Via Matthew Klint United has made several cutbacks to their domestic first class meal service effective September 1.
In a nutshell:
- Breakfast: no more breads on flights up to 2 hours 59 minutes
- Lunch: Flights up to 2 hours 59 minutes will no longer have a hot option (both choices will be cold)
- Dinner: Loses a hot option, all dinner service will be one hot and one cold choice instead of two hot options
- Non-Premium Transcon Flights Over 4 Hours: lose a hot option at all meals (so once choice hot, one cold) and no more ice cream with a pre-plated dessert in its stead for lunch and dinner.
No More Breakfast Cinnamon Buns on Flights Under 3 Hours
In addition, “transcon redeyes (except for premium service routes) will no longer receive a hot sandwich with salad or fruit, only a snack basket.”
Here’s more detail from qukslvr619 on Flyertalk:
Flights 2:30-2:59 hrs:
Breakfast: Remove breakfast breads only
Lunch: Two cold meal options and a chocolate truffle (vs one hot and one cold option, mixed nuts/bread//side)
Dinner: One hot meal/one cold meal option (vs two hot options); offers mixed nuts/bread/salad/dessertFlights 3:00-3:59
Breakfast/Lunch: No change
Dinner: One hot meal/one cold meal option (vs two hot options); offers mixed nuts/bread/salad/dessertFlights 4:00-5:24 (exc. transcons)
Breakfast, lunch and dinner have cold and hot meal options (vs two hot-meals)
Pre-plated dessert replaces ice cream/sorbet on lunch/dinner flights
He describes this as “very similar to what” pre-merger Continental Airlines offered circa 2006.
As it is United’s domestic meal service is superior to American’s, inferior to Delta’s. At a time when they’re working to get customers to buy premium cabin seats, and while they’re certainly improving along those margins they still lag Delta, this seems strange. Project Quality all over again? It seems like only yesterday that they were touting big new investments in their domestic meal service.
All the good work Oscar has done is being thrown away by Scott Kirby. As a GS who flies transcons every week, I think these changes are petty and destructive.
Schmucks.
In a time of record profits, this is what UA chooses to do…amazing. I look forward to seeing the usual paid shills & sycophants on the UA FT forum defend these changes.
Scott Kirby, aka Doug Parker’s mini-me, only doing what his idol taught him.
If two airlines offered the exact same schedule, the exact same price, the exact same frequent flyer program. the exact same airplane, and the exact same seat …. then I might consider meals as a factor in which ticket I buy.
Otherwise: irrelevant.
Put another way – AA’s meals are terrible. It has nothing to do with why I fly them.
As others have said…Oscar was really taking the ship in the right direction. And then the board forced Kirby in as President and the rest as they say “is history”. Kirby comes from the same place as Parker and Smisek and others like them. The customer is the enemy. The employees are the enemy. Everything that is not bolted down needs to be monetized. They have no idea what they are doing to their brands…which is what will be driving long term demand.
I agree with David H. This is some backwards thinking crap.
Keep cutting away at your customers United and you won’t have any left.
I wish I could complain, but I’m a 1K/MM who hasn’t been upgraded in years and all my GPUs and RPUs go to waste. If this chases revenue pax from UA, then maybe I will benefit. Bring a loaf of bread and make sandwiches for everyone.
Glad to know Dean and I are together in this. I thought I was the only MM/1K who can never use GPUs or RGUs……and upgrades are a joke. I had not thought of bringing along a loaf of bread….great idea. Maybe we would even feed the crew 🙂
United is the worst airline in the industry (next to the LCC’s). Spent 10 years as Platinum Elite under Continental and refuse to fly them as United. They’re not even innovative…they just copy the worst practices of their competitors. From “First to Worst”.
The food on UA has been as terrible as AA! Bring your own food & ask for plates & silverware & glasses along with fabric napkins with buttonholes. That will be better than anything they would serve. And you can eat anytime you want!! The best food UA or AA serves are the warm nuts!!!!!!!! If only they could take off & land on time …….,
It’s hard to blame airlines for scaling back onboard services. The public has brought this on themselves, demanding free upgrades. The value of the domestic first class product has been watered down to the point it’s worthless now. Why would anyone buy a ticket in domestic F?
