Fresh food has returned to premium cabins on United Express, a long-overdue step that will greatly improve catering when flying in the front cabin on a longer regional jet flight.
Fresh Food Now Served in Premium Cabins On United Express After Three Year Hiatus
If you’ve flown first class on a United Express flight over the last couple years, you have may have noticed that the meal was shelf-stable. Think cheese plate in a sealed plastic container with a packaged bread roll, packaged olives, and a sealed fruit cup:
Some flights were not catered at all, despite being over 800 miles.
But that has now changed.
Per an internal memo reviewed by Live And Let’s Fly, “fresh food” has returned to premium cabins on flights over 800 miles on the following aircraft:
- E170
- E175
- CRJ700
- CRJ900
This comes after a three-year absence. Fresh meals were eliminated in March 2020 on United Express and had not returned…until now.
Here’s what to expect for breakfast:
Overnight oats topped with coconut and blueberries
Served with fresh cut fruit bowl, croissant, butter, jam, cinnamon streussel biscotti, and Erin Baker’s oatmeal raisin breakfast cookie
and for lunch and dinner:
Carved roasted chicken on Italian flatbread
Served with grape cluster, mesclun salad, and mini “Pie in the Sky” chocolate chip pie
The pre-packaged cheese plate pictured above will remain a second option.
These aircraft are not quipped with ovens, so hot meals are not possible.
CONCLUSION
I rarely get on a longer regional flight and had forgotten that up until this month, United was still serving pre-packaged meals on these aircraft. The change is long overdue. Prior to the pandemic, there were two substantial options on United Express, one of which was typically a fresh salad. Hopefully the return of the entree salad is not too far off. With regional jets serving longer flights, providing a consistent customer experience with mainline is an important consideration.
top image: CApreppie / Flyertalk
The last pre-packaged meal I had like your photo was on a mainline United aircraft early this year. I laugh because Spirit sells that same cheese plate on board for $9 (though I get it free as an elite).
AA Eagle, box lunches are fresh and best offered by any regional. Much prefer to a plated cold sandwich on a RJ. UA is trying play catch up but in all the wrong areas. Kirby is destroying this airline like he tried to kill off AA.
Oh Joy. The privileged few get more food while the majority of travellers get zilch.
This is a small step in the right direction. United’s food offerings are still in need of improvement.
Sc**w the food and get rid of those awful CRJ regional jets!