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

Just returned from a UK trip to see family for the first time since COVID. Treated the family to Polaris thinking it would be like pre-COVID. How wrong could I be.

The flight to the UK was fine - we had a great dinner and cocktails in the newly opened Polaris lounge at Dulles (it's fantastic!). Our flight back from the UK was absolutely awful.

It was real Polaris and half empty but the flight was abysmal. The entertainment system was broken (for an 8.5 hour flight) and the purser gracefully gave me (for all 4 of us) 12,500 'bonus' miles which I was quite insulted by as a 1K flyer. The food was absolutely disgusting and I would have been unhappy with it in economy. An awful little salad, ravioli with a thin watery sauce and a melting ice cream. The drinks were terrible - 2 whites and 2 reds 2 of which were blended wines. The red I had was a disgusting Californian that tasted rank and was worse than what used to be served in economy.

The 'light dinner' served before landing was even worse - an inedible pesto sauce with couscous.

Paying a premium I expect a premium service - United is not delivering. I am slightly short of retaining 1K. My last 2 trips have convinced me it is not worth paying a premium price to retain 1K status.

I know all airlines are facing a real struggle in the COVID era - but United really has to up its game. Serving economy food and drink in a premium cabin is just not on.

Agreed. Let's face it, pre-Covid, UA "inflight" service was average at best to mediocre in most instances.

There was that brief shining moment when they rolled out Polaris service in 2018 when it was really good. But almost instantly the cuts began and here we are.

Yea, I have two United Polaris teddy bears from that brief shining moment! :-)

Today we had PDBs (the now-usual "champagne" or water) and then a drinks service before lunch. I was pleasantly surprised. This was ORD-IAH. Wish they would also drop off some warm nuts with that drink but I'll take what I can get.

I'm hoping the hot nuts, appetizer, and dessert cart will return soon, but I highly doubt it -- I've heard nothing about it.

Forget the cart, let’s hope the hot nuts, appetizer and dessert won’t disappear due to recent COVID increase!

I read through the thread and assumed my ORD-NAS flight tomorrow in First would offer sandwiches and snack boxes. But I just noticed it only says Business/snack. Does that mean it will only be the boxes and no sandwich offerings? Used to be exec plat for many years but haven’t flown UA F in a while.

"Snack" equals sandwiches on UA. But that might be a coding error, because at 1311 miles, that should qualify for a meal of some sort. You might get offered something more substantial, but be prepared to only get a sandwich and pack snacks if you're one to get peckish.

Exec Plat on AA? Or were you Premier Platinum on UA? Either way, what you experienced in the past will not resemble the present day.

thanks so much for the info, I really appreciate it!

I actually blanked and meant premier exec. I’m platinum in delta now and I combined the two, whoops.

DL has really gone downhill recently so will be interesting to see UAs F product. I know Covid has changed them all but I’ve been considering moving back to UA since I’ve heard overall they’ve improved from several years ago.

thanks again!!

Snack (sandwich) will be choice - non hub-to-hub flights must be over 1,500 miles to get a full meal.

IMO, UA's domestic product has been in a continual decline since 2017, but right now is better than DL for non-premium (and non-SEA) domestic routes.

Interesting. I believe I left United in 2016 or so. I'm always at least in C+ which has full free booze again but their domestic F is sad these days.

The nuts that they currently give with the Polaris meals, would it kill them to give that with the drink service? I can't imagine it's that much more effort to pour them into a ramekin and serve with drinks. Not like they warmed them half the time pre-COVID anyways.

Are you suggesting UA offer nuts with the PDB in Polaris class? I think that might be asking a lot from UA. Did UA ever offer nuts pre-departure even pre- Covid? I don’t think so. 😊