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2019 Let's Eat - United First, United Business, & Premium Transcon Service

Old Jan 21, 2019, 2:27 pm
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2019 Let's Eat - United First, United Business, & Premium Transcon Service

Old Dec 31, 2018, 6:57 am
  #1  
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: TUS and any place close to a lav
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2019 Let's Eat - United First, United Business, & Premium Transcon Service

This thread is for premium cabin flights marketed as United First, United Business, and Premium transcontinental services. This includes:
  • North America (including all 50 US States, Canada, and Mexico)
  • Caribbean and Latin America (excluding Brazil, Argentina, and Chile)
  • Intra-Pacific/Oceania/Micronesia (such as HNL-GUM and GUM-MNL)
  • Select European Routes (such as to/from KEF)
Basically any premium cabin that is not marketed as Polaris goes in this thread.

Don't forget to post the date and route information along with the meal information!


Here's United's official page on North America premium cabin dining (including meal time windows):
https://www.united.com/web/en-us/con...ng.aspx?POS=US

North American premium cabin dining includes all First and Business class flights (including p.s. Premium Service) within North America, the Caribbean, and Latin America


For the curious folks, the 2018 thread is here:
2018 Let's Eat - United First, United Business, & Premium Transcon Service

With that, Let's Eat 2019!
warreng24 is offline  
Old Jan 3, 2019, 1:14 am
  #2  
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: SFO / LHR
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Posts: 1,018
On my domestic flights yesterday and today I noticed that the Snack Basket has had a much-needed refresh / update / modest upgrade.

Choices included Cheez-its, cinnamon flavored rice crackers, mini protein bars, different types of fresh fruit, gummy bears, unsalted mixed nuts. Thought it was a one-off fluke, but showed up on two sectors.

Wines, both red and white, were US domestic and better quality than before.

2019 is here, with a new catering budget in Q1. Heres hoping!
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Old Jan 6, 2019, 12:18 pm
  #3  
 
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IAD - LAX 1/2/2019 Dinner
Meal choices were chicken paneer with rice or chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans, both with a side salad. Served with a pretzel roll. Dessert was ice cream with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Cookies were served later in the flight.

FA asked everyone for their first choice of meal, presume she sorted it out in the galley. Service was very good although a little slow in getting started.

Other:
Announcement in LAX baggage claim that deliveries were taking 30-45 minutes. LAX bag reclaim is slow, but normally not that bad.
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Old Jan 9, 2019, 8:28 am
  #4  
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
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January 2019 eastbound premium transcon lunch/dinner menu is shockingly kale-free!

Chilled appetizer: smoked duck, lemon-dill potato salad (2 slices of duck, pretty standard, seen this before)
Salad: mesclun, mozzarella, grape tomato, olive with balsamic dressing (meh)

Mains:
Seared flat iron steak with chimichurri, mashed sweet potatoes, white beans with garlic and thyme (has rotated through several times before)
Seared chicken breast with bordelaise, cauliflower-leek mash, herbed baby carrots
Grilled salmon with coconut red curry, ramen noodles, baby bok choy

Standard desserts

I had the salmon, which I hadn't seen before, and was impressed! One of the better dishes I've had on UA TCON in a long time.



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Old Jan 9, 2019, 10:32 am
  #5  
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January 7, 2019: UA275 EWR - LAX (official) inaugural service on the 78J (787-10) from Newark. The chicken meal was really sad looking and didn't taste good.

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Old Jan 9, 2019, 11:33 am
  #6  
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78J inaugural LAX-EWR January breakfast

The fruits were ripe & sweet. The chicken chorizo with scrambled were very tasty with the hot sauce package as a welcome little touch.
There were roastbeef-cheese and cheese-tomato wraps offered pre-arrvial.





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Old Jan 10, 2019, 11:08 am
  #7  
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3 Jan 2019
EWR-LAX

On the westbound, kale is alive and well.






Balsamic vinaigrette was the salad dressing. 3 different bread, including garlic bread, were offered.





Turkey and cheese wrap + cheese/hummus tomato sandwiches were offered midflight. The updated snack basket was also onboard. Sadly, no more gummy bears.
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Old Jan 10, 2019, 1:19 pm
  #8  
 
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Originally Posted by Repooc17
January 7, 2019: UA275 EWR - LAX (official) inaugural service on the 78J (787-10) from Newark. The chicken meal was really sad looking and didn't taste good.
I flew the 78J EWR-LAX flight on January 9. Seated in 1A, it took 2.5 hours for the flight attendants to finish the meal service. I got tired of waiting for appetizers, so I just gave up and snuck to the back to buy a sandwich.

