I flew from Los Angeles to Chicago and back on United Airlines last week in economy class–domestic upgrades seem to be a thing of the past, even for 1Ks–and was quite impressed by a small but meaningful service gesture onboard before we departed.
A Small But Lovely Service Touch On My United Airlines Flight
United offers pre-departure beverages to its first class passengers. Flight attendants generally fill cups with water, juice, and sparkling wine then start in the front of the cabin and move back, refilling the tray if necessary.
Sometimes, everyone wants a drink. Other times, no one seems to want a drink…
The question then is what to do with the leftover beverages. All too often, I’ve seen flight attendants simply dump them in the trash in the front galley, which is not only wasteful, but a missed opportunity.
I was so pleased to see flight attendants walk back into economy class with the leftover pre-departure beverages and offer them to guests seated behind the curtain until she ran out. This happened on both the outbound and inbound journey.
It’s a very thoughtful touch…I know my wife and I appreciated the glass of water…but it was about more than the water: it was a conscientious effort to avoid waste and offer a premium service level, even in steerage.
Maybe this is more common than I think, but it was the first time I had ever seen anything like it and I saw it two flights in a row, so I figured it was worth mentioning.
Is this something you’ve seen on United or any other carrier? Is this an appropriate way to dispose of extra pre-departure beverages?
> Read More:United Airlines Now Serves Pre-Departure Beverages In Glassware On Longhaul Flights
A nice gesture to mitigate waste, but what about the blowback from the poor bloke9(s) seated right next to the pax that was lucky enough in the lottery to draw the last beverage ? All during the chaotic, time critical/sensitive/congested stage for an on-time departure. I can just imagine the requests of the ‘untouchables’ for a PDB upon seeing this … No good deed goes unpunished.,.
That’s an unwarranted fear. There isn’t blow back. I see this done quite often, and no one cares. It’s usually quite obvious that it’s just being done with leftover drinks… so people are okay with it. I’ve seen it done in Polaris too, with some folks in the premium economy section getting lucky enough to receive leftover Polaris pre-departures. It’s never an issue.
Seems UA is singing Gloria Loring’s ” I’m gonna make you love me “.
Also happened on my ORD->BOS flight last week.
This is a nightmare scenario. There inevitably winds up being more conflict than goodwill generated when some passengers get different service than others in the same cabin. Absolute no from my perspective.
Flew United in first class last week from Chicago to Dca and they didn’t even do that in first class. No pdb served. You just got lucky.
The other day on ORD-SAN after the FA did a pre departure drink run she had 2 extra glasses of sparkling wine, so she came to the first row of economy and offered it to us. Def felt odd
I had my stainless steel mug, but the flight attendant refused to pour water into it. which would save the waste of a plastic cup. And without touching the edges of my mug.
I really don’t drink anything except if it’s longer than 6 hours. It makes me want to get up to the bathroom/lavatory.
ORD- SFO Airbus A321 . Beautiful comfortable plane.
Delta pre-pandemic gave out a welcome cocktail in coach on international routes, though it was at cruising altitude not after boarding. Still the best concept for international dining for any US carrier I’ve seen in coach.
https://pro.delta.com/content/corporate/us/en/news/news-archive/2019/november-2019/delta-debuts-industry-leading-international-main-cabin-experienc.html
Senior staffed United flights have been giving consistently amazing flights from Chicago to the West Coast. Even the newbies on a short flight from Boston are friendlier than ever… The ground staff too have been amazing. Letting me still check my bag at 44 minutes to flight was an epic save thanks to premier status.