This United Inflight Meal Joke May Be on Me

United Inflight Meal

Out of the big three domestic airlines, I fly United the least.  I’m busy as ever on American Airlines and routinely obtain complimentary upgrades.  I have a steady rhythm of Delta flying via superior partner bookings.  But I’m occasionally on United, primarily thanks to a considerable stash of Travel Bank funds.  When I’m on the carrier, I often find myself thinking, “oh yeah, this is what United’s like.  I remember now.”  But I’m far from a United expert these days.  My recent United inflight meal lowlight may just be a sign of the way things are with the airline right now.

My United Inflight Meal Was Terrible

Before The Flight

We’ve had small successes in domestic United first class from our small airport along the east coast.  Perhaps the recent standout was my family’s nicer-than-expected experience flying upfront to and from ORD on the carrier.  Based on that experience, I opted again to fly all four of us in United first class, this time to Southern California for our first-ever Disneyland family vacation.

Flying United that far required a connection on the way to SNA.  Several months ago, I decided on DEN and booked the itinerary – the connection time was forgiving, the price was reasonable enough, and it wasn’t too far off track.  (Polaris business via EWR to the west coast wasn’t a viable option for us this time.)  According to milecalc.com, this first flight would be over 1.5k miles.  Scheduled flight time to DEN according to our flight itinerary was 3 hours and 57 minutes.

Several days before the flight, I decided to look more specifically at what was in store.  I reviewed the menu details for the DEN flight via app (below); I saw no option for customizing.  I shrugged, presuming this was an error, default, or incomplete list of the first class catering for the flight.

On The Flight

About thirty minutes or so into the flight, a flight attendant asked about our interest in breakfast.  The four of us affirmed, and soon after we each received a tray of the following:

• Banana
• Kellogg’s Corn Flakes
• Cheese Plate
• Roll
• Container of Milk

Unfortunately, I didn’t bother taking a picture of my tray.  Perhaps I just wanted to put the experience behind me.  Corn flakes were in a small plastic container with a peel-back top, exactly what can be found at the complimentary breakfasts of many low- and mid-tier hotel brands.  The cheese offering was also a packaged affair.  As was the seeded roll, a seemingly all-purpose version which could theoretically fit on a lunch or dinner tray.  I only consumed the banana.

My Take

Obviously, I’m disappointed in this offering for an approximate four-hour flight.  How can United serve such a meager first class meal in this instance without smirking?  I don’t know, but the airline does.  I looked around, and others were eating, so I guess it’s working.  Many opted out of breakfast altogether, perhaps knowing something I didn’t.

On the flip side, I didn’t previously do any in-depth research on what exactly United serves on these flights.  But I didn’t feel like I needed to, either, safely (I thought) assuming that something more substantial would be served on a flight of this length.  Honestly, it didn’t matter that much, either.  It’s airplane food – I didn’t have high expectations.  But I was a bit surprised it was just this.

This morning flight was United’s only of the day to DEN from my home airport, not a hub for any of the big three.  Perhaps I should’ve seen this coming, but again, I didn’t care enough to dig into those details beforehand.  Regardless, I would’ve been disappointed.  United claims that first class travelers on flights over 1,190 miles (including domestic ones) receive a hot entree.  Something’s not right.  I’ve reached out to United on this matter but haven’t heard back yet.

For what it’s worth, I recall receiving exponentially better first class inflight meals on American Airlines from my home airport to DFW, approximately a 22% shorter flight by distance.

Conclusion

Given this experience, I’m definitely lowering my United inflight meal expectations for most all domestic city pairs.  Maybe the only safe assumption I can make is that United premium class on transcontinental flights with will provide a more substantial inflight meal.  Maybe I’m taking my expectations to the extreme end there, but it’s where I plan to keep them at this point.

How has your recent United inflight meal experience in domestic first class been recently?