At the announcement event for the new United Airlines – Emirates partnership, Live and Let’s Fly asked Emirates President Sir Tim Clark what he thought about United’s service levels.
Emirates has built a reputation for a quality product, though the business class seat on its Boeing 777 workhorse fleet has long lagged the industry. Their top cabin product is among the very best in the world.
The new Emirates first class suite is an incredible space.
They serve Château d’Yquem in first class (if you know, you know).
There are shower suites on board their Airbus A380s.
And the Emirates A380 features a bar in business class.
In contrast, when I flew United’s top cabin this summer – its long haul Polaris business class – they ran out of food. The carrier didn’t even offer a beverage service with the main meal, which didn’t even come with an appetizer.
Business class passengers were not permitted to select both a cheese course and a dessert – it was one or the other. I had the ice cream. It was freezer-burned. Cabin crew gossiped loudly about work from the jump seats as passengers tried to sleep.
Live and Let’s Fly reports that Sir Tim Clark “acknowledged the difference in service levels” and shared that he raised the issue specifically with United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, who provided “provided ‘assurances’ that United will continue to strengthen its onboard meal service offerings in all cabins, including economy class.”
I’m not worried. Emirates has been a great force in the industry for restoring service and we continue to see improvements from others. United is serious about its soft product and will continue to make strides.
There’s no question that Emirates premium cabin customers who find themselves on board United’s new Newark – Dubai flight will be surprised by the food and beverage program. Sir Time Clark says the airline needs to “make strikes” to improve. That’s an understatement. But he’s not worried. Indeed, Emirates is able to partner with easyJet, Gol, and Jetstar while maintaining their premium image.
Strikes or strides?
UA will never ever be able to offer a soft product even remotely close to EK
American’s food is better than United’s but both carriers’ reputations are pulled down by their labor – and esp. flight attendants. Emirates has very strict employee performance requirements as do most non-US and European carriers.
And EK’s 777s are not anywhere close to industry leading in any cabin; it is the A380s that built EK’s hard product reputation. As the A380s are retired over the next decade plus, EK itself will be having to redefine its reputation around the same planes that other carriers use and not an aircraft which they owned the majority of the global fleet and could set the standard.
The should have connected with DL which was the plan before the pandemic. UA. . UGH
I’m surprised United is still in business. I’ve never flown United after David Dao in 2017 and I never will.
Maybe I need to experience an actual Emirates flight to understand what top notch service feels like.
Say what you want, but I have experienced much better service and friendlier staff at UA than AA. Mind you, EK and EY are better than both but nowhere close to the soft product or the food offered by the Asians (JL, NH, OZ, etc.) in premium classes.
I would agree that UA’s staff is generally nicer than AA’s but AA does a better job with hard product and meals.
I’m not sure how serious DL and EK were but DL would have been the closest match for EK. It is also worth noting that DL is far larger at EK’s largest gateways in the NE than UA. EK doesn’t even fly nonstop to DXB from EWR IIRC. They compete with UA from EWR to ATH.
@Tim Dunn – Emirates moved EK224 from JFK to EWR in June 2018, but they announced the end of the service during the pandemic, the idea was to serve the Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi populations within 30 miles to the Southwest of Newark with one-stop connecting service.
Beauty and the BEAST!!! LOL
Come meet your surly flight crew and meals ready to eat in United’s Polarize I mean Polaris
Is it really even business class or is it Premium economy?
A perfect pairing of partners like no other
until EK reinstates the service or loads it, they still have all of their nonstop service to DXB from JFK which UA is on the verge of pulling out again, by their own words.
It’s all relative. Regardless of who EK partnered with, each of the three has their own shortcomings. UA was likely the lesser of the three evils.
UNITED rising
Good question from mr. klint
Since United posted the lowest profit margin of the big 4 in the most recent quarter, you’ll have to let us know what metric you think they are rising on.
Flying a bunch of capacity all over the world so they can tout being the US’ largest international airline hasn’t worked out financially for them – and didn’t before the pandemic either.
Sir Tim Clark said he wants United to “make strikes” to improve? Like the strikes on Dr. Dao? Or is this another typo?
“First” on most American carriers is a joke. I get the “if you want better service pay for it” but then what do you do when there’s no better service to pay for?
Yes this is what I wanted to see! Emirates putting pressure on United to finally improve the catering.
United Polarize Business Class best shrink wrapped meals in the air!
“They serve Château d’Yquem in first class (if you know, you know).”
Or..
The passenger wears cheap shoes and creased jeans in First Class (if you know, you know).
Hmmm . . . French wine and a bar on a Middle Eastern Airline.
@Stuart, you win for your reference to one of the greatest books ever.
Never mind the food and the seats on UA. If I’m Tim Clark, I’m telling United to start by retraining and/or replacing most of its longhaul cabin crew. They’re the face of the airline, and – a few legitimate gems aside – they’re not a pretty one.
US (and European) carriers will never be able to pull off the kind of employee service that Asian and Gulf carriers can. I’ve just come to accept that and not be surprised when I get surly, unmotivated FAs on United, American, etc.
But what the US carriers *can* do is provide better hard product and food. I don’t understand why UA’s long haul Polaris food is so bad — it’s like their catering is coming from a bowling alley snack bar. Just spend a little more money and provide something decent. You can’t control the fact that the flight attendant serving it is a cold, rude, robot, but at least you can make sure that what they set down on your tray is appealing. Go ahead and hire the cheapest FAs you can to provide the bare minimum service, but make sure every Polaris passenger on board can get a mattress pad, slippers, or pajamas, rather than having to beg for one of the few that are provisioned and beat other business class pax to the punch. We shouldn’t have to stress over getting a pillow on a 16 hour flights. That’s absolutely within the control of the airline and they just need to stop being so cheap. When we pay $5,000 for a ticket, they can afford to spend another $10 on delivering an edible meal. We’ll promise to ignore the horrible service if they just give us something else to feel good about.
Château d’Yquem in first class vs garbage in Polaris
Yeah, good luck Sir Tim with upgrading Untied