Business and first class is a lucrative business for airlines, and champagne is a surprisingly important touch in creating the sort of elevated experience that customers will pay $5,000 to $10,000 for when customers sitting in back might be paying just 10% of that amount.
Emirates, a United Airlines partner, has an inflight exclusive relationship to be the only airline serving Dom Perignon in the skies. But United recognizes that champagne has an important role to play, too. As United Airlines considers what a new premium business class product might look like, they surveyed customer response to a push button at their seat for champagne.
So it really elevated this passenger’s business class experience when a United Airlines flight attendant create a makeshift ‘ice bucket’ to keep their champagne chilled on a transatlantic flight.
This is a first for me, the flight attendant made a mini “ice bucket” to keep my glass of champagne chilled! Thanks for a great hop across the pond @united! pic.twitter.com/RsUelCv8Ib
— Suzanne Brooks (@Suzanne747) September 15, 2024
Flying at altitude, with cabins pressurized to 6,000 (Boeing 787s and Airbus A350s) or 8,000 feet (earlier aircraft types) dulls the taste buds. It’s why fruit bombs tend to work better for wine, and why tomato juice (a great source of vitamin C and vodka) tastes especially good on a plane. While some of the subtleties in the best champagne may not come through so well, the crispness of a good sparkling is a fantastic way to begin a flight.
I’d prefer a smaller portion and more frequent pours, but that’s difficult to accomplish with a full business class cabin. And there’s not enough of a footprint in a business class seat for an actual ice bucket. I would like to see that in the new Emirates 777 first class, in Singapore Airlines A380 first class, or in Etihad’s First Apartment (or Residence).
For United Airlines, though, a glass of ice as a holder for champagne? Sheer genius, in a practical sort of way, which is also.. very United Airlies.
Finally something useful from a legacy airline!
Meh, maybe. I agree it is a thoughtful touch. It’s a sign of a good crew member. But it’s not policy. It’s just good people skills. Although I am a long time UA flyer, mostly up front, there is still too much “revert to mean” at UA.
I am guessing this has more to do with the bottles almost never being chilled before they are loaded.
I’d say 90% of the bubbles that I have been presented with have been slightly below room temperature at best. A truly shocking statistic (sarcasm) but it does take away from the experience.
I can take a cheap sparkling wine once it is cold.
tomato juice (a great source of vitamin C and vodka)
I never knew that tomato juice was a source of vodka.
Person 1: Cows kill more people than sharks.
Person 2: I didn’t know that cows kill sharks at all.
Pathetic excuse for journalism.
kudos to the flight attendents on this one.
This is incredibly clever. It’s actually a huge problem. Delta, for example, puts its whites and rose, all of which should be kept chilled, on a cart. It may sit like that for an hour during meal service, which means even a still white is awfully warm. Way too warm to serve. While the champagne is never put on the cart, Delta sometimes doesn’t chill it and it’s left in the galley area. It’s quite annoying, actually. This is also a problem on regional jets domestically. Sky West particularly. Wines never seem to be cold.
Now I have learned why I had occasionally really enjoyed an in-flight bloody mary.
Meh. People at corner bars for years have ordered a pitcher of beer and a glass of ice, then used that glass to submerge into the pitcher to keep the beer cold. This is nothing new or novel at all.
Well, the best temperature to serve Champagne is 8-10 degrees celsius. Bare in mind that in a couple of minutes the temperature will increase by 2/3 degrees celsius. So airlines should have the champagne stored between 6 and 8 degrees C.
Also, Moet (overated) and Dom Perignon (mostly consumed by people wanting to show off is basically a work of marketing art nowadays) are almost pretty hated in France and in my case Switzerland.
Try Champagne Ruinart, Roederer or Pommery.
I noticed the Freudian slip at the end. United airLies???
I don’t think there is enough supply of ice to do this in each flight. There is no freezer in aircraft. Ice must be kept icy for over 12 hours in any long haul flight, where Champagne is served.
“There is no freezer in aircraft.” I believe that there is a freezer. I have had solidly frozen ice cream served on an airplane. Ice cream sandwiches are the most common from my experience. The question is how are the freezer and the refrigerated areas kept cold. Are they kept cold through a cold plate kept cold on one side by the frigid air outside of the airplane at a high altitude? Do they use onboard electricity to power refrigeration? Are they driven by a hydraulic system or a pressurized air system. Do they use dry ice instead? I looked online but I must have not made the right query.
Ice cream boarded with dry ice. Chillers for carts in galleys. No fridge or freezer onboard.