Most of my travel was for work, and while I agree about the times, I tended to book the 5pm TATL bank because if anything went wrong, I could still get on one of the 10pm TATL flights and connect to my destination. But the soft product did influence which flight I would choose, it was just not the only factor. To me, most hard product is the same. Connections and price are important. And I didn’t mind connecting too much as it meant arriving closer to hotel check in time.

Those days .... barely 7 years ago!

Btw, my memory could be faulty, but I don't think the Polaris rollout had cheese service, just a pre-plated cheese plate as one of the dessert options. Now, the pmCO pre-dessert cheese service, on the other hand, was really something ....

Prior to merger, PMCO catering was so much better than PMUA catering. After almost 20 years of exclusive PMUA flying, I was looking forward to the PMCO in-flight catering during the immediate post-merger period when PMUA and PMCO were still operating separately. I remember switching my NRT flights to leave from IAH and EWR, and return home flight from PEK/PVG to EWR.

I almost always got upgraded from United Business to United First and while i agree that the catering in United Business was not as good as CO BusinessFirst, the catering in International United First pre-merger was in a league above, Dom Perignon, caviar, a separate appetizer course, then salad, then main (including a pretty amazing filet mignon), then dessert and then the cheese course

Yes, I was often in PMUA International F like you were. Seven-course meal with rack of lamb, Chateaubriand carved in front you, tossed salad made to order, lobster bisque, etc. Unfortunately, cut backs were made post 9-11, then International F catering quality skydived after the 2nd bankruptcy.

Agreed, and then it became a joke post-merger with only the soup course being different/additional to Business

I was purely a domestic flyer in those days, but I remember doing the same thing (routing over IAH or EWR when possible). There was that intermediate period when the airline was essentially still two separate ones behind the scenes and catering was but one example...PMUA aircraft got the UA catering and PMCO aircraft got the CO catering. Perhaps the most interesting example was flying out of an outstation where PMCO had a catering contract and PMUA did not. Whatever you ended up with in terms of food was a complex decision based on the metal of the airplane and the hub to which it was going to/from.

Tamale-stuffed chicken was one of my favorites when I flew out of IAH.

That was my favorite!!!! With the yucca spears...

100% Disagree. Just because you want to sleep doesn't mean everyone has to bend to your desire. The whole point with keeping things the way they've been for decades is to give folks OPTIONS so they can do what's best for them. Offering a true, traditional multi course meal for those who want it, express dining for those wanting a shorter meal, and skipping / sleeping is how we've always done it. And it's worked well. Why suddenly do more folks need more sleep now?

It's actually much easier for people to sleep in business class now versus 15 years ago, when all meal service was proper. Seats back then were NOT lie flat and resembled large Barcaloungers. Generous recline...yes. Fully flat bed, no.

Stop it!

it just makes everything today worse -- but damn -- I miss the Lobster Bisque so much....

I miss the pre-Polaris little things in Business like serving the salad course with choice of dressing and toppings from the trolley. Seems like a world apart from the cafeteria tray of crap thrown at you now.

And the multiple sets of forks/knives that you could use per course.

I totally agree with this. Back in the days of the 747, quite a few airlines offered one of the business class cabins as a 'quiet' cabin, lights out and express meal service only on request, while the other cabin was full service

United leadership and staff need to fly Qatar. Their food quality and service makes United Polaris feel like a premium economy product. It is amazing/bad how awful United Polaris service is compared to some airlines. United has a long ways to go to be able to considered an international, premium airline. In the 1990s United service was so much better. I flew United to Germany from the U.S. last week and Qatar from CPT to BKK via DOH and their is zero comparison and the airfare was cheaper on Qatar.