seanp7

SYD-SFO
12/28/2021
777-300ER


Tasmanian Salmon with cous cous, side salad, chocolate mousse.


Vegetarian Portabello Mushroom/beans/rice combo


Breakfast - Spinach/Egg frittata, sausage w/ fruit & apple cinnamon muffin

Pretty good catering ex-Australia, but particularly the Salmon which was very, very good. I was hungry at hour 10 (of 14) and asked for a hot snack. She said they don't have anything hot but gave me a chicken salad mini dinner roll. FA came by 10 mins later and said they have salmon, mushroom mains still available and would I like one of those (had the mushroom. Forgettable but was better than crisps).

Breakfast was very good - served about 1 hour before landing. Aussie sausage, flavorful fruit, spinach frittata.

Lounge pre-flight was SQ in SYD, which had hot Singapore Noodles (which were OUTSTANDING!), a chicken curry, Greek salad, Dim Sum (dumplings), and some small sandwiches. Full barista, wines/beers/spirits. A better lounge than when I last visited years ago.

Aussienarelle

Looking forward to this in three weeks! Miss Tasmanian salmon.

I have always loved the SQ lounge in SYD. Henschke Hill of Grace.

Pity no hot snacks on the flight.

rajsbasi

16 December UA940 EWR to LHR 1L

Salmon with Rice:


Breakfast "Eggs or French Toast" Suffice to say I was intrigued by the egg tart thing. Not quite a quiche and certainly not eggs hehe:

rajsbasi

26 December UA900 LHR to SFO 2A

Lunch:
"Stuffed Chicken with Mash." Tray plonked down, per first photo with a knock you out bread roll. Ice cream melted pending arrival of entree as per second picture.




Cheeseburger Wellington pre arrival:

cricketer

So... salmon over the chicken when I fly SFO-DEL next week? Or just go veggie? Though maybe the Polaris lounge will be open and solve the problem for me...

MatthewLAX

Nothing to be sorry for - I greatly appreciate your commentary and found it interesting/helpful in the case of catering ex-India.

It would be nice if we could have some sort of hybrid option where the meal pictures themselves are tagged as reviews or something and someone who just wanted to look at menus/meals could filter out all the discussion.

But our discussion is very valuable! I certainly want that continue, whatever thread that is.

flyingrohit

Not including the images in reply but was your salad actually served as a separate course than the main? Or did you just remove it for the picture? Because if so that might be the first time this entire pandemic season that at least I’m seeing multiple courses for the first meal again.

if it’s the same chicken I had at the start of the month, absolutely take the salmon. The chicken made my stomach sick and I just didn’t eat anything else for the flight. So as a recap here we’re the 2 for comparison (sorry for the picture quality).


Chicken SFO-DEL (12/2)


Salmon SFO-DEL (12/24)

I pray the Polaris lounge is open for you. Eat as much as you can there.

seanp7

Enjoy! Some additional tips for the SQ lounge pre your UA flight:

• It re-opens at 12 noon for the SQ & UA SFO flights. I had some time to kill before and went shopping. Keep that in mind.
• There's some bottled light sparkling water that I enjoyed. I've never had 'light sparkling' water before lol, it's always one extreme or the other.
• There's a barista-operated coffee machine, which was in high demand.
• The Dim Sum is popular (and some people were taking 8-12 dumplings at once) so start there...
• There's a chicken & potato curry/satay - mix the sauce of that with the Singapore Noodles. Divine!
• The business/restaurant cubicles are private, but fill up. Head straight for those before all the United folks fill them up...
• No announcements for UA boarding, so watch the clock.

lhrsfo

I had a pretty well identical meal on the same route 2 days later.

Frozen nuts, cold bread, hot main and warm ice cream. Having said that, the chicken was quite tasty.

I simply cannot understand the lack of menus: the main was described as stuffed chicken breast with mashed potatoes and root vegetables. But as the picture clearly shows, the proportion of broccoli to root veg was high.

But I was particularly amused by the offer of red wines: it was Malbec, Pinot Noir or Cotes du Rhone. I ordered the latter but it tasted of Pinot Noir. On further enquiry, it turned out that they didn't have Cotes du Rhone, but Cotes de Nuit which is Pinot Noir from Burgundy rather than a GSM blend from the Rhone. The Malbec also wasn't what that simple statement suggests but a Cahors which is a blend including Malbec from southern France. I do understand that FAs know nothing about their main customer facing role and that they are not trained, but that is precisely why they should be handing out a menu so you don't have to bother training them.

General incompetence from UA all round, but at least I'd upgraded from Premium Economy which vanished on our particular airplane - another area of incompetence.

rajsbasi

Yes the tray came out with the salad, ice cream and bread. The crew said the entrees were taking longer and would be out later. They then came by and cleared the salad plate and put the entree down, so I think it was more of an issue rather than a return to the old days....

warrenw

Ok so I just finished my trip so thought I'd share how it went.
UA892 ICN-SFO DEC 16th - NO PDB. Purser came on saying that they'd offer a drink service followed by dinner, which is exactly what they did. Drink service occurred about 40 minutes into the flight and FA's came by seat by seat to ask for drink orders. When asked about wine it was "red or white." Dinner choices were "beef and shrimp, fish, or bibimbap." No other descriptors.
I got the beef and "shrimp" although there was only one shrimp, my wife got bibimbap which was nothing close to OZ or KE but whatevs.
They were VERY quick to take trays, as in I was literally still eating and a FA asked if they could take my tray. I said I was still eating. Then not a minute later, halfway through my mooncake, another FA literally started grabbing my tray! I guess I'm done after all.
FAs were proactive with drink refills!



