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COVID Era UA inflight service changes {Archive}

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Old Apr 18, 2020, 1:31 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
This is an archive thread, the active thread is https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...ll-cabins.html


Updated posting July 2020 - Ice, tea and coffee returns and some small food enhancements.
Safety updates to inflight dining
Your safety and the safety of our employees is our highest priority. To try and further limit potential exposure to coronavirus (COVID-19) on board, we’re temporarily adjusting our inflight service as of March 29 and will be moving to primarily pre-packaged foods and sealed beverages. Preorder meals and food for purchase will not be available. We’re also unable to offer special meals except for Kosher meals on flights to and from Tel Aviv.

Beverage changes for all flights
We will be offering sealed beverages on all flights. If you’re on a flight under 1 hour, you’ll receive beverages on request. We’ll also offer coffee and tea on domestic flights departing before 9:45 a.m. and on all international and premium transcontinental flights. Non-alcoholic beverages are complimentary, and alcoholic beverages are complimentary in premium cabins. Wine and beer are also complimentary in United Economy® on long-haul international flights.

Food changes for domestic flights
We won't have snacks available in United Economy for flights under 2 hours and 20 minutes or in United First® for flights under 1 hour. As always, you're welcome to bring snacks on board. For flights between 1 hour and 2 hours and 20 minutes in United First, you'll receive an "all-in-one" snack bag with a wrapped sanitizer wipe, 8.5-ounce bottled water and two snacks.

For flights 2 hours and 20 minutes or longer, you'll receive an "all-in-one" snack bag with a wrapped sanitizer wipe, 8.5-ounce bottled water and two snacks in United Economy. In the premium cabin, you'll be offered a snack box.

Food changes for premium transcontinental flights
If you're flying in United Economy or Economy Plus®, you'll receive an "all-in-one" snack bag with a wrapped sanitizer wipe, 8.5-ounce bottled water and two snacks. Customers in the premium cabin will receive their meal with their entrée choice covered and will be offered a packaged snack for pre-arrival.

Food changes for international flights
In United Economy®, you’ll receive an entrée, a snack and packaged dessert, as well as pre-packed mid-flight and pre-arrival items on select flights. Everything is served packaged or covered for you to unwrap.

In United Premium Plus® and United Polaris® business class, your entrée, dessert and bread will be served together. Everything is served packaged or covered for you to unwrap. You’ll receive a pre-packaged snack for midflight and a fresh packaged meal for pre-arrival on select flights.
orignal posting
Safety updates to inflight dining
Your safety and the safety of our employees is our highest priority. To try and further limit potential exposure to coronavirus (COVID-19) on board, we’re temporarily adjusting our inflight service as of March 29 and will be moving to primarily pre-packaged foods and sealed beverages. Preorder meals and food for purchase will not be available. We’re also unable to offer special meals except for Kosher meals on flights to and from Tel Aviv.

Beverage changes for all flights
We will only offer sealed beverages and we will no longer offer ice, coffee and tea service, and poured alcohol. Instead of pouring you water from a large bottle, we’ll provide sealed individual water bottles. In premium cabins, we will offer beer and individual wines. Flights under 2 hours and 20 minutes will only have beverages on request.

Food changes for domestic flights
For flights under 2 hours and 20 minutes, we will not offer a snack service in any cabin. As always, you’re welcome to bring snacks on board.

For flights over 2 hours and 20 minutes, you will receive your choice of pretzels, a stroopwafel or cookies in United Economy®. In the premium cabin, you’ll be offered a snackbox.

Food changes for premium transcontinental flights
If you’re flying in United Economy or Economy Plus®, you’ll be offered a snack choice. Customers in the premium cabin will receive their packaged meal with their entrée choice covered and will be offered a packaged snack for pre-arrival.

Food changes for international flights
In United Economy®, you’ll receive an entrée, a snack and packaged dessert, as well as pre-packed mid-flight and pre-arrival items on select flights. Everything is served packaged or covered for you to unwrap.

