greenpau

Following up on this - I fly SFO-LHR more than any other route. SF is home, I’m London born, my family is there, and my work EU HQ is in London as well. I love the LHR crews, and know many of them by name, and they know me. My point was not one of their service style and approach - they are impeccably polite - but the Polaris staffing reductions are a huge issue for the base, and you can see that from AFA Union LHR Chapter updates and discussions regarding “essential” versus “optional” elements of the service flow, eg PDB, single tray. The High-J 76L runs half of the LHR schedule, and that Polaris staffing has been cut in half from pre-Covid. FAs are closing ranks as workload is increased, but staffing not restored. Every time a crew works together for the first time, they need to agree specifics on how they want to do the service and work together. My point from the story upthread was that when a mixed-based crew operates a flight, that can conflict with local base union positions / sentiments. What the SFO Purser in my last flight described to me on disagreements in service flow seems plausible.

halls120

More evidence that the cutback in Polaris service is being driven by Kirby cutting personnel costs, not because of COVID.

goodeats21

Yep. Exactly the options I had LHR-EWR this weekend. But wasn't exactly described like this on board.

Crazy ridiculous that this is not available on the app or website or something.

This is a perfect summary of current condition / issues. All the crap about essential workers, close contact with public every workday, and yet United is squeezing them to handle more work with less people.

Yes.

goodeats21

Pics from this flight.
Separate drink / mixed nut service was a HUGE improvement.
The yellow blob in the middle of the entre dish was a small piece of beef covered in sauce.

eng3

I've started getting the couscous over the wellington lately. A little lighter. Plus I may plan to have the burger in the PL lounge and even though it's been cut back, it's still better than the wellington.
In the past, I've gotten the wellington because I will usually choose chicken over beef if offered and when the chicken comes with couscous, I don't really want to have the same thing twice.

Nut service is a step in the right direction, still a far cry from getting a sundae from the dessert cart. If AA can do it on domestic, UA should be able to do it on intl.

travelingman79

Was the brownie served like that directly on the tray liner? One would think United could use a plate or at least paper doily to prevent it from sitting directly on the fabric of the tray liner. I know, probably small issue in the grand scheme of things…

fumje

As someone who likes everything to be on a plate — I notice this happen often with United's service, usually the bread rolls, sometimes sweets.

Kmxu

We should celebrate the tiny amount of progress at UA.

If you did not mention the "yellow blob," the FTers would scream for "Where was the beef???"

When I took AA's MIA-GRU flight last December, the service was similar to UA's pre-pandemic. 1) nuts + drink, 2) appetizers and salad, 3) main dish, and 4) desert. But the food quality was higher and size of beef was larger.

trust77

These are from my flights this past weekend. Food was good. I wish the galley attendants would make the appearance a little neater, but small things to be concerned with. Very nice to relax in the Polaris Lounge and enjoy almost the full Polaris experience as it was pre pandemic.

UA838 NRT-SFO
I choose the chicken entree for dinner, and the fish option for pre arrival



UA 837 SFO-NRT
Tried something different this time and went with the pasta option and then the frittata for pre arrival

DELee

How were the meals in terms of edibleness?

David

trust77

They were all fine. The winner for me was that breakfast frittata on the SFO-NRT segment. I should have asked for another one as it was only me and another passenger in the B-Zone Polaris Cabin

dkc192

Yep, that frittata (I think it's "officially" called a kale and egg puff pastry or similar--there's definitely puff pastry in there) is easily the best UA breakfast I've had in the past several years.

flyingrohit

sorry I should’ve used the original service picture, I just showed it like this so all items could be seen clearly but it was served like this:


Yeah especially out of LAX they like to do this but indeed out of BOM it was all packaged up.

seat38a

So the days of using Japanese tableware for Japanese food on routes to Japan is dead?

seanp7

Agreed! Go the frittata. Had it Dec 29 EWR-GRU: