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General discussion of UA's inflight service (Domestic / Int値, all cabins) {Archive}

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Old May 11, 2022, 1:38 pm
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Last edit by: WineCountryUA
This us an archive thread, the active thread is General discussion of UA's inflight service (Domestic / International, all cabins)
previous thread: COVID Era UA inflight service changes


Thread is for general discussion of the state of UA in-flight service / catering, comparison to other carriers, past UA offerings and concerns with management decisions.

For a specific post about a recent in-flight food, use the appropriate Let's Eat .... thread.

The current Onboard Service descriptions by UA.com

Long-haul international premium cabin dining
North America, Caribbean and Latin America premium cabin dining
United Economy dining

Since the UA website is extremely vague, I'm looking for a few volunteers to submit data, and I will summarize to complete the wiki. kind regards, phkc070408

Domestic Under 300 Miles

Sample 1
Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Bagged Snack? Yes/No
Served Snacked? Yes/No. Hot/Cold. What was offered?

Sample 2
Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Bagged Snack? Yes/No
Served Snacked? Yes/No. Hot/Cold. What was offered?

Sample 3
Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Bagged Snack? Yes/No
Served Snacked? Yes/No. Hot/Cold. What was offered?

Sample 4
Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Bagged Snack? Yes/No
Served Snacked? Yes/No. Hot/Cold. What was offered?

Sample 5
Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Bagged Snack? Yes/No
Served Snacked? Yes/No. Hot/Cold. What was offered?


Domestic Over 300 Miles Under 800 Miles

Sample 1
Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Bagged Snack? Yes/No
Served Snacked? Yes/No. Hot/Cold. What was offered?

Sample 2
Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Bagged Snack? Yes/No
Served Snacked? Yes/No. Hot/Cold. What was offered?

Sample 3
Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Bagged Snack? Yes/No
Served Snacked? Yes/No. Hot/Cold. What was offered?

Sample 4
Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Bagged Snack? Yes/No
Served Snacked? Yes/No. Hot/Cold. What was offered?

Sample 5
Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Bagged Snack? Yes/No
Served Snacked? Yes/No. Hot/Cold. What was offered?

Domestic Over 800 Miles

Sample 1
Route? Morning or Afternoon or Evening?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Served Snacked? Yes/No. Hot/Cold. What was offered?
Meal Served? Yes/No. Short description.
Snack Basket?

Sample 2
Route? Morning or Afternoon or Evening?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Served Snacked? Yes/No. Hot/Cold. What was offered?
Meal Served? Yes/No. Short description.
Snack Basket?

Sample 3
Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening/. or Late Evening?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Served Snacked? Yes/No. Hot/Cold. What was offered?
Meal Served? Yes/No. Short description.
Snack Basket?

Sample 4
Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening or Late Evening?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Served Snacked? Yes/No. Hot/Cold. What was offered?
Meal Served? Yes/No. Short description.
Snack Basket?

Sample 5
Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening or Late Evening?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Served Snacked? Yes/No. Hot/Cold. What was offered?
Meal Served? Yes/No. Short description.
Snack Basket?

P-Tcon

Sample 1
Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening or Red-Eye?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Meal Served? Yes/No. Short description.
Snack Basket/Pre-Arrival?
Any other notes of relevance?

​​​​​​​Sample 2
​​​​​​​Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening or Red-Eye?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Meal Served? Yes/No. Short description.
Snack Basket/Pre-Arrival?
Any other notes of relevance?

​​​​​​​Sample 3
​​​​​​​Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening or Red-Eye?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Meal Served? Yes/No. Short description.
Snack Basket/Pre-Arrival?
Any other notes of relevance?

​​​​​​​Sample 4
​​​​​​​Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening or Red-Eye?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Meal Served? Yes/No. Short description.
Snack Basket/Pre-Arrival?
Any other notes of relevance?

​​​​​​​Sample 5
​​​​​​​Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening or Red-Eye?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Meal Served? Yes/No. Short description.
Snack Basket/Pre-Arrival?
Any other notes of relevance?

