TA

If you go to the airlines' websites, can you tell which one will serve food on a Hawaii flight? No, you can't differentiate which one will? Then question answered as to why UA doesn't bother.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I looked. Both AA and DL specifically mention the Hawaii flights that get free food and booze.

trout11

Granted it is primarily a leisure market but having some sort of included meal and drink service on the long east coast flight out of Newark would make sense and produce some good will and press.

I'll be flying out on the fall (in E) so hopefully some tweaks before then.

dilanesp

When thinking "why isn't a meal offeered?", stop thinking about length of flight. I believe the east coast "shuttle" services offer meals on one hour flights.

The relevant calculation is whether there are business travelers on the route.

gradsflyer

Yes, I am indeed for Choice 1, just venting that I wish UA would show some good will and follow suit of AA and DL but still okay paying for my meals. I was a UA flyer with far too many miles invested long before I moved to IAH last year where they hold a captive fortress hub anyway. On the plus side I've now gotten to know the FAs who regularly work this route so well that they have started comping me drinks though. Will actually miss seeing all the same faces on a regular basis as my wife relocates to IAH with me in July.

gradsflyer

Maybe this deserves a new thread, but seems AA just announced new ORD-HNL service to directly compete with UA now, so have to wonder whether this will change things with meals at least on that route and hopefully others. AA will also be using a much newer aircraft with the 788, so hope UA might finally start sending something a little better to Hawaii to compete instead of the high density 772s.

Details: https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea...bbean-flights/

thejaredhuang

Another point of view, UA makes a lot of money from BoB on HNL flights. I've never seen more people buy food and rent tablets, at least 2-3x the amount on my HNL flight than IAD-LAX or EWR-LAX

gradsflyer

At least partially because some of the HNL flights, ex EWR and IAD are twice the length and time of those transcons. No entertainment or food for 10-11 hours is pretty ridiculous, so you're right that people are almost coerced into purchasing these things.

HNLbasedFlyer

Personal Device Entertainment has an extensive library of offerings.......

gradsflyer

Yes, and that's what I always use, except when it occasionally malfunctions and then I have to write in and usually get comped miles. I was referring thejaredhuang's reference about the unusually large numbers of tablets that people rent on these routes, not that I pay for them myself.

rch4u

What are you talking about? There's all kinds of free entertainment available on just about any personal device. Plenty of food options available, almost all less than $10.

gradsflyer

Did you not just read my post above where I clearly started that I use the personal device entertainment?

Boraxo

The thread subject is completely false. "No food" is very different from "food for Purchase."

I often am unhappy when I take a flight that departs after 8pm and find that there is no real food for sale (only snack boxes if I am lucky). Food service should not end at 8pm on a 4+ hour flight as that does not meet the needs of many people, particularly those who rush to the airport after a day of meetings or those with a short connection from a short "no food" flight.

As long as UA has real food for sale (apparently "good healthy food" is too much to expect) and does not run out on the first pass through economy, I have no complaints.

OP should be glad that UA provides free E+ seats at booking, free carry-on and checked luggage for elites, which is not the case everywhere.

Hammer0425

And I'm sure that looks nice on the bottom line but you could also charge for a cup of water too. Or to use the bathroom. At some point you'd think a legacy/major airline would want to be somewhere other than "unquestionably in dead last place" for amenities when it comes to a route or class of service.

spin88

Since Jeff took over in 2011, the driving principle has been that United will make more money by cutting product quality, as people has to fly them. It has not worked out so well, but having dug themselves into a deep financial hole, and having been underperforming now for year after year, Wall Street is putting pressure on them to not spend money and increase margin.

Adding meals would be an immediate cost. Extra expense, and some lost BOB revenue. Perhaps it's not a great expense (say $6 per person in F+B, and a loss of a few buck in BOB + drink sales) Then you do this for what 4 flights? That is what 1000 people each way? Well then lets assume $16K/day x 356 = $5.8 Million. Perhaps that is a little high (or low, I'm just spit-balling) but with the Hunter Keays of the world baying for cost cuts, its a hard sell. Why? Well the loss of traffic due to noncompetitive product takes a while. It is defuse, hard to measure, and is not immediately noticeable. Its the parents who flew HA on their recent trip, rather than UA and went "whow, that was much better, we are doing that again" Suddenly UA is out of four RT trips a year... But the long term damage is not what UA is thinking about right now.