As a UA flight attendant I can only say it is high time that a change was made to the meal service on the transcon flights, especially on the wide bodies. With no menus and minimum staffing customers were waiting an unacceptable amount of time to receive their meals. It was embarrassing for us and an unexplainable inconvenience for our customers. The options for correcting this issue would have been adding additional staffing, adding menus, or cutting down on the amount of meal choices. In my opinion United made the decision with the least impact to our bottom line and to customer ticket prices. I understand that all change is difficult. Please understand that we wish to offer you the excellent United service that you deserve .
@Maria Dartee — you really think the problem with United catering was lack of menus? They haven’t cut down on choices, they are still offering choices, one is hot and one cold instead of both being hot.
@George on the contrary United is selling more of their first class seats than they used to
I haven’t flown UA once this year and I don’t miss it one bit. I was 1K for well over a decade with close to 2 million miles. In the past I would fly trips just to make sure I maintained status but who cares now that the program has become so devalued. It got to the point even as a 1K that I wasn’t getting upgraded so I decided why bother. These days I choose the flight and airline that offers me the best and most direct service. I also only fly when it’s necessary. It’s easier for me to rack up miles using my credit cards. UA can keep cutting back their service until the cows come home and I’ll continue to support airlines and companies in general that believe in good customer service.
Interesting that so many comments are from people who never claim to fly United or who claim never to be upgraded or able to use upgrade rewards. I call total fake BS. I’ve had 54 segments this year so far, about 20 were free upgrades and 4 were certificate upgrades. I fly out of EWR and my destinations were frequent, typical flights: Orlando, Dallas, Chicago, SF, HK, Atlanta, St. Louis, Boston. If someone claims the are flying and getting no upgrades they’re liars and trolls. Period.
Good to see that the US Airways cancer is still working. What do you expect at UA when Scott Kirby came aboard? I’m bailing on renewing my EXP at AA for next year because the cutbacks are not over yet.
In the future, there will be documentaries about how the US airline industry was destroyed by a select group of Management from a former airline called US Airways.
United has been my choice of domestic airlines after Continental. So it was natural to transfer my biz to united. I started providing bixnto Continental due to horrible customer service at America West aka Scott KIRBY. IT Is sad that OSCAR believed he was stealing talent from American.It appears that Kirby, is cutting back on services on board, stretching the freq flyer program, changing the hub system, and yes, even on the touted new premium Polaris service there is no music! Now that is the way to distinguish Yourself, cut out music! Excuses that it is an issue of licenses is nonsensical… all airlines have these gates to hurdle
Kirby cannot help himself, it was an error by Oscar and the board.
Once again an epic fail. United could have been innovative by allowing every customer to pre-order a meal of their choice (of, course they would need to deliver on it) or even provide an airport voucher for day $30 toward a meal in lieu of eating on-board.
@Gary Leff- No, not an issue with catering; an issue onboard with us being able to timely take 1st and 2d choice of 3 hot meal choices without menus for customers to describe meals, sort through them in order of status for who gets which choice, and then delivering in a timely manner.
As a 0.93MM on UA who now flies DL everywhere, I’ve begun to think that all of the majors have cut back on their elite perks, so much so that for every “high valued customer” that UA loses, there is another out there who is switching from AA or DL. The HVC’s aren’t flying less, they’re just flying their original carrier less. It all comes out in the wash.
I’ve been flying on my own dime for many years and now I’ll never get to 1MM because the “Basic Economy” fares don’t even come with lifetime BIS miles! I consider that a low blow. 🙂
Did you accidentally repost something from (what was it?) 10 years ago?
Seems like it.
Did they eliminate ketchup on Honolulu international flights?
“Project Quality” .. wasn’t that the name of the program that lead to them removing ketchup as a condiment on those flights? Hey, it must have worked, because UA is profitable now!
