Agree. If you read my posts in this thread, I argue that United has buried their plan to cut the number of FA's in this meal issue. It's really brilliant.

Imagine if they had come out and said: "We're cutting the number of FAs on each flight - a consequence is we are cutting meal service."

Instead they said: "We're cutting meal service. Oh, and since we don;t need all those FAs, we're going to go to FAA minimums."

UA knows its customers. They don't really care about personnel issues, but they definitely care about their meals!

I dont think this is really accurate. I think the reason that people arent talking much about the crew issues is that it isnt really clear what the change will be and what impact it will have. The meal issues are simpler and more clear.

If I worked for United, I'd be unbearably embarassed right now.

Yup! You are correct. The 2nd meal service IS gone. And I'm TOTALLY behind United on that move. It was a TOTAL waste of food. Out of our 26 Business Class passengers, only (approx) 10 passengers ate it.

ps will be staffed with 5 FA's. 1 First Class, 2 Business Class and 2 Economy Class.

If the employees aren't paying for their own business travel, then I don't see why the CEO/management can't dictate which airlines they'll pay to use. If the employees aren't happy about it, they can look for other jobs where they get to dictate the choice of airline. If they enjoy their E+ status and the miles they've earned from business travel, then they can try to maintain their status/mileage by doing their personal travel with UA. If the CEO knows that the company is spending $5 million a year in business travel, why not dictate the airlines to use (or specifically, to not use) when spending the company's money. If a meal isn't provided, is it really the employee's responsibility to spend their own money for food, even if it's under $20? Will HR/accounting be that quick to reimburse for food purchased on the day of flight, since they'll be insta-thinking "Didn't the airline give you a meal on the plane?"

I recently started to use my own UA miles to buy award tickets for a sales employee; she may not be happy that she's not adding to her MP stash, but the logistics of her business travel are not hers to make. I prefer that she spend her time selling my products than booking airline tickets, which I can do better as 1P. I only wish I had done this years sooner. We fly together so she still gets to sit in the exit row or E+ with me. And if a plane is delayed, we're together so that one of us isn't forced to wait (and wonder/worry) about when the other will arrive.

Michael

You raise some rational points, but as an employee, I don't like being micromanaged on anything, including travel arrangements. In some cases (such as a large group event) it's inevitable, but for day to day business travel I think most of us want to make our own decisions, within reasonable parameters.

Using your own FF miles on employees to save your company money makes more sense than dictating an employee's airline choice because of your own personal agenda/grudge.

Media Roundup
 

Brief bit from Marketwatch.com

Here's the referenced LA Times link.

A Bloomberg piece from last week

Rick Seaney's blog post on Fare Compare

Ben Mutzabaugh's Today in the Sky blog post from USA Today and an article that appears to have hit Thursday's USA Today (missed it) - nicely quoting Randy Petersen.

Now appearing on UA website... This UA page on Economy Service has the following note at the bottom of the page

Sorry I'm late to this thread....

Thanks for the various links. ^

This one straight from the horse's, er, mouth after all of our wailing and gnashing of teeth reminds me that UA surely must be sending up corporate prayers that the other majors follow suit right away.

Who is going to choose UA on a multi-hour flight otherwise when there are "hot-meal" alternatives to buying yourself a "fresh" sandwich or a box of "snacks" reminiscent of a Halloween bag in a slightly upscale neighborhood - "Oh, let's hand out the pita chips again this year, Dear?"

I enjoy being in the minority. ;)

Welcome to Flyertalk UAL_FlyGal. We can talk more about this on my next flight. :D

Well, I'd argue that fewer FA's on flights means decreased customer service.

To me, the real issue is that UA is now cutting staff/service. They conveniently wrapped it in this BOB smokescreen.

But what do I know? Maybe things will stay the same and the reduction in FAs will be transparent to passengers.

So now this thread fades off page one, and UA executives think, "see, even the cranks at FT got tired of the topic, and we are going to get away with it."

This thread is meaningless if you don't follow it up with personal action. Please remember that!

I don't think that anyone was suggesting that business cannot determine what the company's travel policies will be. We were responding to the fact that a particular CEO was portraying himself as helping his employees by switching them from UA to BA or VS. We were pointing out that the employees might value status, miles and E+ on UA more than a hot meal on BA or VS.

On the larger point, well run companies try to attract the highest quality employees. One of the ways to do this is to treat employees with respect and consistency. That includes proportionately equal treatment of employees. Most employers have long recognized that employees who must travel are giving more time to work and spend much time away from their families. So they create travel policies that balance cost with policies that let employees keep miles and preferred airlines to gain status. And they don't change policies frequently or on a whim.

I don't think that I'd like to work for your company.

This 2P has already emailed to express displeasure with the slate of service cuts: hot towels in TATL Y (which now seems comical in the absence of a meal), ticket jackets, and now the meal reductions. Although "Premiervoice" will reply with a form letter, it's worth at least lodging a complaint.

Meanwhile, I've already requalified for 2009, so I'm exploring other options for my fall trip to LHR--Virgin has a nice-looking, affordable Premium Economy product.

Very funny. ^

While I am sure that UA monitors what people have to say on these boards, I think that we sometimes have the process backwards. They don't say, "there's lots of complaints on FT, what should we do?" They do say, "loads are declining on p.s. C, let's look at FT and see if it helps explains why."

I just checked "My Itineraries" for two up-coming TATL (IAD-FCO) one on 9/6 and the other on 1/4/09. Both show either Lunch or Dinner and Snack. So I don't know if that has any bearing on this whole thing.:confused: