PanHam

Um, is a lack of tongs a new enhancement?

Small point, but I'm still wondering . . . on my recent UA F trips from SFO - PVG and NGO - SFO, I noticed FAs served bread by clamping rolls between two spoons, sort of similarly to how one in a jug band would play the spoons. At first, I thought it was an aberration, as in, somehow, they forgot to load up on tongs prior to closing the door, but, on my second flight, noticed the FA served bread with spoons. Why? Are quarter pound bread tongs really offsetting the fuel bills? Is United concerned they'll be used for weapons? That I'd ask to use them to fish Hemispheres from the seatback pocket? Though my business acumen is highly limited, buying a pair of freaking tongs for UA's flight crews with which to serve bread, does not seem as if it would break United's proverbial bank. Rather, serving bread with two spoons looks tacky, cheap, tawdry, and smacks of a lack of effort and indifference, ya know, kind of like the entire airline. They might as well just have a freaking donation box by door 1L. Mostly, it just looks really pathetic.

Man, I hate to whine about tongs, because UA has much bigger problems, and especially because this person is always crying about tongs, and he looks like one of the biggest tools on the planet. If I ever met him, I'd whack him upside his upscale head, with a pair of tongs. I just want to know UA's justification for no tongs . . . .

mahasamatman

In my recollection, it has always been this way. I never understood it either.

wharvey

I have always only seen spoons used to simulate tongs on United Flights. Do not believe I have EVER seen tongs in business/first class.

PanHam

Hrmm, interesting. I had no idea. How odd, though.

Mongah

Saves space to not have to carry something that can really only be used for 1 thing. Spoons can be used for many things so in that way it makes sense, if that's the reason.

1kBill

Could it be that they are trying to convey an element of "fanciness"? I have seen spoons used this way in some (so called) elegant restaurants when serving veggies from a big dish.

However, I prefer the UA spoons method to LH where the pax paw through the bread basket in order to pick out what they want. (OK, so I am exaggerating. I hope.)

dcutcher

You've never heard of SAFTing?
Boy, I can tell you were asleep in training when they showed us how to use the classic European Spoon And Fork Technique!!
And, of course, the implements are to be turned back to back, e.g. ") (" rather than face to face, e.g. "( )"
Also absence of tongs helps to keep them from flying into the toilet if the bar apron is pulled off when one is discreetly disrobing there,---likewise for corkscrews, but individual corkscrews have been banned at least sine 911, in favor of the WoMD secured in the galley.
And no, I'm not an FA, "though I play one on television"....NOT

jd2000

Seems to me that using two spoons is classical, while tongs are a crutch, removing the need for servers to develop sufficient skill with the spoons, and are in fact the solution of lack of effort and indifference.

Tongs belong in the kitchen, or out on the deck, not at the table.

iceman77_7

Sadly, I saw the title and when I read the first sentence, thought tongs said thongs.

CarlTheWebmaster

I've seen this for years, and it seems incredibly stupid to me. The way the spoons are held, it can be quite tricky to actually pick something up, particularly a smooth, round, roll. Why don't they slip one spoon under the roll, and use the other spoon -- NOT "spooned" but rather inverted so as to actually provide grip --- to balance/hold the roll?

Has both perplexed and mildly annoyed me for as long as I can remember.

Miles Ahead

I was told by one of my favorite FA's that this is done because WHQ thinks it's classy. Maybe so. I do prefer to the LH "every pax for himself" method.

mre5765

OP has apparently never experienced the other approach to serving rolls on UA flights: "just read in with your hand".

PanHam

I'm not talking about giant metal tongs that one uses to serve, oh, pulled pork, or something. I'm talking about little, silver bread tongs.

Spoons for veggies is a-okay, but as a clamping device? Not so sure.

formite

I think it is intended to be elegant Asian food serving etiquette.
It is similar to the British ways of not ever using the fork with your right hand (knife with right hand only) or curve side up.

trflyer

Geez, Pam, when I first saw your post, I thought you were talking about how people sleep in middle seats on night flights.