@Tim Princeton. I am not a troll. I am at 73,000 miles this year, and all I get is the occasional LAX-SFO upgrade – and even then I failed a few times – EVEN after using a GPU that was about to expire. Upgrades are very difficult from LAX and SFO because we compete with Silicon Valley and the Hollywood studios and a lot of very wealthy West Coasters. EWR to Orlando, St. Louis, etc. will obviously be easy upgrades, I don’t deny that. Anyway I am perfectly happy with E+ and my free boxed meal and drink.
ok, not 10 years ago .. Project Quality was 2013/2014? I found this article mentioning the ketchup and garlic bread 🙂
https://jalopnik.com/united-is-pinching-pennies-by-eliminating-ketchup-and-g-1597873525
Please continue to offer feedback. United really does want to hear from you! Feedback can also be offered through the United Hub at the following link. https://secure.opinionlab.com/ccc01/comment_card_d.asp
@Maria Dartee~ In your rush to defend your employer you neglect to mention that the F cabin on all UA aircraft is small, the impact of the new changes will be negligible in providing a faster service. If it applied to Main cabin with maybe 200-300 customers, well that would be different. But of course they are not being offered such a feast, are they? Incidently, the current UA F offerings are not that dissimilar to Coach meals on scores of non-US airlines the world over, although largely better on those carriers. The race to the bottom continues apace!
@CoolHandLuke-I understand your point. My point was especially regarding our wide body aircraft. Please continue to provide feedback. Thank you. https://secure.opinionlab.com/ccc01/comment_card_d.asp
Let’s look at the facts…the knee jerk UA hate among the uninformed is so partisan…
UA starts at 2:30 minutes, which is a 700 mile flight. Beats the Delta standard.
UA offers extra service on transcons, with three main course choices, while Delta offers the same spartan setup on a JFK-SAN as a 1,400 mile flight from DTW-SLC.
UA starts dinner service at 3pm, vs 4pm for Delta.
DELTA offers a cold and hot option (not both hot) on many sub 1,400 mile flights
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/28766211-post1002.html
And anyone who has flown both airlines knows how much Delta has cut its meals in the last year. A year or two ago you could say Delta had some quality edge. No more.
DELTA led this charge down.
“On flights ranging from 900-1,399 miles, enjoy a full chef-curated meal service. Find breakfast and lunch items on flights departing from 5 AM to 1:30 PM, dinner for departures from 4 PM to 8 PM and a hearty selection of snacks at most times in between.”
“For flights over 1,500 miles, you’ll find a fresh, full meal service — featuring a variety of healthy and local options as part of your meal. You’ll have several meal selections to choose from.”
Who the hell even let Scott Kirby be hired? That man is cancer in human form.
Remember this article when the upper crust of UAL reward themselves with fat bonuses at the end of the year. Its about profits and Wall street, not first class meals.
@David you’ll see I referenced a link with project quality, see where that link takes you 🙂
Correction on feedback link:
https://hub.united.com/
Open menu > Click on “We’re Listening”
No one pays for domestic “F” anymore, as the airlines have now taught the public, through their loyalty programs, that they don’t have to. When the airlines continue to give their product away, eventually the erosion of service will follow as the return on investment is gone! Circa 1970’s First Class, ORD-SFO was wonderful on AA, UA, Etc. Great meals and wonderful service. As the airlines slowly started giving it away as a “reward” , I doubt they ever realized the deterioration they had started that has now caught up with the current services. It may have taken 40 years, but it’s here, and they did it to themselves.
I fly UA because of their hub in. Newark and pay for F class due to a bad back but their service, on time take off & landings as well as food are abysmal. Unfortunately AA is pretty much the same in the last few years so our choices due to mergers are really not very good. I long for the days when Continental, Cathay and Pan Am were my primary airline! Now I’m about to try Delta and to do so must go to JFK.
Fingers crossed for Delta!
@David – you must have missed the trend over the past few years of “first class monetization” – hint, all airlines are now doing it, people ARE paying for it. Of course, it’s due to cheap discounted / -UP fares, so an F fare now is probably 1/2 to 1/3 of what it was 5-10 years ago. And UA, in all its “wisdom”, probably isn’t making much off the front cabin and thus wants to make it ~0.5% more profitable with this stupid change.
