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

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}

Old Nov 24, 2022, 9:10 am
  #1861  
 
Join Date: May 2014
Location: San Francisco, CA
Programs: Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Ambassador
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The oven I have is a HotLogic mini -
Amazon Amazon
. It looks just like an insulated lunch bag, but, has a cord sticking out. It heats things really slowly, but then holds at serving temp ~forever. It is a lifesaver in hotel rooms for me mostly, as I travel a lot for work and get sick of eating out all the time, but still want hot food (so I use it for heating up lukewarm delivery, or heating up leftovers, etc). Several times FAs have noticed it and applauded me (or even told me they have one themselves, I think it is a fairly well known brand for those on the road a lot). But it pretty clearly looks against the rules ... I didn't realize that actually, since it just plugs in to standard power and has no exposed heating element, I thought it was relatively safe. I enthusiastically endorse it though in general, particularly if you spend a lot of time in hotels (or even for use at the office to heat up lunch, etc).
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Old Nov 24, 2022, 6:32 pm
  #1862  
 
Join Date: Nov 2017
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Originally Posted by MatthewLAX
Yes seriously. Because back in the pandemic days when UA was serving those nasty sandwiches, I seriously considered bringing my own toaster oven along and making a viral blog post out of it, but UA prohibits it:

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...t/devices.html

(heating devices prohibited)
Reminds me of the time I flew the flagship first seats on American's 77W on a MIA-DFW leg back in June 2020, and wasn't happy with the bag of peanuts so I brought my own breakfast

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Old Nov 24, 2022, 10:50 pm
  #1863  
 
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Posts: 4,443
Originally Posted by Repooc17
Fly AA domestic premium transcon and no need to wait for Sundaes. AA had restored it a while back.
Over a year ago. Even some non-premium transcons (>2,200 mi) now get sundaes on AA.
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Old Nov 25, 2022, 9:29 am
  #1864  
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
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Programs: United MileagePlus Premier 1K, Delta SkyMiles Diamond Medallion
Posts: 1,144
The chicken curry noodle bowl really isn稚 that bad
it痴 rather quite good!
while far from Michelin star restaurant gourmet , I知 not sure why it痴 so universally panned on this thread!
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Old Nov 25, 2022, 11:07 am
  #1865  
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Originally Posted by unitedbusiness
The chicken curry noodle bowl really isn稚 that bad
it痴 rather quite good!
while far from Michelin star restaurant gourmet , I知 not sure why it痴 so universally panned on this thread!
I think a moving reference point is to blame. My reference point for catering is what was served out of Chelsea Kitchens at Continental under Bethune. A lot of people look at today痴 meals and think it痴 a little better than last year痴. UA is training the customer to be satisfied by making big downgrades, then improve it a little to make customers think the food is better than it was a couple of months ago. It might be, relative to 6 months ago, but it痴 hardly comparable relative to when UA and CO actually cared.

The food today will carry you through the flight. To UA痴 credit, they池e really not promoting food as a highlight of one痴 flight experience in First or Polaris as they did back in the day when such a promotion actually had some truth to it.

Last edited by IAH-OIL-TRASH; Nov 25, 2022 at 1:10 pm
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Old Nov 25, 2022, 1:29 pm
  #1866  
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Originally Posted by IAH-OIL-TRASH
I think a moving reference point is to blame. My reference point for catering is what was served out of Chelsea Kitchens at Continental under Bethune. A lot of people look at today痴 meals and think it痴 a little better than last year痴. UA is training the customer to be satisfied by making big downgrades, then improve it a little to make customers think the food is better than it was. It might be, relative to 6 months ago, but it痴 hardly comparable relative to when UA and CO actually cared.

The food today will carry you through the flight. To UA痴 credit, they池e really not promoting food as a highlight of one痴 flight experience in First or Polaris as they did back in the day when such a promotion actually had some truth to it.
Chelsea produced some of the best domestic premium cabin meals of the era at Continental - lobster bisque soup, an amazing, a delicious cheeseburger, lobster mac'n'cheese, and delicious desserts. I have fond recollections of many of a FLL-IAH flights with that delicious bowl of soup, or the FLL-EWR dinner and lunch flights with an ice cream sundae or a big slice of cake for dessert.
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Old Nov 25, 2022, 3:50 pm
  #1867  
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 1,616
Originally Posted by bocastephen
Chelsea produced some of the best domestic premium cabin meals of the era at Continental - lobster bisque soup, an amazing, a delicious cheeseburger, lobster mac'n'cheese, and delicious desserts. I have fond recollections of many of a FLL-IAH flights with that delicious bowl of soup, or the FLL-EWR dinner and lunch flights with an ice cream sundae or a big slice of cake for dessert.
I remember delicious Chelsea meals as well, one of my favorites was the short rib ravioli which was excellent as was the Lobster Bisque.