In United Premium Plus® and United Polaris® business class, your entrée, dessert and bread will be served together. Everything is served packaged or covered for you to unwrap. You’ll receive a pre-packaged snack for midflight and a fresh packaged meal for pre-arrival.


crew meals, covered by contract, appear minimally changed
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COVID Era UA inflight service changes {Archive}

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Old Sep 24, 2020, 8:44 am
  #931  
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Same questions as above from EWR764.

Also, UAX?
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 9:36 am
  #932  
 
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Originally Posted by bluedemon211
Wonder how long DL can hold out with its current service level?
My guess is for as long as "social distancing" is more important than "service" to some travelers.
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 10:07 am
  #933  
 
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Originally Posted by EWR764
The TPG post was kind of skimpy on actual details... e.g., only outbounds from hubs? Is it inflight time or block time? Meal windows? Do EWR-LAX/SFO keep a “premium” service? Does glassware return in F? Alcohol back in Y? Inquiring minds want to know... 😉

Paging our local bloggers/insiders...
Matthew's post has some but not all of the details. Only outbounds from hubs/catering stations will have the new sandwiches, and they will be offered based on flight distance (a departure from pre-Covid UA which based meal service on flying/block time (I forget which)). EWR-LAX/SFO keep the current meal service, except the prepackaged cookie will be replaced by prepackaged ice cream.

https://liveandletsfly.com/united-ai...estores-meals/
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 10:19 am
  #934  
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Originally Posted by dkc192
Matthew's post has some but not all of the details. Only outbounds from hubs/catering stations will have the new sandwiches, and they will be offered based on flight distance (a departure from pre-Covid UA which based meal service on flying/block time (I forget which)). EWR-LAX/SFO keep the current meal service, except the prepackaged cookie will be replaced by prepackaged ice cream.

https://liveandletsfly.com/united-ai...estores-meals/
I feel like this is going to create a lot of confusion about which 800+ mile flights are supposed to get sandwiches and which aren't. It will be weird for people to receive a meal in one direction of a flight but not on the way back.
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 10:19 am
  #935  
 
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This past Sunday, I flew PHL-ORD in F and received a snack box (vs the pretzel + cookie). Hopefully it is the new norm and not an anomaly

Originally Posted by artvandalay
My guess is for as long as "social distancing" is more important than "service" to some travelers.
Not sure what social distancing has to due with meal service. I assume the FA is the same distance from you whether she is handing you a bag of pretzels or a snackbox. Well, the snack box is larger so I guess the FA can be further away so better for social distancing?
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 11:03 am
  #936  
 
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Originally Posted by eng3
This past Sunday, I flew PHL-ORD in F and received a snack box (vs the pretzel + cookie). Hopefully it is the new norm and not an anomaly


Not sure what social distancing has to due with meal service. I assume the FA is the same distance from you whether she is handing you a bag of pretzels or a snackbox. Well, the snack box is larger so I guess the FA can be further away so better for social distancing?
DL guarantees an empty seat adjacent. The trade off is, lousy service.
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 12:11 pm
  #937  
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Originally Posted by artvandalay
DL guarantees an empty seat adjacent. The trade off is, lousy service.
In my experience, the service is great - usually - as in genuinely friendly, service-centric crews who are proud of their brand. The current issue is they are not serving anything, which is not their fault. I agree this is a major fail on Delta's part, but at least their leadership was transparent and stated upfront it was for cost reasons, and would only last as long as needed.
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 1:16 pm
  #938  
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Originally Posted by artvandalay
DL guarantees an empty seat adjacent. The trade off is, lousy service.
Or pretty much no service, i.e., just dumping a bag with water and two snacks and then you never see the crew again with DL
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 1:26 pm
  #939  
 
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Originally Posted by fly747first
Or pretty much no service, i.e., just dumping a bag with water and two snacks and then you never see the crew again with DL
That has been my experience on a number of DAL segments post-COVID. I don't clear upgrades to F as a lowly Gold since NB F cabins are booked to 50%, and even though I have empty middles, each flight (without exception) has been one pass with the snack bags and a few rounds of trash collection, that's it. No bar cart, no snack refills, no hot beverages. I've heard that Delta is internally reporting best-ever net promoter scores, so it must be satisfied with the product it's offering, and doesn't have much impetus to change.

