United Airlines loses food fight, reverses hot meal plans
United Airlines is reversing its decision to charge economy class passengers for meals on international flights.
Here’s the “open letter” the airline sent to customers this afternoon.
Thank you for your direct, candid feedback on the test we had planned to launch in the fourth quarter for food choices on some of our flights. We heard you and have decided not to move forward with the test of offering customers buy-on-board options in United Economy on certain trans-Atlantic flights. We will continue to offer complimentary hot meals on those flights.
The response from you and many of our corporate customers, even before we launched the test, told us what we would have undoubtedly learned had we proceeded – you value our hot meal service in economy class for international flights.
In this environment, where higher costs driven by volatile fuel prices are now the norm, we must continue to tailor products and services so that we provide you with choices and competitive fares. As such, we will continue to be proactive in testing new ideas.
On October 1, we will proceed with the test of new, complimentary options for United Business customers on three-cabin aircraft used for domestic routes, which represents 16 daily flights. Customers on these flights will receive complimentary fresh sandwiches, salads, breakfast, snack boxes or snacks, depending on the length of flight and time of departure. They will also continue to enjoy complimentary beverages, including beer, wine and cocktails. We will evaluate the results and determine next steps by the end of the year.
It’s also important to note that full meals will still be served on our p.s. transcontinental flights.
Thank you again for your feedback. We will continue to listen and make changes that enable us in this environment to provide you with the choices you value.
Sincerely,
Graham Atkinson
Chief Customer Officer
Nice move, United. If you ever need to run an idea like this past someone, feel free to call me.
(Thanks for the tip, Drew.)
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4 Responses to “United Airlines loses food fight, reverses hot meal plans”
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I am stunned beyond words, for two reasons:
1) That a legacy carrier actually listened to its customers and put the kibosh on a customer service rollback due to customer feedback.
2) That United actually needed customer feedback to understand that this was a bad idea.
Seriously, do airline executives ever actually fly coach? If they did, I doubt we would have to suffer through the latest round of fees and service rollbacks.
If legacy carriers want to start acting like low fare airlines and charge separately for everything other than “not crashing”, fine, but they need to ditch the full-service fares, and stop the marketing that pretends like you offer some kind of luxury experience.
SirWired
[...] (For the full letter, check out this posting at Elliott.org.) [...]
I recently had the oportunity to “test fly” United and Continental on an international flight. United from Dulles to Narita Japan, and Continental from Newark to Hong Kong. To say I was disappointed with United is an understatement. Had I just flown United and never tried Continental, I would have just chalked the experience I had with United as just par for the course…but flying with Continental I found how an international flight is supposed to be.
For one, Continental seat spacing is equal to United’s “plus” seating. The food on Continental is much better and they give you real metal utensils! Ever try to cut beef with a plastic knife? I also found that the flight attendants on Continental were nicer and had a more pleasant demeaner.
A continuation trip from Narita to Hong Kong on NWA was also a pleasure on a nice and big 747!
I know that most people will disagree, but I believe that with my recent experience with NWA (round trip to Hawaii earlier this year as well) and Continental, these two carriers are the best carriers I have experienced in the United states since Pan Am!
Ed
web/gadget guru
So far I have been spared the experience of flying a US based airline for tras-Atlantic or trans-Pacific travel. I did fly UA to Canada once. The food they served in first class made me throw up. Now if I have the misfortune to fly UA I buy a burger from the local Mac. Compared to the UA fare, Mac or Taco Bell is certainly gourmet. When are they going to open the US skies to foreign carriers ?