greenpau

HNLbasedFlyer

On this I agree, if it is really unsafe - the minimum should be raised.

Interesting, to me at least, all the posts on FT regarding FA's eating in the galley, playing games in the galley, chatting in the galley, reading magazines in the galley, and who knows what else suggests to me they must've had time on their hands - now all of a sudden they are going to get worked to death.

luke5111

When I order the steak dish, I ask for it medium rare. This is somewhat tongue in cheek, and we'd usually smile about it, but there are FAs that make a point of getting me my meat served at the correct level of doneness. I can tell they've actually made a point of limiting the cooking time. That's not something that can be done with preplated meals. To me that's a downgrade but it was always hit or miss as to whether they would make the effort anyway.

halls120

For some entrees, preplating them won't be a significant negative. For others, it will. Which means the soft product quality is going to take another downward hit, no matter how the UA spinmeisters try to market it.

zombietooth

The food is already second-rate. Making it slightly more inferior doesn't matter much IMO.

Now, with most of the Polaris lounges open, I always leave enough time between my feeder and my international flight to have a nice meal in the lounge and don't eat the main courses onboard anymore. That way, I can go straight to sleep or work without interruptions if I so desire.

I occasionally have a mid-flight snack but never have arrival service anyway. So, "meh".

HNLbasedFlyer

The food is already fully cooked when it is put on the plane - the FA's warm it up - it isn't like there is a chef on the plane - taking your order, and giving you a medium rare steak.

24left

Yup, looks like UA already started to make things easier for the 1 less cabin crew.

Link to post:
2018 Let's Eat - Polaris Business
​​​https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30409887-post781.html

HkCaGu

Will this solve the problem of 13 FAs trying to use 6 beds each for 2 break periods?

amtrakusa

then united just should pick meals where preplating should work well. there are a thousands way to eat. this is not the end of the world.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I think you're deceiving yourself. The meat's already cooked before loading. The FA's can't reverse what the kitchen has done to it, nor the amount of time it's been sitting around. Sometimes the meat is "right", sometimes it's not. If you think a FA is doing something special just for you on occasion instead of just random luck "doneness", you're certainly welcome to believe that

greenpau

physioprof

There is definitely some variation in the doneness of pieces of meat that get loaded onto the plane. So an FA attempting to be accomodating could choose one that looks less done to serve to a pax requesting "medium rare".

StuckinITH

The only thing I know about eating steaks on planes is that USAirways always managed to serve them exactly the way I like them: medium rare. On BA, they were always overcooked and too hard to eat but that was one of the choices from the Business Class menu when sitting in Premium Economy. The other choice was coming from Economy so most time I still got the steak. On United, I always avoided the steak as the first one I had was overcooked.

But going back to the FA staffing cut: on my last Polaris trip leaving ORD, the FAs were extremely stressed checking everything in the galley before departure to the point that they were quite rude when passengers had some requests that the FAs did not consider timely. Once in the air, they became more relaxed and were nicer. I think that cutting one FA will increase their stress so will be not positive at all for the Polaris Business experience.

seanp7

Exactly. Get the pasta. Always get the pasta. It reheats fine. Friend told me that and on UA I will always do it. Not bad. LH F is a completely different story but #UArule .

transportprof

Sometimes the pasta comes out crispy on the edges from over-long re-heating. FA's can mess up any of the on board meals through inattention in the galley.