FlyerTalk Forums - [Rumor] FA says "No catering on short flights" beginning April 1, 2018

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[Rumor] FA says "No catering on short flights" beginning April 1, 2018

There is a thread about this, IIRC, but I just can't find it.

Was on United's 15th shortest flight, AVP-EWR at 96 miles.
Pleasantly surprised: Stroopwaffel was handed out to everyone before door close, and FA proactively offered all 1k and GS a snack (pack). Orange juice and water was offered.
Flight duration 28 minutes.
UA really stepped up their game, I thought. Munoz came through.

Just as I was so impressed, FA announced (paraphrasing): "After April 1st, United will not offer any catering on its shortest flights. You will need to bring your own water from then on."

Yikes. United back to it's horrible self. Kirby at work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by narvik (Post 29523064)

Yep... Kirby is doing his very best to obliterate any goodwill created by Oscar post-Smisek.

Not even water??? Really? Sheesh

OAK-LAX yesterday on a DL (Compass Air) 175 . . . my upgrade cleared 5 days out, there was a pillow and blanket waiting at every seat, a full snack basket was passed around, and drinks were offered multiple times. And didn't have to deal with weather at SFO.

Which would you choose?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kacee (Post 29523360)

I’ll choose :

The airline that flies from the right airport instead of the most inconvenient one from Silicon Valley and the Peninsular

The airline that flies mainline to LAX instead of delay- and cancellation- plagued regionals

The airline that earns me award miles for 3-class first

The airline that can also fly me nonstop to Singapore instead of a time-wasting SFO SEA NRT SIN scenic detour. my time is precious

What's the flight time cutoff for the desert flights?

Quote:

Originally Posted by williambruno1975 (Post 29523419)

The airline that flies mainline to LAX instead of delay- and cancellation- plagued regional

SFO-LAX on UA is an utter and complete disaster when there's weather at SFO.

The DL flights ex-OAK OTOH are quite reliable.

So they are going to stop catering any SFO-LAX flight?

Another crappy-sounding idea, no doubt coming from Kirby.

Bringing in Kirby was a bad move at the time, we all knew that. This is bad.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PsiFighter37 (Post 29523543)

So they are going to stop catering any SFO-LAX flight?

Another crappy-sounding idea, no doubt coming from Kirby.

I've heard it is only very short flights where there's no service scheduled today and that it means no carts will be loaded unless the plane is being catered for another segment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by williambruno1975 (Post 29523419)

I’ll choose :

The airline that flies from the right airport instead of the most inconvenient one from Silicon Valley and the Peninsular

The conventional wisdom among a large contingent of Bay Area - based frequent UA fliers - as has been discussed a lot on these forums - is that when the weather turns south at SFO and they have to dump parallel approaches (thus reducing capacity by roughly half) it turns into a delayed prone nightmare. Thus many, even hardcore UA loyalists like myself, head to OAK for quick trips up and down the coast, as it is not nearly as delay prone to weather. They are already set up for single-runway operations and thus dont rely on dual runways to keep pace with capacity.

Perfect example: two weeks ago I had a day trip to LA. In the morning I flew down to LAX from SFO. Weather turned awful in SFO and they went down to one runway. I wasn’t able to jump over a Southwest flight into OAK and landed on time. The flight I would have been on to SFO in UA was delayed five hours, as were most others on that route that day.

Quote:

Originally Posted by williambruno1975 (Post 29523419)

The airline that can also fly me nonstop to Singapore instead of a time-wasting SFO SEA NRT SIN scenic detour. my time is precious

Weeeeeeel. If you sit in business.I will prefer above route any time to non stop SFO-SIN in the middle seat at E-.

This thread is kind of useless without a definition of "short flights". How long (block, distance)?

-RM

Is this really new? I flew SMF-SFO last year with no catering. Not even H-2-0.

Quote:

Originally Posted by narvik (Post 29523064)

I take this flight all too often. By the time EWR lifts the ground hold it can be 60+ minutes from the time you pulled away from the gate. Add another 30 minutes if traveling in the other direction. Half the time a proactive service is offered onboard, and half the time it's not ("due to the short duration of the flight"), but there is service upon request. The FA usually walks through the cabin passing out Stroopwafels or a packet of pretzels, even if there is no official beverage service.

I'm hoping this is just a case of a misinformed UX FA. UA should be provisioning beverages (and Stroopwafels!) on every flight, as there is no way to predict how long passengers may be sitting trapped in the cabin from door to door. Perhaps the new policy is "No official service, but customers can request a beverage and/or a Stroopwafel." Otherwise, I can see why UA may be timing this new policy with their "compassion training." :rolleyes: