flaii

February 2022
SFO-ICN-PVG
Boeing 777-300ER

A bit late with this post!

Pre-meal warm nuts in a porcelain ramekin. This was new to me, my last flight being in December flying PVG-ICN-SFO.



When the flight attendant offered up “beef short rib, salmon, or tube pasta,” I asked if he could say something more about the beef and salmon, like what kind of sauces they came with. He said the beef had a kind of red wine sauce, and the salmon had a cream sauce. I think I'd had that salmon before (which I thought was bland), so I went with the beef. I was quite happy with it as it was tender. Came with a sweetish sauce, with perhaps hoisin flavor? I liked the salad, the pretzel roll was warm, and the mango sorbet was still *very* frozen when I got to it.


Midflight snack - Besides a sandwich, there were only packaged snacks like Cheez-Its, gummy bears, and kettle potato chips. The sandwich was just the tiniest thing. You can see that it’s smaller than the fun-size gummy bear package.

Very dry, with only two very small pieces of Swiss cheese inside. This is a very long flight, and I ended up needing to eat more of the chips to ward off hunger. Even though I didn't want more packaged snacks, the sandwich was just not very good so I didn't take any more of these.



About an hour before landing at around 8:20pm San Francisco time, or 1:20pm Seoul Time, we were served “breakfast.” There was a choice between eggs and oatmeal. I went with the eggs, since I wanted some protein after eating so many chips earlier. I liked this dish a lot! Had good flavor. Croissant was warmed.


I had a worry after finishing the breakfast. It was about 12:30pm Shanghai Time. I knew there would be no meal service on the ICN-PVG leg after the crew change (only beverage service), and based on my experience flying into Shanghai a year ago, that after landing at 5pm Shanghai Time, we’d have the whole arrivals process of taking PCR tests, immigration, waiting for hotel assignment, transport into quarantine hotel, etc. So I figured that this could be the last time I would eat, for the next 11 hours! (Looking back, my estimate was pretty spot on)

So, taking inspiration from several of you Flyertalkers, I did something I’d never done before: ask for a second meal! I asked the flight attendant if he had any of the oatmeals left, and he happily said yes.

The oatmeal was excellent! It was very cinnamon-y, with big slices of apple in it, and topped with a kind of granola with pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries. Just lightly sweet which I really appreciated. I’d happily eat this again, whether in the air or on the ground. So glad I got this second entree.


After the 1 hour or so in ICN for crew change (staying seated the whole time), we had beverage service on the final leg to Shanghai. They had warned there would be severe turbulence which could interrupt the service, but they managed at least to serve my row.


I thought the quality of each individual component of the meals was decent, but there was far, far, too little food for a flight of such a length. I would really hope that a more substantial midflight snack could come back in the future (although having flown the same route in December 2020, the full breakfast is already a big step up from the spiral croissant breakfast sandwich that was the only thing served pre-arrival!) And of course after that, I'd love for printed menus to come back (and appetizers, more desserts, etc.)

fumje

Maybe "late", but I suppose you may be only just now getting out of quarantine!

Great photos here and in the lounge thread. Thanks for sharing.

MatthewLAX

Glad you requested two breakfasts!

Those are some mighty fine photos. What camera did you use?

econ

Have had those same two mains on SFO-HNL (short rib) & SFO-EWR (eggs). Liked them both. Aside from the fruit, not a huge fan of the the other items though (packaged bread, salad, dessert, etc.) Looking forward to the reported improvements in catering options coming up.

UA_Flyer

Had the same underwhelming meals on my SFO-ICN-PVG flight in Jan, and also on SFO-SIN a few days ago.
You must have gone through 30+ days of various semi and full qurantines/tests started 7-day before your flight out of SFO.

maverickar15

3/25
UA 893
SFO - ICN
Seat 3L
787-9

Excellent service today by the very attentive crew. Probably one of the best Polaris experience for me so far. I must have had at least 8 coffee and tea fill ups - they wouldn’t let it go dry and offered snacks many times.

PDB sparking wine was served in glass and warm nuts served with scotch after take off.




Dinner is no different from last time I was on this flight- same menu but nothing wrong with it either. Short rib with rice.




Breakfast was better this time and was much more appetizing than the mushroom-egg thing last time, plus fruit felt fresh as well. Sausage, potato and the egg white went together pretty well. Croissant was luke warm and probably the weakest point.




Still miss the ice cream cart but other than that, pretty good experience today.

DELee

But did the fruit actually taste fresh?

David

MatthewLAX

I see our LAX blueberry issue has spread north to SFO.

maverickar15

It did, for me at least. No blueberries in my tray though - just grapes (not sure if I am missing a joke here)

MatthewLAX

Blueberries are either in short supply in the United kitchens or represent the latest Kirby Kutback.

andymcdonnell

Lunch on yesterdays FRA-DEN By the time they got to row 5 there was no beef left, chicken was ok but bread could’ve broken windows and the overall service pretty average

marks88

PDB offered in real glassware. PDB champagne was same JP Chenet that is served domestically. Up in the air it was Duval-Leroy which is far better. (Incidentally, ORD Polaris lounge had Lanson, whereas EWR Polaris was still a subpar sparkling).

Dinner was salmon and (I believe) chicken. Vegetarian option was curry eggplant. It was tasty but definitely on the cheaper side - just eggplant and carrots. You can get frozen Indian meals from Trader Joes with more veggie types in them.

Snack baskets in between, with nice chips (not Lays type but kettle style) and the usual sad plastic wrapped sandwiches that probably could survive a nuclear blast. I passed, and most everyone seemed to sleep thru. Would be nice to have more options. How hard is instant cup noodles.

Breakfast was the pre-arrival meal, following origin time (EWR). It was the usual french toast and horchata oatmeal. Perhaps it's the Stockholm Syndrome talking, but I actually like the oatmeal.

Crew was good but seemed shortstaffed. I was in the back of the mini J cabin and we were served 30+ later than the front J cabin.

ei124

Do you know if the ex-FRA (specifically, FRA-IAD) pilot enhancements will continue in April?

MatthewLAX

Yes, they will.

flaii

Thank you! Yes, 21 day hotel quarantine after arrival, and then shortly after that, locked in my residential community for a week due to the current wave of cases in Shanghai!

Thank you! I used a Panasonic Lumix GX85. It has a few years on it, but I do like the quality. (P.S. I believe some of your posts inspired me to request the second breakfast!)

Yes, exactly! Flew into SF 8 days before the flight to do the 7-day test, so counting that plus the 21-day quarantine in Shanghai, I was holed up in one hotel or another for a whole month. But Shanghai quarantine recently reverted back down to 14 days!