You are right, it was polenta. I had one bite of it, and didn't touch the rest.

Didn't realize SFO - DEN is a hot meal eligible flight, as it only comes in around 860 miles. I
I was wrong. it is around 950 miles.

EWR-LAX (UA2403)
787-10
12/18/2024
6A

This was my first time experiencing Premium Transcontinental Service on UA. Pictures first, followed by observations/notes.


Warm nuts and cranberry/orange juice.


Flat iron steak/potatoes/asparagus, salad, burrata appetizer, and roll.


Sundae+cheese.


Pre-arrival meal of Maryland crab cakes and melon salad.

Observations/notes:

• The whole crew were incredibly friendly and approachable—full of smiles. Impeccable, really. Service was a bit slow, though, not sure why. It took about 1.5-2 hours for the whole service to finish. However, the crew were gracious and helpful, and made sure my needs were satisfied. I was fortunate to get a friendly crew, not the type to just mail it in.
• No table linen. No printed menus, either. Not sure if that's a catering/crew error or if printed menus aren't provisioned on premium transcontinental flights?
• Steak was pretty good. A bit hard to cut through, chewy, and no pink center, but was decent. Sauce was too spicy for my taste.
  • UA should serve the sauce in a ramekin a la DL/AA. They already have a smaller ramekin on the tray for butter; why not use that same size ramekin for sauces? Looks much classier, IMHO.
• Burrata appetizer wasn't bad, maybe a bit too "rich/heavy". Didn't finish it.
• Unlike most who weren't impressed by the roll, I was impressed. The roll was delicious. Would have been even better if it came warmed. I asked for another one, but the crew was so busy that by the time they stopped to pick up my tray, I had finished my meal and had my fill.
• Warmed nuts were pretty good, but IMHO AA has the edge. AA's warm nuts are also more sizable in portion.
• The sundae was so good. Only feedback is to add berry sauce and heat the fudge, like AA does. Otherwise, perfectly decadent!
• Maryland crab cakes were really good. Had a weird smell to it, but was perfectly decent. Watermelon and regular melon slices were fresh and tasty.
• No snack basket observed, is this a feature or bug? Just wondering—had more than enough food.

I also plan to write a full trip report, including my first-time visit to the C123 UC, so will link to it here as soon as I finish.

Overall: impressed. The meal and fixings had an edge over my AA F meal last year on JFK-LAX, but AA had better warmed nuts and sundaes. Overall, a wash, but I was really impressed with the UC and service was definitely better and warmer on this flight, so probably giving this flight a small edge over my AA experience last year.

Printed menus went away in 2019 (iirc) for UA.

Experience notwithstanding, AA F on the ground gives you more: special check-in area, priority security, flagship lounge, a la carte dining.

glad you got to experience the enhanced (and when I say enhanced, it really has been!) PS service in Polaris on United now, versus what it was just 6 months ago!!

Gotcha. I've seen photos of various menus for UA J, but now that I think of it, they were all international/Polaris.

Agreed; however, C123 UC was able to fulfill my needs sufficiently. Chelsea dining was nice, but the full buffet at C123 pretty much fulfills the same needs. I also had access to Premier check-in. At JFK, I wasn't able to find the Flagship checkin area, so didn't have a chance to take advantage of the priority security, so cannot comment on that. Honestly, I don't really see that much of a difference with the ground service, other than maybe 3 checked bags vs. 2 (but I didn't check any bags anyway—no need to).

I forgot to add to my meal report yesterday—the cheese plate was fine. Not as good or substantial as AA's, IIRC, but okay enough.

The difference in staffing model is causing the delay in premium transcon service. For AA F, it's managed by the purser by themselves for 12 customers, with additional FA from J and Y helping as they complete their service. For UA J, it's 2-4 FAs assigned for up to 50 customers - they are simply understaffed, especially on the 787.

They should have boarded table linen - since the service is new, the FA probably did not realize they had them. Premium transcon flights do not have menus as of now, and no snack baskets.


Yes for JFK, none of those amenities for SFO (General priority doesn't count). LAX has partial credit for special check-in and Flagship Lounge, but not a la carte dining (as of now).

I'm convinced the roll is just made up of sawdust, probably to help with reducing weight on the plane instead of having real bread. smh. I can taste the nothingness by licking my computer screen.

LAX has First dining in a separate section of the Flagship lounge. Is it not open to F transcon customers? (I have only flown F between to/from SFO, but not to/from LAX.)

Embracing my status as a free agent, I flew premium transcon on AA and DL this week. All I can say is that UA still has a long way to go in terms of quality (though at least on the ps routes, United certainly wins on quantity). D1 Lounges beat Polaris Lounges as well...

Still closed (sine March 2020...)

Ok—so this new “premium” dining on the premium transcon routes between SF/LA and EWR is great, but I am curious if you have the option to pre-order your meals on these routes? Thanks.

Yes, the first meal (entree only) you can pre-order. The second one and dessert choices you do not have pre-order option, but enough people decline some of those that I haven't seen an issue with not getting what you want. You get both salad and appetizer, no choice of either of those.

Interesting . . . the crabcakes posted earlier looked MUCH more appealing, with visible crab lumps. This one is more what I would have expected from UA. At least you say it tasted good!

DEN-SJC Dinner

• another delightful crew - had a lot of those recently!
• no hot towel service
• FA thought they no longer stocked the old fashioned, but then came back with one, so all good there
• I asked for "anything but the chicken pizzaiola" and the choice was either the kale/romaine salad or the veg chili. As the chili is my regular go to, I thought I'd try the salad, which I also haven't seen posted on here before.
  • Didn't consider that this meant no regular salad with lemon dressing. Oops.
  • Salad itself was fine, and the Italian dressing packet with it was fortunately not terrible.
  • The grilled chicken side was surprisingly moist. Not reheating definitely helps, I guess!
• Bread roll was the most rock-like to date, which is saying something.
• I was hungry, so I had the pudding, having skipped it the last couple of times. I've been a big naysayer so far, but I have to concede that it worked for me this time. Possibly just a matter of being hungry enough.

12/21
RSW-EWR

Ordered the beef - wife got chicken and she won for today - my beef was still frozen in the middle….

Crew was excellent though - more than making up for the “food”



and yes - the cracking you see on the cheese was because it was still frozen too