My Meal of the Week feature examines an airline meal from my travels over the years. This may be a meal from earlier in the week or it may be a meal served over a decade ago.
I’ve recently flown both United Airlines and American Airlines on a transcontinental trip from New York to Los Angeles. Which carrier offers the better meals in business class?
Transcontinental Business Class Dinner: American Airlines Vs. United Airlines
My American Airlines flight from New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX) featured a printed menu and four dinner choices:
- Beef short rib
- Asian-style chicken
- Seared salmon
- Spinach and ricotta rotolo pasta
Prior to dinner, a bag of pistachios and Biscoff cookies were served.
All dishes came with a burrata cheese appetizer and raspberry cheesecake tart.
I ordered salmon (with basmati rice, peas, baby carrots, and herb butter), and it was delicious and also nicely presented once the foil coverings and plastic were removed.
My wife and son ordered the chicken (with jasmine rice, Asian vegetables, snow peas, toasted sesame seeds, and a marsala shiitake sauce). I tried it and loved it.
A flight attendant also brought my son the pasta choice by mistake (rotolo with pomodoro sauce, basil pesto, and pine nuts), which I photographed before he took it back.
The food was delicious and was presented on a “real” dishes and plates with no plastic containers.
You can read a full review of my flight here.
> Review: American Airlines 777-200 Business Class New York to Los Angeles
My United Airlines from Newark to Los Angeles did not include printed menus, but choices were Thai chicken or butternut squash ravioli.
On United, premium transcontinental meals include:
- Mixed nuts
- Packaged bread roll
- Salad
- Main course
- Ice cream or sorbet
The Thai chicken was very tasty, with a coconut ginger sauce and spiced vegetables, though the portion size was small. I appreciated the oversized container of mixed nuts and the salad was fresh and delicious.
The butternut squash was very sweet, though a nice change from the usual cheese ravioli with red sauce.
I’m not a big sorbet fan and left the mango sorbet behind.
You can read a full review of my flight here.
> Review: United 757-200 Business Class Newark To Los Angeles
Winner: American Airlines
The good news is that the meals were not just decent, but tasty on both carriers. I preferred the salad on United over the burrata appetizer on American. But the main courses were heartier and tastier on American Airlines and I liked the cheesecake better than the sorbet (though I would have preferred chocolate ice cream to either). Plus, the bread on American was fresher and of better quality than on United.
CONCLUSION
Props to American and United for offering meal service on their coast-to-coast flights. Delta still only offers snack boxes and does not even offer hot coffee. You probably won’t fly an airline for its superior meal service, but American Airlines edges out United in this regard.
Meanwhile on Delta you still can’t get a cup of coffee, juice or soda… for your safety of course! Beer and wine perfectly safe at 6am though. I’d really like to see some bloggers calling Delta out for hiding behind Covid when they’re simply cost cutting
I have before, but I do think it is time for a special post calling out the lack of coffee.
When will North American carriers learn passengers are looking for true and tried restaurant dishes? Have a different chain cater F each month. Rotate between Chipotle,Cheesecake Factory,Popeye’s,McD,Taco Bell,Pizza Hut,Panera and P.F Chang. Snacks from Costco. Micro brewery choices. Dunkin for dessert drinks and bakery.
I’m sick of companies who took billions of dollars of free money using COVID as a cost cutting excuse. Joemart—- no food in the air is nearly as good as a decent restaurant regardless who caters it.
Honestly, those main course pics of AA are the first inviting pics I have seen on an AA transcon catering. Hope AA has learned from the critics and keep a consistant prsentation and of course ‘the taste’ which is the most important.
Much more sensible food than the pretentious rubbish some of them offer on international routes, and probably indicative of what will be offered on intercontinental routes in the new reality…
Gotta love the pretzel roll over the coach-looking bread roll on UA anyday.
The UA mango sorbet is nasty IMO…feels like a bulk purchase on close out
How were the alcohol choices on UA and AA?
Both had the full bar available.
Amazing that Delta’s competition can have real food and beverages and Delta cannot even give us ice for the warm bottle of water they serve along with the cardboard box snacks!!
Why is it that United is always the one to dumb everything down to the cheapest presentation??. If you’re going to plate the salad, entre and even the bread, can you at least put the nuts in a small bowl ? Millions of dollars and they can’t even “upgrade” the business class cabin to something that doesn’t resemble coach. It’s a wonder they’re not using plastic knives, forks and glasses. ….. and people PAY for this ?
United, especially given the fact that it still owns catering kitchens, really has some of the poorest overall offerings and presentation. Continental’s F food up until the merger may have been predictable, but it was good and the quality was consistent. No sooner than hearing Jeff say that there “were going to be changes”, but “we’d like them,” the aligned meal offerings came out and years of mediocre catering was the norm. Finally someone got a clue and around late 2015, things took a turn for the better and Express finally got meals. Polaris was launched and UA had a solid product. But like all things, it didn’t last long (who can forget the “snacking” of all flights under 3 hrs) and its been going downhill ever since. Polaris is in the same slump with cuts left and right, sorta like BusinessFirst was before the changeover, although I’d argue that its even worse now with the small casserole dishes, poor presentation, and lack of any menu changes.
American, on the other hand, seems to have fared better. Granted CoVid really changed the direction they were headed, but I’ve had much better food on AA in the past few years than I have on UA.
this is a joke, right?
oops. that previous post was supposed to be a reply to “Joe mart”
I can’t believe that anyone would want that selection on the ground let alone in the air.
I will continue to hope that post was out of jest.