Airlines fly ultra long haul flights, such as New York to Hong Kong or Sydney to Perth, and they usually treat catering similarly to a short hop across the pond from Boston to London – a meal after takeoff, and then something to eat again prior to landing, perhaps with midflight snacks available in the galley. Passengers are hungry.
When I flew United Airlines business class last year from Sydney to San Francisco, they ran out of snacks on the plane with five hours left in the flight.
Flying out to Sydney I’d taken Air Canada, eaten a sit down meal in the lounge prior to departure, and then had the crew save my first meal for midway through the flight. That spaced things out nicely.
Going 10 or more hours between meals, with little but crisps or shrink-wrapped sandwiches in between in business class even, is too long. And United actually plans to do something about this.
Brian Sumers, for his excellent Airline Observer newsletter, interviewed United Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella, who told him (paywall) that a third meal will be coming to ultra-long haul flights on the airline. This should happen “within six months.”
As Sumers observes,
On a route like Singapore to San Francisco, which I flew in March, United served two meals — about 12 hours apart. That’s a long time without eating, if you’re awake.
United has been behind many other carriers in both quantity and quality of food offered on board, but they’ve been talking up improvements recently, and this sounds like a really positive (and innovative) change if implemented well.
Well, that beats bringing an entire cooler full of food on board to keep from starving…probably better quality victuals as well!
The downside of this change is that it puts a noisy meal service right in the middle of the sleeping portion of the flight. Depending on take-off/landing times, many passengers pay for business to get something close to a full night’s sleep and having the lights on, carts in the isle, and FAs yelling choices to passengers isn’t very conducive to this. I value sleep far above more mediocre airplane food.
Sydney to Perth…the long way around?
Hopefully he means rather than a formal meal service, they will do like many Asian carriers and cater substantial mid-flight snacks to be served on demand AND cater enough so they won’t run out. (And I’m not referring to the meager soups and sandwiches UA used to have; the Asian carriers serve things like burgers, beef noodle soup, etc. as their mid-flight snacks.)
Glad to hear United is starting to focus on this, it is sorely needed!
Their food game falls way short in quality and quantity.
I don’t handle it well when hungry and one of my worst flight (or any travel) experience was on United economy once to Tokyo and they were so stingy on offering food and towards the last few hours I was hungry to great discomfort and I have never forgotten about that.
@ Gary — I guess the third round of disgusting food is being funded by the complete lack of compensation for when things go wrong. I’m on a 1K match/challenge, which I expect to complete, but I would rank UA far below AA and DL based on my experience thus far. Factoring in their amazing low prices, I would even rank Spirit far ahead of United.
Qatar does it successfully. They have dine on demand and they cater enough for everyone plus much more. The incremental food cost is next to nothing from a pure numbers perspective, and they have mastered that, which is why they’re one of the best around.
I flew DOH-SYD and actually had to stay awake the whole time because of work (don’t ask or lecture, it was my choice voluntarily). I had a full dinner, and then ate not one, but two of their steak sandwiches mid-flight, then had a final meal a little before landing. I was wondering if they would run out and mentioned something, but she said they had plenty of food left without batting an eye. That’s how you do it.
A new menu perhaps with better selections? One can hope.
Looking forward to SFO CHC next March. I can sleep okay on the Polaris (get a mattress pad early). LAX SYD food was weak. Knew so ate well at Lounge
I’m in the middle of a 4 long haul RTW first two legs. Japan First Caviar was listed as mid flight snack option. I started with it nice jar/spoon served without condiments and with waffles. Also salmon with cream cheese. Western set menu , they bring it all. Delicious big piece of monk fish then nice Beef Tenderloin. Only one bottle of top self champagne but I think I got most if not all.
Second flight in
Lufthansa Biz upper deck HND FRA, tasty plentiful food with mid flight light snacks tea sandwiches, brownies, fruit.
Next flight tomorrow FRA GAU LH First. So plenty if not new food. Home on American with Flagship breakfast in MIA
The food on my flight to and from London (business class) was horrible. Who cares how many HORRIBLE MEALS they are going to get. Do something about the quality
Remember when Delta actually served meals in coach on transcons before the global panic?
“Going 10 or more hours between meals, with little but crisps or shrink-wrapped sandwiches in between in business class even, is too long.”
Ok, yeah.
10 hours with sandwiches and crisps AND TWO meals.not enough for you huh?
Note to self, when inviting Gary for dinner, order 18 pizzas and 47 milkshakes.
Also “in business class eve”?
wtf is that supposed to mean? The peasants in cattle class don’t get hungry?
Wow…what tripe again?
So this means not one or two disgusting meals on United, but 3. Yippee! Seriously, the airline’s catering is one notch above correctional facility.
Nothing would make me have any further dealings with UA, which has a broken, toxic culture.
