The Sad State Of Food On United Airlines [Roundup]

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  2. I would send those food pics to the execs at Emirates . Didn’t EK and UA acknowledge that UA had to up their food game when discussing their
    partnership?

  3. United (and DL) food is gross. AA has really improved the quality and variety post pandemic. Service on AA is also improving. Nice to see pilots walk through a plane. When I was a kid traveling in the early 70s that was a common occurrence.

    Is AA about to out DL , DL? Stay tuned.

  4. @sunviking82, I’m an Exec Platinum on AA, and agree that both service and food is getting better. You know have me worried about my flight next week from BOS-DEN on United, maybe I brown bag it? Lol.

    Also, I love your quote about pilots going through the plane in the 70’s.

    After tagging along to the airport (CVG, and it was *just* finished with a modern (at the time) ‘tube’ design) watching my older brothers and sisters depart (or we picked them up), I finally got my chance at 9 years old to visit my grandparents in San Antonio in 1980.

    I went to the public library and researched *everything* about flying, including getting the blueprints/gate map for DFW (at the library!) because my older sister (age 13) and me had to make a connection in DFW.

    Back then, we were not UM, so we were on our own. My sister let me lead the way. I even knew where the video arcade rooms were at the airport too, lol.

    And one of the things I remember most was getting to see the cockpit. The pilot walked me through what it all meant, and then not only did I get my ‘wings’, but also a deck of AA playing cards: which my parents still have!

    I was only 9 but felt like I was 29 and all grown up. Now some 41 years later, I still love flying!

    -Jon

  6. UA gave me fruit for 2 meals in a row as a “kosher” meal from OGG-ORD. As disgraceful and not kosher as it was, I think i’d take fruit over whatever is in that picture.

  7. UNITED premium cabin food is dreadful. For that brief period later in the pandemic they were ‘best’ for simply having hot food when others were serving nothing or cold sandwiches. Now, a distant third, with AA leading the pack.

    Wake up UNITED

  8. Scott Kirby is back to his usual cost cutting antics….

    My recent meals in Polaris have been just plain awful and un-edible, even the bread. Even the Tapas box is better.

  10. Clear to me its artisan worm salad and a bowl of dog food on United.Alpo?
    Was that coach?
    I think the caterer did a marvelous job with the 1.99 per passenger budget united allowed
    Simply marvelous

  11. Here’s hoping this “Studio Ellen” they’re coming up with fixes this problem. That said, they really should be hiring someone better than Gate Gourmet to fix the issue – they need Do&Co because they really seem to know what they’re doing – they seemingly fixed a lot of issues at BA and IB.

    And for the person who says the food is bad on AC, while I think they do need to come up with better ideas for breakfast than the omelet that they’ve had for many years, I do think most of the food is really not bad. Even some of the breakfasts have been excellent – No, I’m not talking about the ubiquitous omelet, but I remember having waffles YYZ-SFO some time ago, and everything was just delicious. I was supposed to try UA domestic first LAX-IAD recently but that was stymied by a delay, and I ended up being bumped to AC nonstop to my destination of YYZ, and the food was not bad at all.

    Not to mention you actually get lounge access on AC when you’re sitting in J and meals are served on some relatively short routes (eg YYZ-YWG, YYZ-ATL) and you at least get a hot breakfast on short hops in J as well. That said, fares are almost always expensive, however finding “I” award space in J domestically/transborder is not as much of an issue like it is on UA.

  12. Looks like United may be finally acknowledging the pathetic state of their domestic FC meals. I saw a post that in March they are bringing back hot towels and nuts and will have new meals. Also short hauls will get choices out of a snack basket again. I guess we have to wait and see as the last time they said refresh meals we got the loud curry chicken and cauliflower rice bowl..

  13. Last winter on United I had tasteless ‘egg white bites’ on a morning flight SFO-TPA. Two days ago in Polaris to Houston they served me a mess that looks just like one of the photos here for lunch, except the protein was chicken. They were ‘out’ of other choices. Something grey and pebbly in a bowl may have been ‘salad’. My only clue was that they served it cold. How on earth can United continue to dish out garbage like this on an airplane? Both instances, full cash tix. It’s utterly ridiculous. Does anyone know what’s going on, or have they all lost their minds? I’m flying home on Monday; I’ll have the hotel pack me a lunch.

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