JerryFF

It's been a while since I've had the chance to fly in F on UA, but my wife and I cashed in some extra miles and treated ourselves to a couple of F class transcons. The difference in service between the two flights was so dramatic we almost thought we were on difference airlines.

Flight #1 - UA 184 - SFO to PHL. Airbus 319. 1 FA
Breakfast excellent - good omelet, choice of muffins/rolls etc, very good fruit plate. FA constantly available, preflight drinks and continually available and asking if she can get us anything else. Very friendly, outgoing.

Flight #2 - UA 181 - BOS to SFO - 757. 2 FAs
Lunch awful. Dried out roast beef sandwich on a tasteless roll and a cookie. That's it. FAs served the meal, collected the trays and disappeared for the next 4 hours. Well, they didn't exactly disappear, as they sat in the front of the cabin and talked for most of the time. No offer of additional drinks for nearly 4 hours. I did get up and ask for water - they offered to bring it to my seat - a glass of warm water with no ice.

How can there be such a dramatic difference in service on two similar flights on the same carrier?

dmach

Two different crews. The right people make all the difference, and I've certainly seen some major differences like this in my flying.

FreFly

Yes, one can get from miserable to very good service on UA. Inconsistency is the only thing consistent about the service. This is especially noticeable in F/C, where there is a wider range of possibilities.

United737522

It doesn't even take a whole crew. Change out the purser and it's a whole new playing field.

nearSACTO

I've seen both ends of the spectrum too. If they go above and beyond, I give them one of those customer appreciation cards and thank them for the great service.

RichardInSF

I am getting tired of hearing that this is true because the simple fact is, averaged over all my flights, the inconsistency is strongly tilted towards the negative. Poor-fair-good-very good-excellent is like 10-35-35-15-5 -- yup, that is inconsistent, but the average is still well below what it should be.

I also experienced the cruddy sandwich and cookie F meal, it seemed to be a variant of the economy pay sandwich, only the economy pay sandwich looked fresher.

FreFly

I agree. Furthermore things like waking pax for no good reason, not refilling water glasses, ignoring FA calls, etc. is unacceptable, especially in F/C. Have not experienced any of this on LH and SQ. However, this is common at UA.

schley

I don't think the cruddy sandwich served in F is the FA fault or responsiblity. The providing service in distributing them yes, but the product itself, no.

EnvoyBoy

+2

And isn't it the case you can tell as soon as you board what kind of flight it will be?? Sadly, yes.

magiciansampras

Amen.

Starman

I try to look at one bright side. I used to dread it when my u/g didn't clear. Now the service and food in F are so much closer to Y, that as long as I have my lifetime supply of free drink coupons, I've found I don't really mind flying Y. The difference just isn't that much any more. It really has changed my routine -- I don't maniacally look for flights with NF available, etc. and I'm spending a little less time enroute as a result.

prestonh

I get flight 2 treatment about 10% of the time (when they just disappear). If that happened, I'd ask for a partial refund of the F fare or to return your upgrade instruments (which I've done).

Most of the time (50%) transcon service is less than attentive following the meal. It seems to take them nearly 1.5 hours to finish meal service and I guess everyone then goes on break for the next hour + the crew meals/lock out which can take awhile. I'm not afraid to mash the call button when I'm thirsty. I have noticed in the last 3 month's flying there are noticeable attempts to increase attentiveness in the F cabin before and throughout the flight.

The other 40% of the time, service is good to excellent as you pointed out in flight 2.

I've had that dry sandwhich. Asked if they had any mayo. The galley didn't but the FA offered an extra mayo packet from the lunch he purchased at the airport. I thought that was a nice gesture but to UA for not even catering a few condiments. I do, however, like the soup they serve with their lunches.

slomrtwo

Well we can hope for LH takeover the DOJ approves Well a guy can dream can't he?

UAX_Brasilia

That would probably be the worst situation. LH doesn't even offer a domestic First. What they call "Business Class" is no better than E+.

slomrtwo

I really doubt they would try and use the same Biz class they run FRA-VIE on the PHL-SFO or BOS-SFO route.
Though even if they did try I would much rather have a Lufthanasa crewed E+ than a UA 1st