Anyone else experiencing painstakingly slow service on this new bird?
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Old Jan 10, 2019, 1:48 pm
  #9  
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Originally Posted by rch4u
I flew the 78J EWR-LAX flight on January 9. Seated in 1A, it took 2.5 hours for the flight attendants to finish the meal service. I got tired of waiting for appetizers, so I just gave up and snuck to the back to buy a sandwich.

Anyone else experiencing painstakingly slow service on this new bird?
I don't recall exactly when the service began on the January 7's 78J flight from EWR to LAX, but appetizer wasn't served to me until around the Chicago area, so around 2 hours in. I couldn't be sure, but the service was divided between rows 1 through 6 and rows 7 through 11.

Also in the minus column, the appetizer of prosciutto was way too salty.
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Old Jan 10, 2019, 2:02 pm
  #10  
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Originally Posted by PTahCha
3 Jan 2019
EWR-LAX

Turkey and cheese wrap + cheese/hummus tomato sandwiches were offered midflight. The updated snack basket was also onboard. Sadly, no more gummy bears.
It was & I had the same menu on the 78J-inaugural this Monday. The prosciutto "ball" turned out to be 3 decent-sized slices, once "unwrapped", which I did enjoy along a pretzel roll.
The salad would have been fine, but I skipped it due to the sweet dressing it came with.

Pre-arrival I tried a bite of the turkey sandwich: it was very dry!. This needs some condiments on the side: mustard, mayo, pickle ......
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Old Jan 10, 2019, 3:40 pm
  #11  
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I'm really disappointed to see the post-cut TCON entrees now showing up on p.s. (although the ravioli with leeks is really tasty). Doesn't feel like this bodes well for the future of domestic dining..
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Old Jan 10, 2019, 4:40 pm
  #12  
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Originally Posted by rch4u
I flew the 78J EWR-LAX flight on January 9. Seated in 1A, it took 2.5 hours for the flight attendants to finish the meal service. I got tired of waiting for appetizers, so I just gave up and snuck to the back to buy a sandwich.

Anyone else experiencing painstakingly slow service on this new bird?
This is totally an issue related to the staffing model. They have a total of 8 flight attendants working, serving up to 318 customers. In business class, there are 4 flight attendants serving 44 customers. However, 2 of them need to stay in the galley preparing, plating, and heating up to 20 trays, leaving only 2 flight attendants, for each flight attendant, delivering hot towels, 20 nuts and drinks, taking away nut dish, dropping 20 trays one at a time, roll service, removing 20 bowls/dishes, refilling drinks, dropping off entrees, more rolls, refilling drinks, removing dishes, then roll down the dessert/cheese cart. Comparing to standard domestic 1 tray and done service, it's about 3x the work and half as many people needed to do this timely.

And yes, it did take almost 2+ hours on my flight on 78J.

Originally Posted by cesco.g
It was & I had the same menu on the 78J-inaugural this Monday. The prosciutto "ball" turned out to be 3 decent-sized slices, once "unwrapped", which I did enjoy along a pretzel roll.
The salad would have been fine, but I skipped it due to the sweet dressing it came with.

Pre-arrival I tried a bite of the turkey sandwich: it was very dry!. This needs some condiments on the side: mustard, mayo, pickle ......
The hummus and cheese sandwich is much more preferable to the turkey sandwich for exactly that reason.
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Old Jan 12, 2019, 7:17 am
  #13  
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
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IAH-LAX this morning. Choice of kale pastry or protein plate. Biscuits & cinnamon rolls in bread basket.

Last edited by kirkwoodj; Jan 12, 2019 at 7:43 am
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Old Jan 12, 2019, 8:48 am
  #14  
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
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Originally Posted by PTahCha
The updated snack basket was also onboard. Sadly, no more gummy bears.
No!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although I usually ask for the bigger better quality Haribo buy on board from the back after raiding the small bags in the snack basket.They've been happy to oblige.
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Old Jan 12, 2019, 3:57 pm
  #15  
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
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Originally Posted by Repooc17
January 7, 2019: UA275 EWR - LAX (official) inaugural service on the 78J (787-10) from Newark. The chicken meal was really sad looking and didn't taste good.
Looks like the same chicken dish that was offered on the eastbound service in December. Not good at all.
econ is online now  

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