We need to all write in about these changes! The more we write in, the more likely they are to listen to feedback and make improvements.

United’s revenue based accrual system is killing their competition, and yet another reason UA can charge higher prices and attract loyalty. 75k redeemable miles on most intl biz tickets is much preferred to 15-20k on star alliance and other competitors.

It doesn’t appear that there are any meal changes at all. Just the way they are plated. I don’t mind at all having one less set of hands touching the food.

I fly for a living but am not a United employee. I just fly on them a lot to get to and from work. I’m on a layover in Asia at a hotel where United crews layover. Some common layover hotels have areas set aside for aircrew to hang out and I happened to hear a group of United flight attendants discussing the topic of this thread. I didn’t listen long, but I didn’t need to. They are professionals, and they are really frustrated with the state of Polaris service. They call the serving dishes “dog bowls”. They think the food looks disgusting. In short, the changes are having a very negative impact on their morale. That’s a real shame because for most passengers, the flight attendants are the face of an airline. When they aren’t happy, the culture of the entire airline, from a passenger perspective, takes a hit.
I also happen to fly on Emirates a lot. Usually in first class. The hard and soft product on Emirates is really hard to compete with. However, Emirates treats its flight crews poorly. They work long hours and have shorter layovers than most international airline crews. They are understaffed in the front and the back. And guess what... on a long flight with a less than full passenger load, it isn’t uncommon for flight attendents and passengers to chat. And after a bit of small talk, conversations turn to lifestyles and those trained professional aircrew let the veil down just a bit. When passengers start realizing the crews on their airplanes are tired, frustrated and looking for a new job, that hurts the bottom line of an airline. You start to see signs of it in little and large things during a flight. Tired employees get irritable. That’s human nature. And employees who aren’t proud of the service they are providing stop caring about it. Simply human nature, and an absolute killer for a service oriented business.
Frankly, I don’t expect gourmet food on an airplane. I actually think most of the discussions about food on this website are silly. If there isn’t an actual chef cooking fresh ingredients over an open flame, you’re basically getting an old fashioned TV dinner. So I don’t expect fine cousine. But even a TV dinner can be presented in such a way that it looks a little better than it tastes. And when the people serving it are embarrassed by what they are serving, the net effect matters more than the quality of the food. I get why United is exploring ways to improve their bottom line. I’m a die hard capitalist. But I also know that if your workers aren’t happy, you start losing customers. Happens everytime. And guess what United...I think you’ve crossed a line you’re going to regret crossing. Nobody at the frontlines of your business is happy with the changes. It’s very noticeable. And at some point, it’s going to start costing more than it saves.

CO served an amazing (restaurant-quality) one pre-merger. Probably my favorite in-flight meals ever.