Don't want to lead this thread too far off topic, but UA decides who is "elite" not the individual traveler. If one is kickedtothekirb, one is not "elite" based on UA's current definition. One is stripped of "eliteness" and THEN kickedtothekirb.

Erm, at US Air there was a time any liquid you wanted you needed to pay for, even water... Well before Buy-on-Board happened in the US Domestic market...

I think the old USAir Cockroaches might make a reappearance if that were to happen...

I second the motion ! ;)

Kirby is bad news. One need not look any further than AA to see what a disaster he and Doug made of that.

Isn’t the chow in the clubs theoretically tied to my annual membership fee?

I’d think that with fewer people flying they’d have more money for food?

I know. This is life under Kirby.

My favorite cut back is m not booking on UA. Now that I am no longer a hub hostage I am happily looking at other options when we travel.

Passenger amenities are a very, very small portion of an airline’s cost. When you’re facing a dire situation, as United and it’s peers are with net bookings down 50-100% depending on region, you go after the big rocks. That means planes will be parked, flights cut, and some staff laid off or furloughed.

Load factors are - and will be - so low that cutting amenities would save hardly anything.

Some other facts to add context: Kirby has been very clear that while United will act aggressively to save the airline and employees’ jobs, he sees this crisis as an opportunity to take share from other, weaker carriers (ahem, AA). While there will be big capacity cuts, there is still a view to the future. Also, MP is United’s biggest asset and they know that’s a piggy bank they may need to tap in the future. I think care will be taken to avoid pushing elites away, though corporate travel is currently dead.

Yes, that was very obvious in the recent change to the refund policy titled "you're going whether you like it or not, to someplace which may or may not be safe, unless we change the schedule and you miss a full day plus 1hr at the destination you didn't want to go to in the first place".

I think that was more about no money coming in, so they had to stem the flow going out.

This is an unprecedented situation that appears to be impacting the airlines far beyond the scope of 9/11 or 2008. Customers may wish to adjust their expectations accordingly.

Absolutely not. Fewer people means they have to spend less on the current food volumes. UA sees this a savings opportunity, not an opportunity to upgrade the offerings.

THERE WAS JAMMIES!? I just flew "true" Polaris for the first time this past weekend and didn't know about the PJs. I had read previously the jelly pillows had to be asked for, but on this flight they were on every seat. I could see them eliminating those, not sure if there's any cost savings there other than laundering the covers, but they seemed a little superfluous to me.

The light bites, assuming I'm thinking of the right things...I could see those getting bounced. Having the self serve snacks and water in the galley was nice, they also seemed to change at some point during the flight, either that or the FAs just have a grab bag full of random stuff. I took a kitkat once, never saw another there for the rest of the flight. I did order the grilled cheese...it was VERYyyyyy Meh. M&M meats (here in Canada...do they have it in the US?) used to sell frozen grilled cheese sandys individually packed in some weird foil that you'd microwave and it came out semi-crispy, like some of the pizzas that have the silver tray with them. Those were better than this. It was a half sandwich first of all, which is fine but they don't mention that. It was very thin and the bread overpowered the cheese, which shouldn't really be the case I feel.

Slippers are gone too

........ depending on what Delta does

This. There are other options out there, and I exercise them.

Not sure if you're still just speculating, or replying and saying slippers are gone...on my recent flight slippers were on the menu as an item that needed to be requested, while I didn't, I did see some slippers left on board so presumably they were available.

Well, they did go "no free water" on USAir for a while then they retracted. So, hopefully he learned that lesson.

I don't blame UA if it starts cutting. This thing is brutal and they need to find ways to survive, right? We also need to not lose our miles and lifetime statuses...