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SFO-SEA; Not Even Snacks in First?

 
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Old Dec 4, 2010, 6:39 pm
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SFO-SEA; Not Even Snacks in First?

I flew UA 899 SFO-SEA (5:45 PM departure) in F yesterday--I fly this route once a week, but usually a later flight. Last night the flight attendant told me that nothing had been loaded food-wise. No chips, or other munchies--nada. Was it that long ago when a meal was served on this route? Hope this is not another indicator of cost-cutting by the NEW United. I'd like to keep what little perks we have (or had) in F.

Last edited by tomwht; Dec 4, 2010 at 11:59 pm
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Old Dec 4, 2010, 7:40 pm
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Originally Posted by tomwht
I flew UA 899 SFO-SEA (5:45 PM departure) in F yesterday--I fly this route once a week, but usually a later flight. Last night the flight attendant told that nothing had been loaded food-wise. No chips, or other munchies--nada. Was it that long ago when a meal was served on this route? Hope this is not another indicator of cost-cutting by the NEW United. I'd like to keep what little perks we have (or had) in F.
Your flight should have gotten dinner in F. Write to UA about your experience. Lately, there have been many catering mistakes, though in my experience they have mostly been on East Coast flights.
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Old Dec 4, 2010, 7:45 pm
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No, I fly SFO-SEA all the time and we get squat. I experience the same on MCO-IAD. You can check the monitor before boarding for what is expected and it will likely disappoint you. I have found it often surprise the FAs at how cheap United has gotten.

It's really a stupid business decision. Even if they think not many are going to buy F on those short routes, they may be on a leg that is part of a high margin international itinerary and tick off a big paying customer! Its just not worth it to be cheap in F. Way too much to lose!
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Old Dec 4, 2010, 8:04 pm
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This flight is catered as "refreshments," so you should have gotten the passed-around basket with bananas, chips, chocolates and the like. It's not quite long enough for a snack or meal.
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Old Dec 4, 2010, 8:21 pm
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Wow that's bad. I'm pretty sure VX F LAX to SEA has a meal, although they have strange food in general. Honestly the VX service is really nice on the west coast runs and sometimes they have really good pricing for F tickets. Occasionally Alaska has some good pricing as well. I often check those out because we get reimbursed for coach airfare but sometimes full fair coach is just a stones throw from the F pricing and they will pay the coach airfare towards an F ticket.
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Old Dec 4, 2010, 8:33 pm
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On the west coast it seems to be hit or miss. Last week I flew SFO-LAX r/t; no snack basket on the morning flight out, had the snack basket on the morning flight back the next day.

This week I flew SFO-LAS r/t and SFO-LAX r/t. On the SFO-LAS flights had snack baskets both ways. On the SFO-LAX flights no snack basket on the way down but had it on the way this morning.
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Old Dec 4, 2010, 9:03 pm
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Originally Posted by fly747first
Your flight should have gotten dinner in F.
Originally Posted by Kurt
This flight is catered as "refreshments"......It's not quite long enough for a snack or meal.

Based on my own experience flying this route, the second statement is correct. Don't recall having enjoyed a meal between SEA and SFO, at least not in modern times.
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Old Dec 4, 2010, 9:04 pm
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On flights catered in F as "snack basket" I've had two recently where the snacks were loaded but the F/As either thought that they weren't or the caterers loaded them in another cart or part than where the F/As would normally look. One of the recent crews was a p.s. crew working a LAX->SFO 320 and not used to the snack basket. When they opened all the carts and other things loaded, they eventually found them.
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Old Dec 4, 2010, 9:19 pm
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Basket with warm muffins and (presumably cold) bananas on SFO-LAS this morning.
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Old Dec 4, 2010, 9:55 pm
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Originally Posted by dmodemd
No, I fly SFO-SEA all the time and we get squat. I experience the same on MCO-IAD. You can check the monitor before boarding for what is expected and it will likely disappoint you. I have found it often surprise the FAs at how cheap United has gotten.

It's really a stupid business decision. Even if they think not many are going to buy F on those short routes, they may be on a leg that is part of a high margin international itinerary and tick off a big paying customer! Its just not worth it to be cheap in F. Way too much to lose!
Agreed. And worst part about MCO-IAD is that it's TWO miles under the meal threshold. TWO MILES!
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Old Dec 4, 2010, 10:35 pm
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Hey OP - come on over to VA in F they serve real food - edible and delicious on SFO to SEA. I'm merely a customer of VA founding member of their FF program elevate.
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Old Dec 4, 2010, 11:49 pm
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Originally Posted by exerda
Agreed. And worst part about MCO-IAD is that it's TWO miles under the meal threshold. TWO MILES!
Hoping for a new tectonic plate to spring up and shift them?
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Old Dec 4, 2010, 11:54 pm
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Originally Posted by fastair
Hoping for a new tectonic plate to spring up and shift them?
UA could go with something less odd than 760 miles as the cut-off, for one. Personally, I don't think it's too much to ask to have something more than bananas, Biscoff, and chocolate squares on a 2-hour-ish flight in first class.

US-based airlines come across as really cheap across the board, from "due to the short nature of this flight, there is no scheduled beverage service" to the quality (or lack of) food in domestic F.
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Old Dec 5, 2010, 12:56 am
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Originally Posted by fly747first
Your flight should have gotten dinner in F. Write to UA about your experience. Lately, there have been many catering mistakes, though in my experience they have mostly been on East Coast flights.
You're kidding right?? They haven't served meals like that on the SFO-SEA/PDX flights in years, probably decades....meal service is always listed as "refreshments" and yes, the previous poster is correct...they west coast flights are very hit and miss when it comes to the new snack basket and I don't know why...even when it's loaded, the FAs don't always serve it...on a SFO-LAX flight last August, I actually saw one of the FAs offer another FA something from the basket (out of the view of most F passengers) while we all sat there with nothing
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Old Dec 5, 2010, 9:21 am
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You're kidding right?? They haven't served meals like that on the SFO-SEA/PDX flights in years, probably decades.

And thus my reference above to "modern times"


...last August, I actually saw one of the FAs offer another FA something from the basket (out of the view of most F passengers) while we all sat there with nothing

Seeing this would have certainly generated a comment from me to that FA.
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