snic

First, I'd suggest voting with your feet for the next few months: don't fly UA from IAD to Europe. Second, even if UA institutes this change on all international flights, you have to look at it rationally: do the benefits of 1P status outweigh the costs of buying your meal on board (or bringing one from home)?

My 1P status gets me upgrades and miles I can use for family vacations, greatly reducing their cost. As much as I hate the idea of paying $9 for a (small) meal, I have to admit that doing so a few times in exchange for being able to take my family to Europe or Asia in F every few years is not that bad of a deal - and I think that for business trips I can expense the meal cost.

The bottom line is that it's not as good as it once was, but it won't cause me to leave UA. (This applies only to business trips. I will not buy an international ticket for family trips on an airline that does not offer free food, as long as competing carriers do offer it for similar ticket prices.)

DAsis

Snic, THANK YOU for a clear and logical rationale to decide whether to stay with United or jump ship. Like yourself, I enjoy taking my family to Europe every few years as a 1P bonus using my miles.

TechBoy

I was agreeing with you. That is the only thing that most businesses note.

As for me, I can't find a better deal than UA and MP for now. If I do find one, I will be gone in a New York minute.

RichardInSF

FA's get a commission on BOB, right? Maybe UA thinks that will make up for the staff cutbacks. I bet staff thinks otherwise.

Aluminum tubing

Only the 4 FA's that sell Duty Free on Int'l flts earn commission.

ryan182

They get commission on DF? Wow that's pretty funny is it much? How do they figure which FA gets to sell DF?

Aluminum tubing

Duty free FA's are chosen during briefing when the FA's in seniority order chose where they would like to work/jumpseat to take. The FA at the time of selecting their jumpseat would add that they would like to do duty free.

The duty free FA's each earn 2% of the total sales of the flt. Many FA's like to work duty free to help pay for their dental/medical payroll deduction or not to be on 1st crew rest break.

SkyPimp

I have to say it is not "Time to Fly" United announced it will start charging for meals on some international flights (Testing at IAD). So get your cold cuts ready for that long 12+ hour flight.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...%7D&dist=msr_1

This is really nickle and dimeing travelers, I hope this does not catch on.
I will probably loose my MP points that to fly UA.

-SkyPimp

cgruber

Has anyone noticed any backtracking on this "enhancement"? Now it is a trial for the 4th quarter. My suggestion would be to take copies of BP's for flights taken on other airlines and fax them to (1P/1K) desks with a note detailing that the flight was taken on another airline because if their ludicrous policy. When full service (UA used to be a full-service airline) is restored, so will your travel. A few planeloads of those should make a difference....

PaulMCO

It would be interesting to see how UA is going to handle special requests like --
Low Fat, Kosher, Vegetarian, No Salt, Diabetic, Halal -- etc....

cgruber

Perhaps this will enable United to "enhance" the telephone staff that processes these requests as well.....

dcutcher

Cannot now find copy, but in WSJ western edition weekend 8/23-24 I believe I saw a retraction of an earlier misstatement that UA would be charging business class pax for international fare, confirming business class would NOT be charged.

ryan182

My guess: they're not.

melb_paul

Im a newbie here, background is 120k flight miles with UA, all done Aus to mid west. All miles self paid as well.

Just flew Mel / LAX (via Syd) and return. Y class was not happy - unannouced UA has just started charging $6 (us or aus currency) per alcoholic beverage.

I understand that trans pacific was priveleged to keep this perk longer than others, but also think UA management doesnt understand this segment.

All Australians know that Qantas makes most of its profits on the 747 Aus / LAX route. UA simply prices a little lower, and therefore must be profitable as well (if they have reasonable loads).

Couple of problems here:

The melbourne / sydney UA connecting flight had the lowest loading I have ever seen in Y - perhaps 20%
The SYD / LAX loading was perhaps 60%
The LAX / SYD loading was perhaps 45%

Perhaps the ticket cost of $3,300 Mel / ORD has something to do with the low loads.

UA used to fly direct from Mel to LAX but had to stop about 5 years ago due to low loading. Can see many MEL people now deciding not to bother flying UA as the hassle of a stop over in SYD is not worth the miles anymore (once Virgin comes on board)

Given the length of flight, and Australians love of a beer to help get to sleep, the last thing i would do as management is start charging $6 for a beer / wine / spirits.

Roll on Virgin Pacific - competition will arrive in a couple of years. Then it will be my last UA flight.

I can see UA downgrading from 4 trans pac flights a day (LAX / SYD, SYD/LAX, SFO / SYD, SYD / SFO) within a year.

Most interestingly, on the UA website, it still states that alcoholic bev are complimentary in Y on trans pac flights. FAs were apologetic, and it seemed very confused - not properly briefed - it was enforced because the magazine said charges apply.

Way to go United!

TravelinWilly

Things seem tense at United these days, and hopefully they'll figure out a way to satisfy their labor, shareholders, and customers eventually. Their new paint job, introduced just a couple of years ago, looks great, though.

In the meantime, it'll be interesting to see how they manage expectations of customers, etc., with these price increases and the reduction of in-air service staff.