Stop the madness!!!

:eek:

From this nights DEN-CVG UX flight. The most comical part was the guy next to me trying to open the salami slices and ending having to bite the plastic to open it. And not even a cookie... I actually just put mine in the seatback pocket to take with me. With all the delays I filled up on UC soup. Snack, ehr, dinner for tomorrow afternoon.

The FA was very apologetic and said she has been given no time frame for it to be fixed. There weren't even limes on board for drinks....
r,
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...55b82f1a0e.jpg

UA First Class meal.

Flying tonight ex-DEN, offered "gouda cheeseburger" as the only choice. No limes for drinks, no salad, and a gross Dole fruit cup in the normal salad bowl. No topping for burger either, just packets of ketchup/mustard/mayo.

I haven't been keeping up too much with this issue but I agree with the posters above that UA needs to be more proactive about this. After 2+ months of this and apparently no end in sight they should be handing out proactive vouchers or sending text alerts. They find ways to do it anytime there's a weather waiver or a gate change, I'm sure someone could send an alert reminding customers that there will be limited/no food options. I rushed onto the flight after not eating all afternoon only to find out my only choice (that I cannot eat) was the burger. Sodium box from the back it was...

Edit: Also - zero acknowledgement/apology from the crew, and they dissapeared after meal service for the remaining 2hr 15min in the flight to have texting/laughing/eating time in the galley. Welcome to the friendly skies!

I think UA has been cheap in their handling of it. I think AA and DL have been cheap addressing their problems as well. But here's some food for thought. $20 vouchers has been a popular suggestion. That seems reasonable. But I can see how management may look at it differently when working the math. Let's estimate an average scenario for a flight out of DEN. Let's say take a 738 (166 seats) flying at UA's 2016 average load factor (82.04%), stage length (1,441 miles), and yield (15.06 cents). That gives a total of revenue of $29,554 per flight. Let's give all 16 F passengers a $20 meal voucher on top of the substitute food, adding $320 of cost per flight. If all vouchers are used, that's 1.08% of the total passenger revenue lost. With pre-tax margins at 12.2%, they will notice, and our general scenario probably underestimates the percentage due to airfares at DEN being on the low end for domestic travel and domestic stage length being shorter. Obviously this doesn't account for ill-will, etc., but you can see why some people in management balk at handing out large vouchers like candy and instead give them out when a complaint is made. I don't agree with it, but I can understand the alternate belief.

So what are those interim solutions? Let's hear and analyze your ideas. Simply saying something doesn't make it true.

Facts without context are useless.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tedreed.../#2530d1235d4a

With context, we see that DL made some concerning decisions as well. It raises important questions. Why did they not suspend use when others were? Do they care about the health of their passengers? Was the delay in suspending putting money over people? Or was their situation comparatively minor and allowed for continued use, making a comparison irrelevant? Without more answers, it's impossible to compare the two, unless a vendetta is at play.

And it's reasonable to assume that UA at DEN has far fewer short-term alternative options (possibly none) available to them than the airlines at LAX. It's a stretch to say that AA handled their situation better considering the equal length, LAX catering situation, and the more severe lack of food available on flights based on the reports here on FT.

What about the catering waiver idea that I posted last week? Letting people know there could be a problem with the weather appears to have been a workable strategic adjustment across the board. Why not let a much smaller subset of people know there could be a problem with the catering (if eating shelf-stable fruit cups is not to their liking) and let them rebook as they wish?

The answer was in the article you cited. Delta suspended the GG LAX "hot kitchen." Were the listeria was found.

The conclusion that I draw from reading the article is that 1) DL cares about the health of their passengers and 2) they desired to maintain the quality of their F product by sourcing it from a different airport, no doubt at additional cost. By contrast, I believe 1) UA cares about the health of their passengers and 2) decided that maintaining the quality of their F product by sourcing it from a different airport would be too expensive.

Given that DL had to use SFO catering to cover their LAX flights, one could assume that there were likewise no short term alternative options available at LAX. Which makes DL's situation at LAX no different than UA's situation at DEN.

This reminds me of the ExpressJet early 2000s snack packs that were the coach "meals at mealtimes"

Interesting spreadsheet analysis. From my perspective, 1% of revenue to protect reputation and brand in the face of a food safety issue sounds pretty cheap. Especially when it impacts your "premium" cabin.