Polaris USA - Europe

​​​​​​​Sample 1
​​​​​​​Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening or Red-Eye?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Menu?
Hot Towels?
First Meal Served? Yes/No. Short description.
Appetizer / Desert Info:
Snack Basket/Mid-Flight Snack?
Arrival Meal? Short Description.
Any other notes of relevance?

​​​​​​​Sample 2
​​​​​​​Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening or Red-Eye?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Menu?
​​​​​​​Hot Towels?
First Meal Served? Yes/No. Short description.
Appetizer / Desert Info:
Snack Basket/Mid-Flight Snack?
Arrival Meal? Short Description.
Any other notes of relevance?

​​​​​​​Sample 3
​​​​​​​Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening or Red-Eye?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Menu?
​​​​​​​Hot Towels?
First Meal Served? Yes/No. Short description.
Appetizer / Desert Info:
Snack Basket/Mid-Flight Snack?
Arrival Meal? Short Description.
Any other notes of relevance?

​​​​​​​Sample 4
​​​​​​​Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening or Red-Eye?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Menu?
​​​​​​​Hot Towels?
First Meal Served? Yes/No. Short description.
Appetizer / Desert Info:
Snack Basket/Mid-Flight Snack?
Arrival Meal? Short Description.
Any other notes of relevance?

​​​​​​​Sample 5
​​​​​​​Route? Morning or Afternoon/Evening or Red-Eye?
PDB - Yes/No? What was offered?
Menu?
​​​​​​​Hot Towels?
First Meal Served? Yes/No. Short description.
Appetizer / Desert Info:
Snack Basket/Mid-Flight Snack?
Arrival Meal? Short Description.
Any other notes of relevance?

Related thread: How bad does onboard catering need to get before UA invests in improving it?
​​​​​​​

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General discussion of UA's inflight service (Domestic / Int値, all cabins) {Archive}

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Old Nov 4, 2022, 10:31 am
  #1756  
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Originally Posted by HNLbasedFlyer
UA isn't going to improve because they don't care if every FT person flies a international carrier as it is not the target flyer.
Under that theory, UA would cut the catering in the Polaris lounges to cheese cubes and carrrot sticks. They absolutely care at a certain level, they just don't seem to currently see the benefit of increased spend on inflight food and beverage. We've actually seen improvements lately in the UC catering, undoubtedly driven by a combination of customer complaints and competitive pressures so I reject the notion that there is no hope whatsoever of future improvement.
Originally Posted by Lux Flyer
I think you would be disappointed to know what their NPS is telling them then as based on the values I've seen, clearly not a lot of other passengers feel the same way you do.
No, I really don't really care. I'm just making sure that my input is sending the message I want to send. I'll continue to choose other carriers ahead of UA, which only wins my business (somewhere between 25 and 40%) based on schedule this days.
SPN Lifer and bluedemon211 like this.

Last edited by Kacee; Nov 4, 2022 at 10:44 am
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Old Nov 4, 2022, 10:41 am
  #1757  
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
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Originally Posted by bocastephen
Because none of those numbers are sustainable, especially in the face of a changing economic reality. You can't build a long term product on the basis of 24 months of 'revenge travel' bounce numbers, only an idiot CEO would assume this will continue long term.
I think many of us underestimate the three driving factors the overwhelming majority of customers focus on- pricing, hard product, and convenience. UA- especially if you are anywhere near a hub- is extremely convenient. UA's long haul hard product is at the very least competitive and in many cases superior to competition. Pricing is the one area I'm not sure is sustainable, but that's also the easiest to fix on their end...can be done with a flick of the wrist.

