I was starving on ORD-HNL in F and the fa gave me a snackbox for free. She mentioned having to check availability, but she returned with box in hand.

My gf and I asked for the cheese box as an appetizer on PDX-IAD in F. We even said we would pay for it, but the fa gave it to us without asking for payment.

I've never seen them totally run out of snackboxes... now, the fresh menu items, yeah.

In fact, they seem to be stocking less and less of several of the fresh items on my recent flights; they've been out of at least two of the items the last few times I've bought anything. (Most annoying was last week when, as one of the first E+ pax offered BoB, I discovered "some woman in the back" had bought all 10x turkey sandwiches they'd boarded and all the chicken wraps, too. The FA was very apologetic and seemed in shock that 1 pax bought "16 or 17 meals" and said apparently she was traveling with a large group.)

But they always seem to have some variety of boxes... which probably unlike the fresh choice items have a half life approaching the heat death of the universe.


Yeah, that has always confused me.

And to agree with the OP, I do sometimes get hungry on those longer flights even with the meal service. I've never tried to buy additional food, but I do wish UA would offer a small pre-arrival snack in F (beyond the cookie or whatnot) on IAD-SFO, etc.

My understanding of the universe's heat death is there is a known/calculable time whereas snackbox expiration may actually be infinity. If true, will eating enough of them slow one's aging process?

This may not be relevant to the OPs situation, but it would seem fair to not distribute snack boxes or other BOB meals in F until you knew you had enough to go around in Y.

On my IAD-LAS flight Tuesday night, we diverted to STL for a couple hours because of a mechanical issue (a sensor said a door wasn't latched properly). A 5 hour flight became 7 hours, and the natives in Y were getting restless (it had been a very rough flight too; no food service of any kind between IAD and STL because everyone was buckled in).

On the ground in STL the FA made an announcement that there weren't enough BOB items for everyone, but that they had emergency granola bar rations (not exactly but pretty much how she said it) for cases like this.

Should passengers in F been allowed to snag BOB items in this case? I don't think so. And it brought home the priority of who those items are for. In F, we're getting food. It may not be the quantity we would like, never mind quality. But we're taken care of. And just as it makes sense for people in Y to bring along some snack food, that should also be something for those in F to consider doing.

Should United load more BOB etc items? Airlines cannot afford to board so much food that they have spoilage issues (leftovers not eaten), nor would that be a very green thing to do.

But again, this may not be relevant to the OP's situation. If people in Y have been taken care of and there's still more BOB available, certainly it should be distributed in F if desired.

Perhaps the OP should have let them eat the cake in Y?

I have never seen a charge card reader while in first on UA---well except on international flights as part of inflight duty free, on a truck whizzing down the aisle,
Could it be that first cabin FAs don't soil fingers (don't have a reader) and therefore SELLING snackboxes is not an option?

I was turned down when I requested a BoB sandwich while in F when they initially came out. But since then I routinely ask for one the BoB sandwiches when in F and have requested a SB once. I have been given them gratis on all occasions. I don't really like the hot, not-so-tasty domestic F meals.

On my previously-mentioned diverted IAS-LAS flight, they offered anyone in F a BOB meal if they wished, because otherwise the only choice was pasta. They didn't trust the chicken, because they thought re-heating it might be bad. Re-heating because it couldn't initially be served due to the turbulent that continued, without interruption, for two hours, and started almost immediately after they had put the food in the microwaves to prepare for serving.

I opted for the BOB Chicken Caser Salad, which was probably a better choice than either of the normal F entrees (the chicken or pasta). They set up all up for nicely, with everything that would have come with the chicken meal, sans the chicken.

The BOB meal entrees have been quite good, in my humble opinion. I think the opportunity to buy a better food offering than the free low-quality stuff they used to provide is a step up.

If you're buying them, you can do so to your heart's content and then hoard them as you wish without feeling any guilt.

If you're talking about getting one gratis, just one snackbox doesn't really seem like hoarding to me.

If you're talking about getting the FAs to give you an armful of snackboxes for free, I would expect that they wouldn't be willing to do that, and it would not seem very classy to me to try.

I'm combing through my handbook trying to find the section that says has the policy about selling BOB to UF customers. So far, I can't find anything. The next time I go into work, I'll ask a few supervisors to see what the policy is. (Or see just how inconsistent the answers are.) I've always given them for free, but if a customer wanted to pay for one I'd gladly run the card. I'll get back to y'all. Yummmmmmm olives in the Luxe box.

holly crap, you had the F meal PLUS a LUXE box, a turkey sandwich AND a roast beef sandwich?!?! That's like 3 days worth of food on a 5 hours flight

My thoughts exactly

Now as for the OP's problem, I have always been offered the snack box free when I asked... (^ on that UA) Really strange to hear they would neither give nor sell it to you!

Is there some chance that they put in the seat number on their little credit card machine, and that they aren't supposed to sell them in first? Must also look bad for the FA's to come up too short of snackboxes when they inventory them, so maybe that could explain why? Still no good in any case...

Nope. We don't enter a seat number. There's also a place where we can enter in comped items to account for the missing inventory. I really think it's weird that a snack box was denied.

Interesting info, thanks lsutgr! But of course makes the case all the more strange really -- ah well

Not all at one time thankfully! I had the turkey sandwich mid-flight. Got on the ground and my flight from LAX-PDX wad elayed until well after 10pm, so then I had the roast beef sandwich. On the plane, I had some of the cheese from the LUXE box at about midnight. It had been a long day--had woken up for the MR at 330am!

Last week I was SFO to IAD on an early morning flight. At lift off I sat back and napped as usual. I woke up after the drink cart had gone by and as I was seated near First I asked the FA standing their if I might be able to get a bloody mary. She very happily brought me one and when I presented her with my credit card she said it was on her as it came from the first class cabin and couldn't charge me.

On another note I was IAD to SFO on the early morning flight (my least favorite Airbus 319) and the First Class FA looked like she was singling out 1K's in E+ freely pouring wine. Granted it was early morning and probably few takers in First and she wanted to spread some Holiday Joy.