Wouldn't an option be to procure high-quality, portable meals from some of the many vendors in Denver. The kind of "box lunches" that are catered at corporate events all over the city? Seems they could spin up the capacity rather quickly and at a ~$10 price point. I know I would much rather have one of these options over the BOB economy food. Key would be to make them high-quality, not some pressed lunch meat mess. Also, doesn't require heating, so no FA training concerns, plate ware, etc.

The infrastructure for plane delivery was being met, as drinks and BOB was being catered. Just add the box lunches to the cart. Seems pretty simple to me. Combined with a proactive email to let passengers know to expect this alternate catering, and you come out looking much better than a BOB burger with a ketchup packet.

Oh, and the cost would be even less, as this is a replacement of the regular catering, not a voucher supplement...

Until this Thanksgiving trip, it had been three years since I'd flown in a premium cabin on United. I left the "processed cheese food" flight with the impression that US's domestic premium catering had fully gone to the dogs. I didn't know (until seeing the thread here) that it was a DEN-specific problem. I left the flight thinking that there was little reason to pay up from Economy Plus ever again on domestic UA. Is that really what United really wants to accomplish?

We're now at a point where we can afford to make choices that make travel easier or more pleasant. United's failure to communicate IS a form of communication. It communicated: You get a bigger seat and some booze. The old days of a reasonably plated and served meal are gone. Take it or leave it.

Certainly nothing like the old 747 upper deck party flights of the early 70's.

Still not fixed, processed cheese food again DEN-YYC yesterday

SEA-DEN - offered a different type of smaller cheeseburger I was never served before with smoked gouda, a packaged fruit chemical cup served in a bowl (why serve this in a bowl??), and a slice of raspberry cheesecake. The bottom of the burger bun was so hot, you could iron your pants with it. Overall tasted OK but not as good as the regular F cheeseburger.

DEN-MIA - offered a choice of beef macaroni and cheese or lentil chili over polenta - made a big mistake and chose the lentil chili which appeared to resemble what would happen if a rabbit with diarrhea sat on top of a slice of polenta. Won't make that mistake again. Served with yet another packaged fruit chemical cup perched in a bowl - the logic of this extra bowl escapes me - a warm roll with microscopic butter pat, and a slice of the now ubiquitous raspberry cheesecake

Both crews were pleasant and I appreciated the DEN-MIA FA who went around the cabin by status to ensure 1Ks received their meal choice with appropriate priority recognition, even if some of us chose the wrong option.

As far as I could tell, I was only missing the burger garnish SEA-DEN and the side salad DEN-MIA. I also did not notice anything different in the UC, however they might source their salad greens and garnish from another source?

Correct. The UC does not utilize the catering kitchen for their offerings.

I flew DEN-LGA yesterday and had the beef stew with macaroni, prison-style fruit cup, and a slice of cheesecake. No limes for my Moscow Mule, either.

Well, better no limes than no Mules (looking on the bright side...)

Just flew DEN-PHL yesterday.
As I board, I joke to the FAs as they are going through the cart, "Filet Mignon and Lobster for dinner?". They laughed and said "the kitchen is still closed", I was like "Still????"
I'm in 1A. 1B paid for an upgrade and doesnt seem to be a frequent flyer on UA.
We overhear on FA say to another FA "The food is inedible ofcourse". I'm pretty sure the FA was talking about their own meals but it probably isnt too far off.
1B hears this and takes it literally. He turns to me and says "did you hear that?" When the FA takes our order she says "you have a choice of, well its just the pretzel burger because that's all we have". 1B says "I'm going to pass on dinner because the other FA said the food is inedible". The FA doesnt really say anything and moves on.
The FA isn't 100% right, the pretzel burger was rotated out a while ago. (Later in the flight she tries to convince me that ORD-HKG is the longest flight in the system so her info is a little old). I get the same burger you would get in Y (minus the lettuce tomato and mayo). A fruit cup, chips, and cheesecake. My last DEN meal was the same minus the fruit cup and fry chips instead of regular but I did have mayo.
This FA is rather chatty with me. As she's heating up her dinner that she brought from home, she tells me that people were getting sick from the DEN kitchen so they had to strip it down and rebuild.
Later in the flight she brings around a snack basket but its actually the choice menu. So I can pick from a pringles can, large chex mix bag, etc. She tells me the guy in DEN told her to use that.

What I don't understand is what is so difficult. Fine the DEN kitchen is down, preload the food from another city. Don't they routinely load food for future flights, even on intl flights? I thought this was a common practice since they don't have catering agreements with every city. Maybe they can't put in ice cream or sorbet but regular food should be fine.