how do you sign? the "petition" has no way to sign....:confused:

I went for EXP on AA this year just to hedge my bets in case UA decided to pull some sort of crap like this. Guess I'll be going my vast majority of flying on AA/LH/CO next year. At least they understand that spending what likely amounts to a few bucks per passenger for a hot meal in a premium cabin is well worth the cost.

What a stupid, stupid decision.

Signing a petition is pointless - UA knows they are alienating their best customers by doing this. The best thing you can do is to fly on another carrier until they get the message - any airline that treats their premium cabin passengers better than this.

- T

JMHO but I say without a doubt. Expecting it by November, which means the FN's in BKK/SIN will be on their way soon. Usual staffing on the 747 now is 15. More of my opinion, the cuts are probably going to be domestic mainly, international will still need the staffing for Biz class service.

I hope they keep it, but is anything safe at this point? :(


Remember we don't have Y-class BOB service on DEN-ORD, or SFO-DEN, etc., which have widebodies. So they will have to cater Biz with BOB for those flights under the "new" plan. To think I used to fret over not enough linens and meal choices...

I certainly don't mind people doubting my information, but it did come directly from our managers. On paper. If it's a test for reactions, or a leak, it's very poorly devised.

Oh, and in case anyone was worried, we still have the capability to hire another new VP, this one is straight from AA.

What an extraordinarily naive and ill informed judgement! Just taking LLC international airlines as an example, and including Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Stansted, there are over 20 LCCs in operation. Adding full service international airlines - the numbers increase hugely. As far as I know there are almost NO LCC international operators in the US - with the exception of Spirit. (oops I forgot that UA is now almost an LCC). The days of massively subsidised state carriers disappeared more than a decade ago in Europe. Nowadays its the US where the state bails out airlines on a massive scale with billions of your fellow countrymen's taxes. And the Us blocks foreign-owned airlines operating within the US; what a wonderful example of low barriers to entry!

UA pilots respond to meal policy change
 

ALPA PRESS RELEASE

United Pilots to CEO: Stop Nickel and Diming Our Passengers

Chicago, Ill., August 20, 2008 – Pilots for United Airlines (Nasdaq: UAUA) strongly oppose the airline’s plans to drastically change its onboard meal service by raising prices for food and drink on most flights and by discontinuing complimentary meal service on many flights to and from Europe, affecting both economy and business class passengers.

The airline claims that rising fuel costs require these changes, although the real reason may be to enable the airline to further reduce flight attendant staffing, which would make onboard service noticeably worse. By any measure, the pilots believe, the proposed changes are a disastrous business strategy that would only drive away customers and encourage them to choose other airlines.

“Rather than taking the fundamental steps necessary to put our airline back on course, such as rationalizing the flight schedule or eliminating excessive perks and bonuses for executives, United’s leadership is penalizing the one constituency that is critical to our airline’s success: its loyal passengers,” said Captain Steve Wallach, Chairman of the United Chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association. “Instead of nickel-and-diming our passengers, United Airlines management should be demonstrating that despite today’s challenges, our passengers still come first.”

Captain Wallach said the proposed changes are just the latest of bad decisions made by United CEO Glenn Tilton.

“Glenn Tilton and his executives can be counted upon to select the path that inflicts the most misery on our passengers,” he said. “We condemn this latest price scheme and we call for its immediate rollback.”

The United pilots have set up a petition on its website www.GlennTilton.com for United passengers to demand the airline to rollback these changes.

I seriously doubt the pilots give a horse's patoot about what the passengers eat. Another opportunity to publicly spank Tilton.

I disagree. I think the pilots do care. Often, when flying, the pilots are the ONLY people I interact with that represent UA who seem to care.

And, give them credit. They, at least (unlike UA Management) obviously monitor and immediately respond to feedback from FT.

It is time for a leadership change for sure -- change to a leader who values, listens to, and responds to their most valued and frequent fliers.

How to Sign the Petition
 

Those wishing to sign the petition can do so simply by commenting at the bottom.

Click here for the direct link.

Thank you.

It's in the pilot's best interest for UA to survive and passengers to continue to fly UA... It's hard to say that the UA exec team has the customers best interests in mind.

I agree. The pilots' need their airline to succeed in the long term for them to enjoy the top of their pay scale and seniority. If their airline disappears they start over at the bottom of pay and benefits at another airline.

Airline executives on the other hand come and go making huge sums whether they do a good job or not. Tilton has failed. He should take his millions and go.

If they really felt this way, there wouldn't have been the summer of chaos and other like moves that put UA into bankruptcy. I tend to agree with flyinbob.

Which is why BA charges almost twice as much to fly to say, Cape Town, from London as it does from a lot of places on the continent where it is competing with LH, Swiss, KLM, etc. Nowhere did I say they were massively subsidized. So dont criticize me for being "naive" and having "ill formed judgement" for something I didnt say.

Great point ... DEN-LAX and IAD-ORD should also be added to that list.

Wow, just caught up with this.

Now I know why I haven't made a booking on UA beyond next month.

The boxed food is shelf-stable and presumably expires in months, if not years. The fresh food is kept refrigerated and should last just fine through a flight. Heck, I've let sandwiches sit at room temperature for 12 hours or longer and they were still just fine.

Any passenger with an illness or condition that requires them to eat on a fixed schedule should be bringing their own food anyway. No passenger should ever rely on an airline (or any other service provider) to cater to their special needs if failure to do so is a life-or-death matter. Every diabetic I know carries candy bars or other food as part of their routine; anyone with a similar condition that requires food on a regular schedule should be similarly prepared.

The idea is that extra revenue was needed and that the alternative would have been for fares to go up universally. Whether you agree with unbundling is a different question, but the idea isn't that fares should go down, but rather than this "prevents" them from going up... for now, anyway.