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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 Aug 9, 2022, 2:53 pm
  #1351  
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Originally Posted by DELee
MatthewLAX is a senior travel blogger with multiple sources from UA.

David
This. But no specifics yet.
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Old Aug 9, 2022, 5:35 pm
  #1352  
 
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United Polaris food is still shameful - United needs to get over the covid excuses. I flew on American AMS-DFW a couple of weeks ago and was blown away with the service and food. Almost pre Covid - assorted warm breadbasket and sundae with choice of topping!!
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Old Aug 9, 2022, 5:52 pm
  #1353  
 
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Originally Posted by zigenbock
United Polaris food is still shameful - United needs to get over the covid excuses. I flew on American AMS-DFW a couple of weeks ago and was blown away with the service and food. Almost pre Covid - assorted warm breadbasket and sundae with choice of topping!!
Speaking of warm breadbaskets, why is everything so inconsistent with United? I flew them last month from MUC-IAH and it was served with three choices of bread. From what I知 seeing though that is still very much hit or miss, at best.
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Old Aug 9, 2022, 6:15 pm
  #1354  
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Originally Posted by COA777
Speaking of warm breadbaskets, why is everything so inconsistent with United? I flew them last month from MUC-IAH and it was served with three choices of bread. From what I知 seeing though that is still very much hit or miss, at best.
All my flights over the last month have had no choice of bread.
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Old Aug 9, 2022, 6:39 pm
  #1355  
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Originally Posted by zigenbock
United Polaris food is still shameful - United needs to get over the covid excuses. I flew on American AMS-DFW a couple of weeks ago and was blown away with the service and food. Almost pre Covid - assorted warm breadbasket and sundae with choice of topping!!
AA does this also on its domestic transcon routes, and for a while already.
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Old Aug 11, 2022, 8:03 am
  #1356  
 
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I just flew DFW-NRT-SIN on AA/JL (needed one of these trips to maintain OWE for another year), and I had an unexpected dining experience. The first leg was operated on AA metal but they had a "Japanese meal" option that seemed like it might have actually been catered by JL and turned out to be very similar to the meal on the second leg (JL metal). This got me wondering, does UA do the same thing on its metal when it codeshares with NH? I might actually be willing to route my next trip through NRT instead of SFO for that!
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Old Aug 11, 2022, 8:08 am
  #1357  
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Originally Posted by must_wander
I just flew DFW-NRT-SIN on AA/JL (needed one of these trips to maintain OWE for another year), and I had an unexpected dining experience. The first leg was operated on AA metal but they had a "Japanese meal" option that seemed like it might have actually been catered by JL and turned out to be very similar to the meal on the second leg (JL metal). This got me wondering, does UA do the same thing on its metal when it codeshares with NH? I might actually be willing to route my next trip through NRT instead of SFO for that!
United used to offer a Japanese meal (catered by UA, not NH) on Japan routes, and it was usually good, but that has been eliminated, because on United all nice things in the soft product must be eliminated.
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Old Aug 11, 2022, 8:23 am
  #1358  
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Originally Posted by must_wander
I just flew DFW-NRT-SIN on AA/JL (needed one of these trips to maintain OWE for another year), and I had an unexpected dining experience. The first leg was operated on AA metal but they had a "Japanese meal" option that seemed like it might have actually been catered by JL and turned out to be very similar to the meal on the second leg (JL metal). This got me wondering, does UA do the same thing on its metal when it codeshares with NH? I might actually be willing to route my next trip through NRT instead of SFO for that!
I had similar experience flew Japan-US on AA/JL. The Japanese meals served on AA were almost identical as the ones served on JL.
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Old Aug 11, 2022, 9:13 am
  #1359  
 
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Ahh, the good OLD days! Wish I was around back then. Was thinking about buying a bunch of Pret sandwiches in ZRH and discreetly selling them to fellow Polaris passengers if we get stuck with half a burrito . . .
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Old Aug 11, 2022, 10:52 am
  #1360  
 
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Originally Posted by WheelsUpGal

Ahh, the good OLD days! . . .
I wonder what they served in First Class on that flight...

Cheers,

-Cyborg
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Old Aug 11, 2022, 12:13 pm
  #1361  
 
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Originally Posted by cyborg
I wonder what they served in First Class on that flight...

Cheers,

-Cyborg
This will give you an idea at least:
https://thepointsguy.com/news/meals-...sengers-1960s/
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Old Aug 11, 2022, 7:37 pm
  #1362  
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Originally Posted by must_wander
This got me wondering, does UA do the same thing on its metal when it codeshares with NH?
I take it you're referring to UA's Japan flights, as codeshare doesn't have anything to do with it - that's just a matter of putting one carrier's flight number on a flight operated by another carrier. You can buy literally hundreds, if not thousands, of UA domestic flights as an NH codeshare.

But no, even on the Japan routes, UA did not serve the same meals as NH. That said, pre-covid, the UA meals served ex-TYO were pretty consistently the best that UA offered anywhere (though IMO nowhere near as good as what NH served).
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Old Aug 12, 2022, 3:27 am
  #1363  
 
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Originally Posted by fumje
United used to offer a Japanese meal (catered by UA, not NH) on Japan routes, and it was usually good, but that has been eliminated, because on United all nice things in the soft product must be eliminated.
Originally Posted by Kacee
I take it you're referring to UA's Japan flights, as codeshare doesn't have anything to do with it - that's just a matter of putting one carrier's flight number on a flight operated by another carrier. You can buy literally hundreds, if not thousands, of UA domestic flights as an NH codeshare.

But no, even on the Japan routes, UA did not serve the same meals as NH. That said, pre-covid, the UA meals served ex-TYO were pretty consistently the best that UA offered anywhere (though IMO nowhere near as good as what NH served).
Yes, flights to Japan. Disappointing to hear they're gone, though sadly not surprising.
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Old Aug 13, 2022, 7:39 am
  #1364  
 
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Even if the main meal service gets better, it痴 still a joke to not have proper mid flight fresh snacks. They should at least have cold sandwiches, fruit, etc available at the self service bar.
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Old Aug 13, 2022, 10:21 pm
  #1365  
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Plastic utensils on a domestic flight in F today from EWR to PHX.
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