djmp

It's economics I suspect. J cabins are full in the Polaris flights I take, and not with upgraders. If you can get away with a $10 coach meal pretending to be premium fare and as few FAs as possible and still sell, then it's money in the bank.

cyborg

To the OP's question I submit there are airlines that are the opposite. OS has great Food in the air on their long haul routes, but there home lounge kinda sucks in that area and their out stations are a mixed bag depending on what you can access (e.g. ORD T5 doesn't have a decent lounge for *A). Then there is JL where the onboard food is fantastic, but the lounges are a step down. The food quality in the F lounge is fine (especially the fresh sushi), but the choices are a bit weak and I get the impression they want you to save room for the food up in the air. NH is similar to JAL with a weaker lounge offering although the noodle bar can be a nice placeholder before the flight if you can suffer the salt intake ;-)

So, I think it is a matter of budget and market priorities for the carrier. As someone mentioned above, the JL soft product costs about the same in J for a better in flight experience all around and has been discussed countless times on this forum. However I would point out that their outstation lounges can be a bit of a letdown (e.g., SFO).

The UA offering fits if you want to eat before the flight and just sleep onboard. The exception to that would be flights departing after Polaris lounge has closed/stopped serving food (SFO late night departures) and those long flights where you wake up hungry and are presented with something really bad pre arrival (13 hour old airport sandwich doesn't cut it here).

To counter the arguement of the difficulty of catering in the air I submit that SQ does both well and from several outstations as well. They even have two SK Lounges in Changi; T3 (main) and T2. I've tried both and been very satisfied with the food offering. MEL lounge was decent, not great. BKK was decent with a nice bar. LHR was closed for remodeling last time I flew SQ there, so expect a nice experience later this year when it reopens.

Cheers,

-Cyborg

Dyce

and yet other airlines manage to get the food in the air right�

WineCountryUA

It was not posted as an excuse but rather the differences between ground restaurants and inflight service -- relating to the OPs original query potential causes of differences. As you posted some airlines overcome those differences.

phil94028

The food in Virgin Premium and even Norse was better than my last two Polaris flights! The nice food in the SFO lounge somehow makes the inflight food seem even worse ....

Infinite1K

It really is all about the budget United allocates these days. They are trying to limit the money spent on food.

And it even affects things like pre-ordering on United. If you check the Polaris Eats thread, you’ll see people are often seeing not available for one or more of the items, several days before day of flight.

mfirst

... and dont forget local rules (especially when traveling international) regarding what can be flown in and out..... for example, check out the pineapple offerings (and other fruit) coming vs leaving Hawaii

there are also differences when you can put out "help yourself" buffet style stuff and easier ways to keep it hot or cold for sometime......

not to mention the difficulties in alcohol options..... heck, just check out the thread of Old Fashions....

and dont forget no fridge to store an entire week's worth of supplies


of course, cant wait for my next OGG-DEN flight with either the sweet noodles or the tough cold chicken in E+.... neither option has changed in years and my choice is now a matter of what I dislike the most at any given time.... but that is a different thread.

Dyce

It's Kirby cheapness, plain and simple You can get an old fashioned (once you've told the FA where on the cart they are) on an Embraer 175 flying 1 hour, but not on a widebody (Polaris) flying for 10+ hours. If Kirby really cared about providing a premium product then there's no reason not to have 3-5 craft cocktails available (old fashioned, margarita, etc.). They'd be a hit with passengers but Kirby wouldn't bring himself to spend more than $10 a passenger on food & drink. It's not 'difficulties'... fly other airlines - check out the cocktail lists on Emirates for example.

econ

And just as importantly, have time to eat before the flight. At SFO, I'm rushing to the airport just to catch the flight most of the time and am lucky to get a few nibbles at the sub-par PL buffet there before boarding ends.

ani90

I doubt it is all about budget. As stated some airlines have better food in Y than UA does in J - there is no way they are spending more money on Y food than UA spends in J. The food on CO transcons in Y from 15 years ago is better than what I experience in Polaris today. I am sure United could do much much better with the same food budget. I think the reality is that customer experience and customer satisfaction are not priorities for the airline.

featheroleather

more $$ spent on inflite product=less $$ in mgmts pockets�. end of story.

rankourabu

yeah thats never gonna happen....

LO and OS also use Do&Co and the food on both is excellent.

And yes, a lot of airlines Y food is way better than United J food. Thats the reality, and the only thing you can do if in flight food is important to you is vote with your wallet.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

The point of reference is important here...

IMHO, the SFO Polaris Lounge food (mainly the buffet items) has deteriorated significantly since it opened. Is the food "nice" in the SFO PL just relative to UA's in-flight food? That would be a reasonable comparison. Is it as "nice" as the PL food of a few years ago? That would certainly be a stretch....

A catering company may work with a lot of airlines. The money the airline wants to spend on catering/passenger is reflected in volume and quality. UA ends up with volume at expense of quality with their lower spend/passenger. One doesn't have to go hungry sticking with United, but one is always wishing for something better. Wishing UA spent a little more to achieve quality is wasted time. It is what it is...

NJDevils26

Currently on a United flight EWR > HND that was heavily delayed due to maintenance and then an additionally painful delay due to catering� pilot just came on after reaching cruising altitude and said �Not sure why for catering we always go with the lowest bidder��

Ouch.

bmwe92fan

Ouch indeed -- but bonus points for the honesty! My guess is that after such a long delay the food catered for your flight no longer met food safety standards for such a long flight - so they had to get all new meals for the plane -- and now that they don't use Chelsea that was probably a major problem....