I'd like them to nap early in the flight so that they'll be tired and ready to sleep when we land in the evening, Hong Kong time. But I don't want to encourage them to sleep when they'll miss a meal.

Thanks in advance.

What cabin are you in?

Almost without exception the meal service on every UA flight starts about an hour in, and again an hour + before landing. If you are in C, you can likely ask for a meal service later......

Yep, its always fun to eat breakfast in the "evening". Meal in J typically takes about 2-3hrs from take off. Breakfast starts about 1.5hrs before landing. Y is typically quicker. Note if there is poor weather the meal times may shift a little to make it safer for the FAs.

Most people on the plane follow the pattern of going to sleep right after the meal and waking up sometime between then and breakfast.

However, it is best to switch to the destination time as early as possible. That pretty much means sleeping through the beginning of the flight and waking up after the meal service so that may not be practical. If it were me, I'd try to wake up early in the flight so that I'm tired by the time I get to the hotel in HKG. Sacrifice some sleep time on the plane for a better nights rest in the hotel. Now if you're in Y, you might want to just eat before the flight and skip the meal. I'd rather be hungry than have a stomach ache or worse.

I usually skip the pre-arrival meal. The food's much better in Hong Kong :)

Well, the bowl of congee before arrival is nice but half the time they don't prepare it right and there's nothing worse than cold congee.

Do they still do the midflight noodles? If so, that could also factor into things.

How much sleep are they used to and how well do they sleep on planes?

Personally, I am able to fall asleep pretty easily, so I would sleep right after the first meal for 5 hours-ish. It's a 14 hour flight, so I would wake up around halfway through the flight. This would correspond to a little before noon Hong Kong time, but I would be able to sleep again after I land at 10 or whenever because it would not have been a full night's sleep. If you do this, then don't get a full night of sleep before the flight so it won't be a problem to fall asleep at 3:30 pm SFO time.

Prioritize whatever best matches their sleeping patterns. If you are up front, you can move your meal time, and if you are in the back, you can bring food and there are pretzels and sandwiches out in the back galley (at least from my experience there are on long-haul routes).

If you are in economy................

1 hour after takeoff, you will get a meal. Meal is based on the time at departure airport.

1.5 hours from landing you will get a snack. Snack is based on the time at arrival airport.

The time in-between the crew will not be serving. If you want a drink or anything you need to get it yourself from galley or (harder) get the eye contact of a FA walking around.

When I took it 2 weeks ago, no mid-flight noodles were offered, just the grilled cheese and tomato soup.

I guess that must be a polaris change.

I assume the sandwich is "pre-grilled"? Even the bottom of the coffee pot probably isnt hot enough :p

Yes it was, and the soup was served in a coffee mug, and was not very hot either.

Couldn't UA buy a panini press and plug it into the accessory plug in the galley?

On TATL that's correct, on TPAC they'll pass out a sandwich + candy (Kit-Kat, M&Ms, etc).

No, its some sort of sandwich now (turkey, veg, tuna).

They can do anything. It just has to get certified. That $100 panini press ends up costing millions. how about install a deep fryer too?

Unless it is bumpy. On my last 2 TATL flights, dinner wasn't served until 3 hours into the flight due to turbulence.

+1 Even the crappy food at HKG is still better than in-flight meals.