I also fondly remember the sushi on the IAH-NRT flights which was catered by a local Houston Japanese restaurant.

Continental had its faults, but quality in-flight catering was not one of them.
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Old Nov 25, 2022, 4:02 pm
  #1868  
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Originally Posted by IAH-OIL-TRASH
,,, My reference point for catering is what was served out of Chelsea Kitchens at Continental under Bethune. ....
20 years ago
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Old Nov 25, 2022, 4:46 pm
  #1869  
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
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Excellent service today on the quick SFO - SBA 40 min flight. The captain came out and stood in the cabin, before we took off, saying he truly appreciated us being on the flight and choosing United.

Choice of OJ or a water for the PDB in the first class cabin, and he dropped off an extra OJ to a lady in row 7 dealing with a fussy baby. Drink of choice and a refill once in the air, really nice flight
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Old Nov 25, 2022, 5:59 pm
  #1870  
 
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My first time 0n the CRJ550 today, STL-ORD. I was very impressed by the interior! More legroom in F than on a 737! A cheery FA (GoJet) provided excellent service, including PDB, in-flght beverage and snack basket to us in F, then did a drink service in Y all in a 50-minute flight.

The connecting ORD-BOS on a 737-700 had a great FA too, with a choice of PDB. I pre-ordered the burger, and it was fine, though my partner had the curry chicken and wasn't impressed. Drink refills were plentiful, though the WiFi was wonky.

All-in-all, a fine TG trip.
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Old Nov 25, 2022, 9:15 pm
  #1871  
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
20 years ago
Actually 12 years ago, up to the merger, inflight catering on Continental was generally stellar.
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Old Nov 25, 2022, 9:32 pm
  #1872  
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Originally Posted by bocastephen
Actually 12 years ago, up to the merger, inflight catering on Continental was generally stellar.
the statement was
Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
Originally Posted by IAH-OIL-TRASH
,,, My reference point for catering is what was served out of Chelsea Kitchens at Continental under Bethune. ....
20 years ago
And many reports in the pre-merger CO forum about declines in the Smisek days at CO

But still if it was 12, 15 or 20 years, it is in the past and long gone
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Old Nov 27, 2022, 12:03 am
  #1873  
 
Join Date: May 2014
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Is United planning to improve its catering situation at any point, or has it just accepted it will be the junk carrier?

AA and B6 offerings in domestic J (and intl) are in different leagues. I can稚 speak to DL, but I would imagine it is also better given their attention to customer satisfaction.
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Old Nov 27, 2022, 5:27 am
  #1874  
DEN
 
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Originally Posted by nycflyer222
Is United planning to improve its catering situation at any point, or has it just accepted it will be the junk carrier?

AA and B6 offerings in domestic J (and intl) are in different leagues. I can’t speak to DL, but I would imagine it is also better given their attention to customer satisfaction.
United has been improving its catering situation for almost 2 years, it’s just in such small increments it’s often difficult to notice or even track. It remains well behind many of their competitors, especially on Int’l routes. It seems to be working because I haven’t noticed a mass exodus of UA elites so far, based on preboarding. United always says they listen to their customers “our customers tell us…..” is how they usually start the sentence.

The only way to push change is complain, just not here. The 1K email address ( I’m guessing GS has something similar) is the place to start along with your Travel Management Company, if you have one. Anyone lower in status is than 1K, s just white noise, and I even think 1K isn’t a huge priority to UA.

FT is more a place for information and to vent, not really a place to affect change, IMO.

DEN

Last edited by DEN; Nov 27, 2022 at 5:41 am
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Old Nov 27, 2022, 8:07 am
  #1875  
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Originally Posted by DEN
United has been improving its catering situation for almost 2 years, it痴 just in such small increments it痴 often difficult to notice or even track. It remains well behind many of their competitors, especially on Int値 routes. It seems to be working because I haven稚 noticed a mass exodus of UA elites so far, based on preboarding. United always says they listen to their customers 登ur customers tell us.. is how they usually start the sentence.

The only way to push change is complain, just not here. The 1K email address ( I知 guessing GS has something similar) is the place to start along with your Travel Management Company, if you have one. Anyone lower in status is than 1K, s just white noise, and I even think 1K isn稚 a huge priority to UA.

FT is more a place for information and to vent, not really a place to affect change, IMO.

DEN
I disagree with the premise United has been improving for the last 2 years. I have been on well over 100 UA flights during such time span, and I would say United has been declining. The blantant disregard from FAs is a pattern; having the same school cafeteria menu (generous description) month after month is by design.

It is not that its competitors have stepped their game; they have merely restored to their normal levels.

UA is bringing the dough for its shareholders - there are no incentives to change. Until its customers vote with their wallet, complaints are failing to register.
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