Compare that to United, where my normal experience this summer in Y has been is full bar cart service (minus alcohol) at least twice on flights over 2h, hourly water runs, and snack bag seconds periodically offered. On United, thus far I haven't had an occupied middle in Y, but that's just been luck as I've flown on a number of flights >80% full.

In terms of service, United is doing a comparatively good job right now, IMO.
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 1:35 pm
  #940  
 
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IAH-SFO-NRT in business. IAH-SFO is the same as everyone has experienced with the box assortment. SFO-NRT was the standard three choices of beef short rib, fish, and pesto pasta. The meal was literally plopped down before the seat belt sign had been turned off... 15 min after takeoff. The tray came out with everything covered, had some type of cabbage salad that was inedible (with the oil/balsamic dressing), a plastic wrap roll, a small container of cold nuts, and some kind of pudding type dessert (British something or other), all sealed up. Also just the Woody Cape Shiraz mini bottles and the other a Chardonnay. It’s really hard to believe that United feels obligated to continue the Polaris mods on the 787 fleet due to premium customer demand, but then they continue to offer this type of service for their premium passengers. At some point this has to get better or they’re going to start losing premium flyer business.
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 1:49 pm
  #941  
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Originally Posted by bocastephen
...The current issue is they are not serving anything, which is not their fault. I agree this is a major fail on Delta's part, but at least their leadership was transparent and stated upfront it was for cost reasons, and would only last as long as needed.
And as has been noted many times, that is not what DL is saying on their website for the past few months
We’re paring down our onboard food and beverage options in an effort to reduce physical touch points between customers and employees.
Can not have it both ways.
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 1:53 pm
  #942  
 
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Originally Posted by EWR764
That has been my experience on a number of DAL segments post-COVID. I don't clear upgrades to F as a lowly Gold since NB F cabins are booked to 50%, and even though I have empty middles, each flight (without exception) has been one pass with the snack bags and a few rounds of trash collection, that's it. No bar cart, no snack refills, no hot beverages. I've heard that Delta is internally reporting best-ever net promoter scores, so it must be satisfied with the product it's offering, and doesn't have much impetus to change.

Compare that to United, where my normal experience this summer in Y has been is full bar cart service (minus alcohol) at least twice on flights over 2h, hourly water runs, and snack bag seconds periodically offered. On United, thus far I haven't had an occupied middle in Y, but that's just been luck as I've flown on a number of flights >80% full.

In terms of service, United is doing a comparatively good job right now, IMO.
If service cuts were all about cost cutting, seems counterproductive to give away free soft drinks in Y but not sell alcohol for a profit?
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 2:15 pm
  #943  
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Originally Posted by iflyabunch
IAH-SFO-NRT in business. IAH-SFO is the same as everyone has experienced with the box assortment. SFO-NRT was the standard three choices of beef short rib, fish, and pesto pasta. The meal was literally plopped down before the seat belt sign had been turned off... 15 min after takeoff. The tray came out with everything covered, had some type of cabbage salad that was inedible (with the oil/balsamic dressing), a plastic wrap roll, a small container of cold nuts, and some kind of pudding type dessert (British something or other), all sealed up. Also just the Woody Cape Shiraz mini bottles and the other a Chardonnay. It’s really hard to believe that United feels obligated to continue the Polaris mods on the 787 fleet due to premium customer demand, but then they continue to offer this type of service for their premium passengers. At some point this has to get better or they’re going to start losing premium flyer business.
Not to be glib about the poor experience you've illustratively described, but -- I think that 'point' you mention was ca. 15 March 2020.
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 2:48 pm
  #944  
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
And as has been noted many times, that is not what DL is saying on their website for the past few months

Can not have it both ways.
I go by the email, multiple emails in fact, from the Delta CEO. Those emails were transparent about the reasons for the cutbacks. I don't recall receiving an email of any kind, or maybe there was one, from the United CEO.
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 3:06 pm
  #945  
 
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Originally Posted by physioprof
If service cuts were all about cost cutting, seems counterproductive to give away free soft drinks in Y but not sell alcohol for a profit?
Fair point, and perhaps the curtailed alcohol service in Y is more about limiting consumption and avoiding unruly passengers who might be disinclined to wear masks?
EWR764 is offline  


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