It’s all a facade folks, they can care less what they offer. It’s all about market share, you want to fly direct from major cites. Your most likely flying one of the top three. Products are a thing of the past, with Hurricane Harvey now eating away at 3rd quarter profits. UA has to find something to cut. It’s a monopolized market, flights are full and profits are healthy. No need to offer a wide variety of products. The only race now is who can profit the most for shareholders. So while you some sit and complain, trust me the guy’s at the top are losing no sleep over you. Been in this industry for the past 20 year’s and sorry it has to be this way. Yes I would be livid if I were a customer.
Time and price – my only two considerations flying. Meals. Meh
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A big mistake; they’re going to lose more of their most loyal fliers.
Maria, taking first and second meal choices and delivering them in a timely fashion CAN be done! It’s not brain surgery!
@Theresa-Good to know you are a super stew. You’re on for meal order taking on the 777W. You have 10 mins. Go!
@Theresa-Oh, and remember GS and 1K get their 1st choice. No skipping around
I am tortured by the disminished quality of services in first class. All while I munch my tiny sack of dried pretzels and feel the blood congealing in my legs.
@Maria
While I can understand the frustration from FA’s about some of the challenges that are faced with conducting aspects of the inflight service, I also find the comment about “lack of menus” illustrates part of the problem which is awareness. There may not be printed menus to distribute to the cabin in domestic F, but Chefs Tips in the catering section on the internal UA flyingtogether site clearly gives descriptions for the FAs so they know what they are serving and its been like that for the past couple of years. Sure it may require a little more effort to figure out what cycle/route they are flying and either study/download/print/etc….but if the gripe is lack of meal description, the information is out there…and could even be accessed via Link.
@qukslvr619- You are missing the point. Also your “Friend in the Know” has given you misinformation as customers will find out.
#PeaceOut
as a 3mm+ UA customer, i’d like to chime in. for me, the number one reason to select an airline is nonstop. point A to point B, no layovers, no change of aircraft. number two, borrowing from a Boy Scout trainer “start on time, end on time”, wheels up/down when you say you will. the intangibles, food, pleasant staff, comfortable seats, music, ketchup, consistent behaviour, can make a bad situation better. It raises the bar from ok, to good, good to great. 2017, I’ve flown UA twice, cause they had the non-stop flights. Both delayed. Most days I fly Alaska/VA for domestic and Singapore for International. UA has degraded in all three areas in the past decade and seems to be increasingly unstable in all three areas. There are other choices, chose wisely and with your pocketbook.
@Maria
No I think you are missing the point in placing the blame on UA for somehow impeding your ability to take meal orders/sort them/provide descriptions of meals, and the only solution is adding additional staffing, adding menus, or cutting down on the amount of meal choices. I could see where the loss of an additional FA on a widebody flight has an impact, but for the bulk of domestic flying is narrowbody which really hasn’t changed staffing levels. And I will reiterate that UA clearly has meal information available to FA’s, and aircraft specific ordering sheets….provided they actually take the time to look for it. If you think a printed menu (btw the menu still has to be passed out and meal orders taken/prioritized) is going to make things simpler….you haven’t spent much time in a restaurant. People could have pictures with descriptions, yet they will still ask the server to describe the meal and what’s in it.
Let’s be honest here though in that the bulk of domestic flights aren’t 5 separate courses being served to 50 passengers on a 2 hr flt by just 2 FA’s….Hot towels, Drinks/Nuts, Tray delivery, refills, tray pickup….sure that can be challenging at times, but I think there is a bit of exaggeration on how somehow UA has recently made it near impossible to execute and in reality have streamlined or reduced the number of meal steps.
As for “misinformation”….well people are already seeing these changes on flights so I don’t know what really is all that inaccurate. They said the “testing” would continue through the end of the year, but this isn’t a few test markets here and there, its being executed domestic system-wide so its currently happening.