StuckinITH

I had that Southwest omelet for my Thanksgiving dinner last year before landing in HKG at 8:00 PM. Good that I did not skip it as by the time I arrived in my hotel it was rather late for a meal. I did skip it prior to arriving in FRA last month as I knew I could get breakfast in the LH Senators Lounge: I had about a 4 hours wait for my next flight.

SFO777

You mean like real airlines would?

truncated

Ah but SQ12 departs NRT 7pm and arrives LAX 1pm so you'd get the prearrival meal around 11am and breakfast is at least somewhat justifiable there.

But when we're talking TYO-East Coast flights landing ~4-5pm it makes less sense — and for example NH serves breakfast as the pre-arrival meal for their HND-JFK/ORD and NRT-IAD/IAH morning departures (arriving ~10am) but lunch on the afternoon NRT-JFK/ORD flights which land ~4pm:

enviroian

What a joke. Another example of UA (and US based carriers in general) of hiding under the guise of "safety" while simply be LAZY.

fezzington

I find it hard to believe a senior captain and senior purser would cancel service without a good reason to do so. This thread alone probably got both of them called in for a meeting. I won't wade any further into the particulars of this situation, but I'll say this:

On a widebody aircraft, it takes at least 3-5 minutes to get out of the aisle, properly stow the carts & materials, and take a JS in Y. J depends on where you are with the service, but for pre-arrival, I'd wager about 5 minutes as well. This does not include any time to pick things up from passengers. Anything less than that, you're either not putting things away properly in the galley (risking flying objects and upturned carts) or in a worst case scenario, FAs are stuck in the aisle with moderate turbulence and breakfast carts.

Also, there are currently no plans for any "work actions" by UAL FAs.

FlyerTalker70

Any update OP and others on the flight whether UA gave you the compensation you're entitled to? Having been on UA TPACs before I've seen two meal services advertised. What transpired on this flight then is a service failure. In particular with 2 and a half hours prior to wheels down you're telling me they couldn't find 30 mins to provide meal service? I've been on hour long regional flights that could eek out a decent meal.

-James

bocastephen

This assumes anyone from UA is actually monitoring this forum and looking for service issues that warrant further investigation - however it really appears to us that no one from United really cares at all.

They probably are monitoring the forum looking for customers to single out for audits and other actions to terminate MP accounts or customer relationships - but doing anything to help improve service delivery or product? I can only picture Kirby coming here for a self-congratulatory laugh, but that's it.

dilanesp

It is NOT a service failure to not receive food on a flight for safety reasons. Food is NOT that important. I have never been to a destination city that did not have it available.

You know what would be a service failure? For a FA to make an incautious decision to serve food despite turbulence and get someone hurt.

P.S.: I do agree they should have apologized when the turbulence didn't materialize.

SFO777

But it is a service failure to not receive food on a flight for bogus safety reasons.

Imstevek

ani90

Obviously nothing trumps safety as the overwhelming priority but I would not say food is not that important. For children, the infirm and elderly it is very important indeed. It is true that food exists in destination city but it is an assumption that the food will be available once the plane lands. Having stood in US immigration lines for over an hour watching crying irritable children (yes I know some may breeze through in five minutes with global entry but the vast majority of overseas visitors join a long line) it is easy to see how the prearrival meal can be important for some. There is indeed a parallel thread about planes waiting 20 to 30 minutes post landing for a gate at EWR - again not uncommon. I have even sat in secondary US immigration rooms for two hours with children and there is not even access to drinking water. And even when one gets baggage and heads out for transportation, US arrival halls are not necessarily the most hospitable in terms of accessibility of food or drink and as strange as it sounds not everyone has cash or credit cards usable in the US on arrival. Net result is for many it will be few hours from the prearrival snack before they get a chance to eat again.

I would not say at all that the prearrival meal is not relevant and can imagine how bad it would be, especially for kids and elderly, if on landing the last meal they had was 8 to10 hours earlier. It may be irrelevant to some, but there are those who value the prearrival snack and some who actually need it. Of course the next message will be that the Traveller should always be prepared and have his own food and drink to last a whole day or whatever but many people are not that organized or capable.

HkCaGu

Especially true for international flights into the US. You don't bring anything healthy and fresh "just in case" and throw it away before customs. (Those with medical needs probably always bring something that's not subject to confiscation.)

It had been argued when GUM-HNL turned into BOB. If food were to run out before the last row, and the passenger had to catch a 70-min connection through US customs to IAH, and BOB runs out again, what is someone to do for a total of let's say 16 hours? FYI, declaring food may add minutes to customs and risks your near MCT connection.

worldclubber

It would then require an explanation (maybe even an apology) at the end of the flight: "Despite the forecast ..."

Imstevek

I agree, that's a nice touch.

kenn0223

OP Here -- I did not seek out additional compensation. I ate in the Polaris club in EWR and made a note to book future travel on DL/KE for this route. Given the length of the flight I was pretty hungry by the time I got to the Polaris Lounge and would have planned differently (e.g. ate more of the first meal and/or more snacks) if I had known in advance they were going to cancel the meal service. I assume there were at least some folks in economy to whom an extra $20 spent on a meal at the airport wasn't insignificant (based on my own personal travel experience when I was younger and without an expense account). To me, it sure felt as if more could have been done to attempt to serve a meal given the remaining flight time and the lack of actual turbulence. This was really driven home by the fact the seatbelt sign was off for the last 90 minutes or so before we started decent.