Service is not any good, and food is the worst I've ever experienced. I always look at other options transcon or internaitonal, but I'm 30 mins from EWR and 1.5 from LGA or JFK. I'll continue to get sick from the food and complain about some pretty horrible FA for the foreseeable future, unless the cost difference is meaningful.
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Old Nov 4, 2022, 10:45 am
  #1758  
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Originally Posted by gold23
IUA's long haul hard product is at the very least competitive and in many cases superior to competition.
It's really not. One of the reasons UA manages to succeed is that a large segment of the market is very poorly informed and makes purchase decisions based almost exclusively on price.
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Old Nov 4, 2022, 10:59 am
  #1759  
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Would assume UA can segregate NPS by cabin, such as domestic econ, domestic first, international econ, Polaris, ... the differences if any would be interesting.
One aggregate number would be weighted toward whichever group responses the most.
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Old Nov 4, 2022, 11:15 am
  #1760  
 
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Originally Posted by Kacee
It's really not. One of the reasons UA manages to succeed is that a large segment of the market is very poorly informed and makes purchase decisions based almost exclusively on price.
I guess I should specify my mind was focused on Polaris, which in reality I agree is not all that impactful to the full fledged bottom line.
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Old Nov 4, 2022, 12:03 pm
  #1761  
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Originally Posted by gold23
I guess I should specify my mind was focused on Polaris, which in reality I agree is not all that impactful to the full fledged bottom line.
I agree the Polaris hard product is competitive and in fact superior to the hard product offered by many carriers TATL.
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Old Nov 4, 2022, 12:29 pm
  #1762  
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Originally Posted by ualboston1k

Still no appetizer course.

Still no bread served from a bread basket. And still no garlic bread.

Still no dessert cart or make your own sundaes.
Times change - prior to 9/11, I would partake on Dom Perigon, Johnny Walker Blue - and carved Chateaubriand in F. Those aren't coming back either.

What we see today is, in my opinion, permanent.
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Old Nov 4, 2022, 5:09 pm
  #1763  
 
Join Date: Jul 2022
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Originally Posted by bocastephen
Do you have any UA status? Crews will often go direct to 1K and GS customers to get their order, then come back around to non-status customers.

Of course if UA offered pre-departure meal ordering like most other "premium best in the world" (Kirby) airlines, this would all be a none issue.

I have a AA flight next week where I placed my F dinner order two weeks ago, it's not really rocket science - unless you just flat out don't care.
Interesting, didn't know that. I have Platinum, so I guess it's highly possible she went to GS/1k first.
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Old Nov 4, 2022, 10:10 pm
  #1764  
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
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Originally Posted by HNLbasedFlyer
Times change - prior to 9/11, I would partake on Dom Perigon, Johnny Walker Blue - and carved Chateaubriand in F. Those aren't coming back either.

What we see today is, in my opinion, permanent.
Agree. From day one, the marketing of "Polaris" was at best vague, and now--after years of Kirby Kuts--embarrassing. It introduced a level of inflight travel expectations that has been systematically diminished.
Savvy business class flyers on UA expecting food quality should have it packed in their carry-on. No one should fly UA--domestic or international-- expecting quality food or wines, and hope they don't run out of their beverage-of-choice.
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Old Nov 5, 2022, 6:23 am
  #1765  
 
Join Date: Nov 2019
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Breakfast RIC to IAH


FC Breakfast RIC to IAH
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Old Nov 7, 2022, 8:53 am
  #1766  
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What's a "smear"? Oy
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Old Nov 7, 2022, 9:13 am
  #1767  
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Originally Posted by Apollosmom

FC Breakfast RIC to IAH
Carborama!
(excl the two dairy-based items)
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Old Nov 7, 2022, 9:29 am
  #1768  
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Seems to me they ought not to advertise the arrivals lounge on the menu for daytime -LHR flight, as it is closed when the flight arrives.
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Old Nov 7, 2022, 9:35 am
  #1769  
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Originally Posted by fumje
So what is the moral? Passengers should shut up because executives are bagging bonuses?
No, it's more like deal with it or fly someone else.

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Nov 7, 2022 at 11:50 am Reason: discuss the issue, not the poster
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Old Nov 7, 2022, 9:38 am
  #1770  
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Originally Posted by Bear96
No, it's more like deal with it or fly someone else.
it's more like 'complain consistently, send in copies of high value fares booked on competitors where applicable, continue to point out major deficiencies in the product, over and over again until there is some change that comes out of it".
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Last edited by WineCountryUA; Nov 7, 2022 at 11:53 am Reason: quote updated to reflect Moderator
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