Finally some free food in Y on long haul Hawaii (non-WestCoast) UA flights 1 Aug 2021
May 3, 2018, 12:51 am
#31
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I fly HA F and I still buy snacks, water, and meals at airports to bring on board. At OGG I buy CPK pizza and am the guy in F walking on board holding a pizza box. At SFO I'll have food from gott's or any place with food. Just in case I don't like the F meal or snack offerings. I've flown enough airlines in Y and F to experience not enjoying the food, thus I just torch another $40-ish at airports for backup food.
May 3, 2018, 9:21 am
#32
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: New York, NY
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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/
Details: https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea...bbean-flights/
May 3, 2018, 12:15 pm
#33
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: EWR
Programs: UA Gold, BA, HHonors, Avis
Posts: 192
I guess the question then becomes what option gets you more competitive advantage- spending $10 on free meals, or cutting the price of the flight by $10? If it is the latter...
May 3, 2018, 6:02 pm
#34
Join Date: Nov 2016
Posts: 129
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.
May 4, 2018, 1:07 am
#35
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May 4, 2018, 7:59 am
#36
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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.
May 4, 2018, 8:35 am
#37
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: UA 1K 1MM, AA, DL
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+1. Eating before boarding or buying at airport is fine for a 4-6 hour flight. But that doesn't work for flights of 10+ hours - what do you do at the end? Maybe for overnight not eating is normal, but for the mostly day flights to HNL (e.g., IAH departs 9:45 i believe) what does one do at the back end?
May 4, 2018, 1:38 pm
#38
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And now we have Kirby going to work doing the same at UA, hiring him was the worst decision Oscar ever made.
May 5, 2018, 9:57 pm
#39
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: HNL
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If you're connecting from an east coast city to the EWR-HNL, IAD-HNL, or ORD-HNL flights, often the connection times are tight at the hubs and when the inbound aircraft are flown by United Express, buying and bringing your own meal onboard isn't really practical.
The burgers offered on the legacy CO 767-400s seemed to taste better than the current BOB burgers; however, the BOB burger option on current flights is certainly a welcome choice for a hot meal on a long flight.
The burgers offered on the legacy CO 767-400s seemed to taste better than the current BOB burgers; however, the BOB burger option on current flights is certainly a welcome choice for a hot meal on a long flight.
May 6, 2018, 8:24 am
#41
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 3,361
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.
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.
Perhaps a thoughtful consideration of why BOB makes sense in markets where competition offers both complimentary food (meals are too strong a word) and BOB would be more constructive than gratuitous name dropping.
Jun 3, 2018, 9:11 am
#42
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Hawaii & Texas
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In the terminal C at the C1 UC at IAH and preparing to board UA 253 to HNL in about 40 minutes. Regular on this flight at least once a month and have also found myself on HNL flights to and from ORD, EWR, and IAD in the past year. Just thinking, why is it that UA still can't bring themselves to serve complimentary meals in at least E+ as they are now doing for transcons when these Hawaii flights are often even 3-4 hours longer? My understanding is DL and AA are now doing this, and we all know that they each copy each other, so why not UA? I've gotten pretty used to eating the cheeseburger, but seeing some more options, especially for all the elites in E+ might be nice. Seems complimentary beer and wine shouldn't be too much to ask for either on these essentially long hauls.
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.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Jun 3, 2018 at 10:36 am Reason: merging consecutive posts by same member
Jun 3, 2018, 11:23 am
#43
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Texas
Posts: 640
Why not eat according to the destination time zone and skip eating on the plane? This would help with the circadian rhythm and adapting to jet lag. So for IAH-HNL which is 10:00-13:30, have a light breakfast in Texas and then a slightly late lunch in HNL. You would then be right on track to eating on Hawaii time, rather than being stuffed with some mid-flight meal. On the way back, have a dinner prior to the 19:30 departure and then eat breakfast in Texas after the 0700 arrival, thus getting right back on track with central time zone feeding times.
Jun 3, 2018, 1:51 pm
#44
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I too sometimes think Smisek set a lot of the big projects in motion - Polaris, UC renovations, etc. - even though there were also a lot of cuts. Oscar basically did not do much - the initial good will are all chipped away (e.g. MP changes). Then the board probably wanted Kirby to really run the show and eventually replace Oscar. If things are like this now (good economy and still relatively decent fuel prices), how will things be when things get bad?
Jun 3, 2018, 10:26 pm
#45
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