United Airlines is collaborating with Netflix’s Chef’s Table on new meals that will debut in long haul business class August 1.
- There will be 10 new meals
- Curated by a team of 11 “world-renowned chefs from four continents – representing United’s seven U.S. hub cities and key international gateways in London, Tokyo and São Paulo”
These chefs include:
Los Angeles – Nancy Silverton (Osteria Mozza)
New York – Fariyal Abdullahi (Hav & Mar)
Chicago – Jenner Tomaska (Esmé)
Houston – Justin Yu (Theodore Rex)
San Francisco – David Barzelay (Lazy Bear)
Denver – Penelope Wong (Yuan Wonton)
Washington, DC – Isabel Coss & Matt Conroy (Lutèce)
London – Tomos Parry (Mountain & Brat)
Tokyo – Tashi Gyamtso (Jimgu)
São Paulo – Manu Buffara (Manu)
United’s long haul business class meals are not very good. Oddly, they seem to perform worse in long haul business than for domestic first class.
Their CFO actually laid out a year ago that they believe they’ll generate more revenue by investing more in meals because it helps both (1) brand affinity and experience, and (2) cobrand card acquisition and spend.
Partnering with celebrity chefs does not ensure good food. Years ago, United had a collaboration with Chicago local Charlie Trotter – and flyers used to say those meals ‘gave them the trots.’
However, it’s a signal of quality. You can get a chef to put their name on the meal. Some chefs will sell their names cheaper than others! But it also indicates a strong desire on United’s part to draw attention to those new meals, which they wouldn’t likely do unless they thought those meals were going to be better.
It is silly to draw extra attention to a product that isn’t good. Great marketing actually hurts you when the product is bad, because people come to know it’s bad, while without the marketing fewer people know!
I often hear from flyers that they’d ‘rather see the investment in the meals than in the chef partnership’. After all, it’s not as though the celebrity chef will be in the flight kitchens preparing the food. However, this doesn’t seem correct to me.
- There’s no actual tradeoff between investing in the meals and investing in the partnership.
- Usually spending on those two things increases together
- When the airline wants to invest in its meals, it also wants to highlight the investment, so they make the substantive improvements and spend to market those improvements. (Though customers don’t always feel the food is improved.)
- And these partnerships aren’t necessarily expensive. From the sound of the release, this deal was done with the Netflix series and it’s not clear in which direction marketing dollars flow. Since there are marketing benefits to the show, it may just be that this was done quite inexpensively.
My takeaway is that United wants to highlight its food. They’re promising that about four and a half months from now, their business class meals will be better. That’s a good thing, and customers will hold them to it!
LOL. I’ll believe it when I see it. This ain’t no EK F caviar or SQ ‘Book the Cook’ or anything just yet…
Polaris food can only get better since it’s currently horrific. That’s why l tend to choose Turkish Airlines over United.
Not only is UA’s food in Polaris just plane autrocious (on 3 meal long haul- pork, pork & pork or chick peas, chick peas & check peas for the vegetarians), it is generaly unedible IMO. The other insane thing they do on a long haul overnight (e.g. Asia to SFO or LAX) is to serve pork cutlets, Taiwan noodles or somthing similar…instead of just offering a breakfast before landing.
Ona recent LAX LHR in Polaris the food was not very good. I am not a picky eater but nothing seemed fresh. The chicken was so dry i ate about 2 bites and gave up. The breakfast meal was the same. Onthe return trip I just loaded up in the lounge before departure and refused all the meals being offered. I cold see a lot of trays were going back to the galley with most of the food only half eaten. It won’t take much to improve the crap they now serve.
@Travelgirl — Turkish does objective have good food, both on-board and in IST lounges. That said, their premium cabins can be wildly different (some great-787/a350, some-okay 2-3-2 on 773, some-awful older a330 with broken recliners that are marketed as lie-flat but clearly aren’t.) All that is before we get into how Turkish is a state-owned airline, and Erdogan is an authoritarian who no one should support… *cough* Free İmamoğlu!
@Travelgirl – Turkish is another one of those super overrated airlines. I traveled with them just last week. The lounge at IST was super overcrowded. It was like being in a crowded bazaar. Half the food stations did not replenish their food. The guys at pide station just abandoned the station at 1400 hours. There was a line at the kebab station. Frankly the food offerings were super mediocre. I would rather have the a la carte meals at Polaris lounges.
There is no bar. Just two wine carts tucked away in a corner. I got asked by 3 people on the way from one of the wine carts to my table, where i found the wine. The beers are tucked away in a 4 different nooks. I know they have a spirits cart too, but i could not spot it. Plus there was a 90 minute wait for the shower suites. I would take the United Polaris experience anyday, anytime over that. Polaris lounges are a million times better.
On board, the soup and starters lacked any flavor and the teriyaki salmon was very dry. I just gave up on it after 3 bites. The red wine was awesome but United’s choices of red wine is just better. And the desserts were great, a lot of variety, but United with its ice cream sundae does make up a lot of ground in that department.
Now i was on a B789 which has the all aisle access hard product which i think i have experienced on SQ regional flights. The Turkoflot A359s have a great hard product which can also be experienced on Air India A359s. But think the B777’s are in 2x2x2 configuration (never traveled in those).
I understand the food is probably a weak link, which they are addressing, but I would fly UA over the likes of TK anyday, anytime.
I will believe it when I am actually served an edible meal in Polaris!
One issue with United is there use of 5 ounce ‘mini’ wine glasses. Whereas with AA, you get a large tumbler, and if you wink correctly, it’s filled to the top, lol.
Also for the first time in recent history, AA actually delivered pre-flight beverages on my last 4 flights in the last 3 weeks. I think that’s a record.
@Christian — The sundaes are aight!