This is a foolish decision on United's part.:td::td::td: Does United want to race to the bottom with US?

The problem is that United doesn't really know which customers it will miss and which ones it needs to retain. Many employees just automatically assume all pax are not profitable for United and thus treat all pax with equal disdain.

Back to the OP - the memo is incredibly confusing, but it could be read to mean that PS C is downgrading from a choice of hot meals to complimentary BOB. That's pretty stunning for a product that costs upwards of $4,000. Even if it's not BOB, I've paid nearly $3,000 for C in a three class plane SFO-IAD. which will now offer a choice of a snack box or cold wrap/salad. Amazing.

Well I can say that if this is true, this GS will never buy another domestic Z or QUP fare, never!

If I can not get my special meal (which they already don't load a larger % of the time), I will either just spend the money other AA or CO or just burn all of the CR1s and 500 milers I have.

If this pans out to be true, I will be wring a letter to the GS staff and also recommending to my boss (who signs all corporate travel contracts for us) that we finally drop UA.

I know that last year my company spent over $15 mil on air travel with a large percentage going to UA. I know it will not cause UA to change, but at least it is finally changing my airline spending habits.

I did the bolding. This didn't seem too ambiguous to me. When you say that you're offering two class service, and you say that UF stays the same, and that UB and UE have a combined BOB service, it sees to me that UB has to buy. Either way, the concept of a complimentary BOB is an oxymoron.

Also, complimentary beverages worries me. Does that refer to alcoholic drinks being complimentary, or all beverages? Because the next logical step from that sentence is to assume that UE will be charged for all beverages.

Why? It says they're "Offering Two-Class Service on North America Three-Class Airplanes."

What if they're doing like AA and selling C and Y as Y, and you'd get the C seat for free? In that case, I'm fine with BOB in the business cabin (sold as United Economy). Then if you want to upgrade, you can upgrade to F.

If this is what they're doing, this could be a win.

Clearly this items needs a lot more clarification as to how it's going to play out.

PS C vs AA J
 

FWIW, the PS C soft product has been ahead of its competition -- AA's J product -- for a very long time.

It's been a year since I've flown PS in C, but the AA J meal service is as follows:

Bkfst: Choice of (a) omelet, meat hash & potatos, or (b) fruit & cereal, both served with bagel/biscuit, juice & coffee/tea. Fresh-baked cookie & chocolate before landing.

Lunch: Choice of (a) meat entree on a salad, or (b) chicken entree on a salad, served on a tray with a green salad and rolls (all at once; served from cart). Dessert is choice of (i) fruit & cheese plate, or (ii) pre-made ice cream sundae. Cookie/chocolate before landing.

Dinner: Salad & appetizer served from a cart, with rolls. Choice of (a) beef entree or (b) pasta entree, hand-delivered from the galley after salad. Dessert is choice of (i) fruit & cheese plate, or (ii) custom-made ice cream sundae. Cookie/chocolate before landing.

Redeye to JFK: Beverage service only.

So, even with these cuts, PS C still equals AA J.

Another great example of UA's continuing war on its customers and revenue base. Those that still haven't jumped ship should hopefully see the light now.

Indeed. I'm in the same category as this poster, and I strongly suspect that in the real world (ie. outside of flyertalk) we're a much much bigger contingent than the 1K/GS crowd. I know a half dozen 1Ps, but no 1Ks.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I strongly suspect that a little loyalty from the mid-tier flyers is worth a whole lot more $$ to UA than a lot of loyalty from the top-tier flyers.

Just thought I'd share my note submitted on the site...

Dear Mr. Tilton, I have been a Premier Executive frequent flier for years. Recently, I have seen United's service going down the tubes mainly due to cost cutting. I am now ready to walk away from United completely after the most recent service cuts, including the removal of snack service on morning p.s. business/first class and the announcement of buy-on-board replacing complementary hot meals on trans-atlantic flights. Your race to the bottom of the airline industry will not save the company. In fact, it is persuading frequent fliers like myself to book elsewhere. The thousands of dollars I spend each year on United will now go to your competitors unless these changes are revoked.

In addition, I do not believe your 'leadership' has done United any good after leaving bankruptcy. Please resign and let someone interested in saving United take the helm. You obviously don't know how to do it yourself.

One more frequent flier you're losing,
Clarkcc1

Ok, so the value has dropped... But don't pretend that an int'l C seat is the same as E+.

I would gladly take the former without food over the latter with. Heck, I'd rather have the former without food than 2-class F with food.

Right, I'm not disagreeing with this. I just want to know how you will roll back the changes outlined in this memo, once you effect the management change at the top.

Again, I'm not arguing that United isn't basically on life support at this point. But here's the kicker...I don't have to believe that the status quo is better than a future without Glenn Tilton to stay on the sidelines. I will actively support someone - ANYONE - who outlines concrete solutions. And, sorry, I don't see that from any side at this point.

not going to happen, UA moved to IAD for a reason. once flying picks back up, IAD will have a new c councourse that will be united's only and will have more slots than the current. thats why they moved there, plus its cheaper that jfk

A handful of drink chits says they will not be selling domestic C for the price of Y...

It really looks like UA is running out of options they can charge for.

The only thing they don't seem to be charging for is getting water from those faucets, connected to those old tanks, on the big birds.

I would also be fine with BOB in C, sold as Y, but I doubt that is what we will see.

Indeed. It is quite unclear if the BOB is complementary or just the beverages. If they intend BOB to be complementary, why switch to that at all? Catering those can't save them much less than the regular C catering. And they will still have to provide regular F catering (for now). I don't see where the cost savings are, unless they actually charge for BOB in C.