I swear the recent lack of PDBs is due to the FAs being mad about a lack of a contract. A lot of misses this summer were due to flights being late and trying to get off as quickly as they could to make up time.

UA 1578 EWR-LAX in J, no PDB, not even an offer for water.

UA 349 SAT - IAH Yes it's a short flight (1 hour) No PDB, no inflight service. Heck The FA's Didn't unass their jump seats to unlock the lavs. Clear blue skies and the seat belt sign was off the entire time.

ORD-SJC Monday PDB was bubbles or water. Take it or leave it. No drink offering at all until meal was delivered.

On various flights this summer:

MCO-CLE: water or OJ
CLE-MCO: water or sparkling wine
CLE-ORD: water or mimosa
ORD-CLE: sparkling wine or water
CLE-ORD: water or OJ
CLE-ORD: mimosa or water
ORD-CLE: water or sparkling wine

The OJ/mimosa flights were all morning departures. I don't recall any of them offering an open bar.

The absence of an offer of open bar doesn't necessarily imply that you won't be accommodated if you ask for something other than what's on the tray. My success rate for such accommodation is definitely over 75% when PDB trays are being offered; and even when no PDBs are being offered at all, I am probably around 25% at getting a bloody mary if I ask in the galley once boarding is done. (But I am unusually charismatic, so YMMV... 😹😹😹)

For the last couple of fights I've had I've noticed a near lack of PDB, my last 7 flights in a row (all flown in the last month and a half) in first class have had zero PDB provided, all of them on different flights/aircraft, with one of them being regional and one being a domestic 787.

All of these the FAs were pretty proactive with drinks once in the air (except for 1 that chose to sit down the entire 2 hour flight after doing 1 round).

No PDB on UA 7 on Sept. 29 (IAH-NRT, 14 hour flight) nor on the return on Oct. 9 on UA 6. The FAs on UA 6 were some of the worst: terrible attitude and absolutely dismal service, especially from the purser. It was such a sharp contrast after flying ANA earlier that same day, which had stellar service.

For comparison, on 2 American Eagle E175s last week (Qantas connections) it was open bar for PDBs

Actually, I really can’t recall when I was last offered a PDB proactively on a UA flight. (I also have never tried. Maybe I should.)

Noticeably downhill the past couple of months. In that time, seven domestic F itins, all with two flight segments, so 14 flights. I can only recall PDB on three of them, and two of those were sparkling wine or water only. Some notables on the 11 without PDB:

--We were at ORD and got moved to the penalty box after push back due to ATC metering. There had been no PDB before we left the gate. Pilot shut down the engines and turned off seatbelt sign, and FAs just sat in their jump seats reading magazines - still no PDB while we sat on the ramp for 30 minutes, freely allowed to move about the cabin.
--FA completely skipped over my row for PDB, otherwise my count would have been 4 out of 14. No explanation, no apology, nothing. My seatmate and I kind of looked at each other confused.
--Not only was no PDB, but meal was not served until nearly two-thirds of the way through the flight from SRQ-ORD. We had literally less than 15 minutes to eat before we started our descent. And no, there was not weather/turbulence during the flight that impacted FA service.

I realize these are very much first-world problems, and I'm not really trying to keep a tally or something. It just feels more like I'm flying AA than UA lately, but the planes do say UNITED on the side - I've checked. :D

DEN-FRA 10/19

No PDB offered in Polaris.

No PDB on IAD to DEN on 10/19. The service on United seems to be getting even worse. It seems like a lot of the new people United has hired since the pandemic are not trained in providing basic levels of service and view service as an annoyance. Their CEO loves to talk a big game, but when it comes down to it United is a pretty mediocre to poor airline service wise. Their hard product is decent, but their employees failure to deliver a good airport and on board experience. A PDB is such a basic offering and should be easy and consistent to offer.

I'm not sure it is the new people so much as the veterans being upset about their contract or some other thing. I fly ORD/RSW regularly. In the last 10 flights, there were PDBs offered only once. On a flight out of ORD to RSW last month, we were held at the gate to allow over a dozen connecting pax to catch the flight after being delayed due to storms just to the east of ORD. We boarded and sat at the gate for 30 minutes with the door open, so plenty of time for PDBs. The captain even went off the plane to get his Starbucks beverage refilled. But the kicker was an FA who seemed to be new asked the purser if she should start the PDB service since we were boarded and just sitting there. The purser said "Absolutely not. I never do that anymore". I was in1B so could hear everything going on up front where the four FAs had gathered to chat. So perhaps the newbies are being trained correctly by UA but the OJT they get on the planes is another matter.

Please, if this happens, you must write in. That feedback will go to Inflight Supervisors who can and do take action.