Breakfast had no choice. They just asked "do you want breakfast?" and brought out this tray. It wasn't good, immediately had the urge to poo but I erroneously decided to "wait" and was standing in the immigration line sweating regretting that decision. All worked out in the end LOL.

You're probably noticing this is old Polaris, yet thinking "wait, SFO-ICN is permanent Polaris now!" Well they did equipment swaps on BOTH of my flights. I was displeased.

UA893 SFO-ICN 29 DEC
NO PDB. Drink orders were taken with dinner orders (dinner at 12pm...yeah) which was "beef rib, salmon, or vegetarian pasta." I got the pasta (which was actually tasty) and my wife got the salmon. There were zero efforts to refill drinks, I had to ask and they obliged but zero proactivity. Same with bedding / PJ's (on both flights). In fact, it seemed like I was inconveniencing them when I asked. Also the FA on my side was more descriptive on the menu (she was also the purser) but the FA on my wife's side was very short with everyone.
My wife had asked for ice water with her meal and the purser said "we provide water bottles." I guess you can't get ice with water?
Also everyone's ice cream melted. They were bringing ice cream around afterwards to people who complained, but it just makes me think, what is so hard about bringing ice cream by after they remove your tray? Is it really that difficult? Who in United thought, let me serve a cold, melting dessert at the same time as a hot meal and appetizer (which is just salad)? Appalling.




They promised a mid flight snack, but the only thing they brought out were sea salt chips and gummy bears.
Breakfast (served at 430pm local) was a fritatta or french toast. One FA's explanation was "eggs or toast" other one explained it more. I got the fritatta and my wife got the french toast. Wasn't that impressed with either of them. Drinks served on the tray.



Anyway I think the food was better than some of the photos on here but I gotta say, as someone who paid out of pocket for the flight I was disappointed with food, service, equipment swap, and the surelyness of the FAs. They were all 50+ and made me feel like I was inconveniencing them?
I'm not 1K anymore so my wife and I decided this is our last flight with UA. We'll be making the switch to KE once my wife's *G status expires on Asiana.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

LHR-SFO today. Pretty much rock bottom TATL experience. No PDB (boarding on time). I actually boarded early for a change because LHR UA gate procedure is so organized. Thought I would enjoy a leisurely PDB. No dice.

Orders taken front to back: (verbatim) “beef, chicken, or pasta”. Guy sitting in front of me asked about chicken: “I think it’s a breast, and maybe some mushrooms”. UA really should print menus, even if it’s off a HP printer in departure station office. Most FAs can’t be bothered right now.

FlytheTail

IAH-NRT on 777-200, business was around 20% full. Glad the flight wasn't canceled due to staffing issues and the empty plane.

Pre-departure beverage choice of water or "champagne".

Dinner choice of salmon, short ribs, or ravioli. Chose the short ribs and overall it was good. Modest portion size and a bit fatty, but that's not surprising. Bread was cold and the hardest I've ever experienced. The 4-ounce cup of vanilla-flavored ice cream was the consistency of clam chowder when I ate it (10 min after it was served).

Same red wine choices as 3-4 years ago (Colby red, pinot noir, and French malbec, according to the flight attendant). Haven't liked any of these in the past but had a few glasses of pinot anyway. Proactive refills and good service the first 2 hours of the flight.



Only mid-flight snack options were small bags of potato chips, gummy bears, and a few other caloric options, as well as small and cold bread rolls with one very thin slice of turkey and a white cheese, plus some spread that made everything less dry.

Breakfast was served 45 minutes before landing so everything was rushed. The main was very good but maybe that's partly because I was so hungry. Choice was an omelet (which it wasn't) or French toast with a pathetic fruit cup and dry but warm bread product labeled as a croissant.



I flew onwards from NRT on NH and not surprisingly everything (apart from the hard seat) was vastly superior. Nice to have full menus, attentive service, and multiple meal courses, plus proactive serving of snacks with each wine refill.

BlooJoo

US Weekly isn't going to read itself.

eng3

I've found that about 50% of the time, the ice cream comes separately like 10 min after the initial tray comes out. I wait for the ice cream to arrive so I can take a photo of all the food undisturbed at once. I usually am one of the first to get my food and I usually let it sit so the frozen butter and bread can heat up and the overcooked entree can cool down. Sometimes I try to get creative with stacking this on top of eachother to transfer heat but sometimes this doesnt end up well. Anyways, depending on timing and how delayed the flight is, the ice cream is either had as a rock or a milkshake. In the former case, I appreciate getting it early to have more time for it to soften.

Hey now, everyone knows that SAFETY is an FA's #1 job. Hawking credit cards is #2.