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

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Old Sep 27, 2022, 12:44 pm
  #1576  
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Originally Posted by Imstevek
I’m not sure if this belongs here, but I thought it was fascinating…feel free to move if not. It shines an interesting light on how Some other airlines think and spend.

https://www.ft.com/content/018f132b-...f-a5cad8ee4bdb
Originally Posted by Infinite1K
Behind a paywall…
Try
https://archive.ph/uNgs5
Xyzzy and chrisny2 like this.
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Old Sep 27, 2022, 2:21 pm
  #1577  
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
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Originally Posted by Repooc17
Pmuch like the zataar on United First, has NOT changed in a century.
I know its a boring and not tasty choice but I think Zataar and Imp. Balls were introduced to the menu less than 6 months ago.
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Old Sep 27, 2022, 2:45 pm
  #1578  
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Originally Posted by UAFAM
I know its a boring and not tasty choice but I think Zataar and Imp. Balls were introduced to the menu less than 6 months ago.
When you fly UA enough, 6 months feels like a century.
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Old Sep 27, 2022, 3:24 pm
  #1579  
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Meals used to rotate monthly, with different mealsets for different directions, as well as divisions. At the height of recent domestic catering (ca. 2016), there were something like 60 different meals flying domestically at any given time and they moved around monthly (as well as in and out of production).
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Old Sep 27, 2022, 4:39 pm
  #1580  
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Originally Posted by fumje
When you fly UA enough, 6 months feels like a century.
Just 3x in a month and I’m Tapas’d out.
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Old Sep 27, 2022, 5:23 pm
  #1581  
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Originally Posted by findark
Meals used to rotate monthly, with different mealsets for different directions, as well as divisions. At the height of recent domestic catering (ca. 2016), there were something like 60 different meals flying domestically at any given time and they moved around monthly (as well as in and out of production).
Passenger experience sunsetted shortly after that.
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Old Sep 27, 2022, 5:45 pm
  #1582  
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Originally Posted by findark
Meals used to rotate monthly, with different mealsets for different directions, as well as divisions. At the height of recent domestic catering (ca. 2016), there were something like 60 different meals flying domestically at any given time and they moved around monthly (as well as in and out of production).
Kind of like what DL and AA are doing now… it’s just amazing that UA doesn’t feel the need to match the rest of the US 3… although I suppose as long as their bookings are strong, they won’t feel they need to change anything to compete. (And it’s already been indicated they intend on competing with hard product, not soft product)
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Old Sep 27, 2022, 5:55 pm
  #1583  
 
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Originally Posted by dw
(And it’s already been indicated they intend on competing with hard product, not soft product)
Are they? Outside of Polaris, the domestic fleet seems lightyears behind DL in terms of pax comfort with things like technology, IFE, etc. Yes they made a flash out of United next, but it hasn't materialized much. I would think the soft product is relatively easier and cheaper to fix in the near term...
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Old Sep 27, 2022, 6:15 pm
  #1584  
dw
 
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Originally Posted by UAalltheway
Are they? Outside of Polaris, the domestic fleet seems lightyears behind DL in terms of pax comfort with things like technology, IFE, etc. Yes they made a flash out of United next, but it hasn't materialized much. I would think the soft product is relatively easier and cheaper to fix in the near term...
UA leadership has definitely indicated that… now whether in practice/reality that is the case… is of course a completely separate issue ;-)
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Old Sep 28, 2022, 8:55 am
  #1585  
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Originally Posted by dw
Kind of like what DL and AA are doing now… it’s just amazing that UA doesn’t feel the need to match the rest of the US 3… although I suppose as long as their bookings are strong, they won’t feel they need to change anything to compete. (And it’s already been indicated they intend on competing with hard product, not soft product)
While ahead of UA, DL is still struggling to get back there. Same mealsets both ways on the same citypair (I think their "chef partnerships" are skewing to certain stations, leaving their hub captives to eat the same stuff endlessly) and a lot of surprise cold options and no-meal flights. Can't comment on AA.

The one good thing that can be said for UA is a lot of routes now at least have 5 preorder options, which is more flexibility than 2018-19 by a long shot. But yeah, they could really stand to get their act back together.
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Old Sep 28, 2022, 10:29 am
  #1586  
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Originally Posted by dw
Kind of like what DL and AA are doing now… it’s just amazing that UA doesn’t feel the need to match the rest of the US 3… although I suppose as long as their bookings are strong, they won’t feel they need to change anything to compete. (And it’s already been indicated they intend on competing with hard product, not soft product)
Not that this should be mutually exclusive, but if it is really a priorities question then hard product is absolutely the way to go. 1000%
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Old Sep 28, 2022, 5:59 pm
  #1587  
 
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at least UA hasn't done what Delta did recently. They touted a major improvement to their PE service. Only change was silverware. Same economy meal as before. The "major enhancement" was silverware

UA still for the most part provides a quality service
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Old Sep 28, 2022, 9:18 pm
  #1588  
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Originally Posted by Unitedloyalflyer
at least UA hasn't done what Delta did recently. They touted a major improvement to their PE service. Only change was silverware. Same economy meal as before. The "major enhancement" was silverware

UA still for the most part provides a quality service
But crappy repetitive food.

Not sure if that balances things out.

David
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Old Sep 28, 2022, 11:01 pm
  #1589  
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Originally Posted by Unitedloyalflyer
UA still for the most part provides a quality service
Lol...
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Old Sep 28, 2022, 11:34 pm
  #1590  
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Originally Posted by Repooc17
Lol...
Maybe that should have been: "...kirby kwality service..."

David
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