Yeah, it’s a quality problem, not a quantity problem. Little UA has said makes me want to buy international J on them, and I’ve only flown OAL TATL since I started traveling internationally again post-COVID.
Airlines and food? Forget it. You should do Intermittent Fasting for 12 hours. You will feel much better, lighter, less jet lagged by not eating anything. Instead of eating all that processed, sugary, salty food. Then have a nice restaurant or home cooked meal when you land.
How many additional flight attendants will Sara Nelson demand be on board to accommodate all of this grueling additional work load?
United SUCKS. ASK CARMEN IN CUSTOMER SERVICE. SHE TOLD ME ANY FUTURE CALLS OR EMAILS FROM ME WILL BE IGNORED AND DELETED.
@ Judy — I think I spoke to Carmen last week.
I was on a PanAm flight from HNL to LAX years ago and they failed to load enough meals and beverages aboard. Don’t ever deprive an Aussie of his meal and beer. The flight was diverted to SFO due to heavy fog and where first class passengers shuttled to the Hyatt Place in San Jose and economy left on their own at the airport with vouchers. Meals are important, and especially when an extra unexpected incident may occur
Where are these meals going to fit ? They can barely fit snacks in their “galley” ridiculous idea .
I don’t think this will happen. Doublespeak is constant from management. Management can’t focus on cost control and upgrade the product at the same time. The stockholders will prefer constant cost reductions and increased return on investment than any customer focused product enhancement.
I am a United Airlines Flight Attendance, international flights. I believe the best feature we can provide any passenger is the ability to sleep as much as possible. It is the best way to survive a 14+ hour flight and the jetlag. Rolling a cart down the aisle and repeating meal options will undermine United’s near-perfect international flight timing.
Right now, United does offer on-demand a wonderful mid-flight snack of warm soup and a small warm side dish. I find that when we are not moving much, as on a long flight, this snack hit the spot just right.
The problem is that the snack is listed on the menu and not advertised or posted in any other way. Even if someone read the menu 8 hours later, they don’t remember.
A flight attendant could ask every passenger if they would like a warm snack, but keeping up with 50 Polaris passengers is doomed to leave some out.
Instead of re-creating the wheel, United should just stock more of these mid-flight warm snacks, and advertise them well.
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United: maybe do a mileage run on Delta and eat a few of their meals…. I suppose the meals pictured in the article are supposed to be appealing: they look like something you’d find in a soup kitchen, in my experience that’s how they taste too…
United’s meal in Polaris class has been improving in the past months. With added appetizer, quantity is very good. However, the services is still bad. The whole meal is presented in one tray. If you started with appetizer and salad, the entree would be cold by the time you get to it. To save meal service time and maximizing crew rest time, I really resent the cut back services. ANA serves a full meal in three different trays in their Room and Suite classes. All other airlines except those from the US serve meal in separate courses in business class. Flying business class is not about just sleeping. It is all about services and airlines are in the service industry. I complaint about the meal services every time in post-flight survey, but United does not care. I don’t know who to blame. It could be United trying to cut labor expenses and agreed to give flight attendants less work hours, or American flight attendants are just lazier than people from all other countries.
I am a lifetime Global Services member on United and I am sure I paid United enough to support a few jobs over the years. For the reason, I’m switching to ANA as much as I could and expected to get my first million miles on ANA soon.
@Mike
Qatar Airlines is fully subsidized by the Qatari Government, so please do not compare to U.S. carriers. They have deep, deep pockets so of course the experience is vastly superior. When U.S. taxpayers start subsidizing U.S. carriers, well, that will never happen.
Last time I checked, airlines belonged to the Transportation Department, not food service. Their job is the get me from A to B safely and on time. I am more concerned about their safety than the snacks on board. But that’s just me.
Which is why I bring my own food on board. Or, as another suggested, fast. It’s just not that important.
@PRich – United Airlines received ~ $10 billion in direct cash subsidies from U.S. taxpayers over the last 3 years.
“Last time I checked, airlines belonged to the Transportation Department,” in fact the U.S. government did take an ownership stake in the airlines, but that stake was held by the Treasury and not DOT 😉
@Gary Leff
If I’m not mistaken, that money was to ensure stability in the airline industry during COVID. Not to improve the meal choices.
@PRich it was to subsidize shareholders and creditors, but that’s beside the point, you argue one is subsidized the other is not and that’s just silly.
@Gary Leff
They are not the same, and I suspect you know that. What is silly is ad nauseam talk about airplane food. Food on an airplane is an ancillary product. We pay for transportation. I’ve never enjoyed a meal at a restaurant and then been given, by the restaurant, a plane ticket.
its criminal how much food is wasted , how much plastic is used and landfill created on international flights….speaking from experience…..60+ yr. galley flight attendant…DOH 6-29-62