United Airlines is experiencing a catering meltdown at its San Francisco (SFO) hub, leaving passengers–even in first class–without food and drinks on many flights. As United transitions from one catering contractor to another, the source of the problem is not yet clear.
Catering Meltdown For United Airlines in SFO – The Latest Updates
A transition from Gate Gourmet to LSG Sky Chefs began last Thursday, with LSG now responsible for all of United’s catering at SFO. The transition has not been smooth:
- Some longhauls flights have faced long delays to account for catering provisioning
- Many domestic flights, including transcontinental flights, have been stocked wtih no food at all
- Beverages have also been limited, with some “coffee or water only” flights and some flights with no drinks at all or no ice
- Some first class passengers have been receiving pre-packaged snacks or snack boxes instead of meals
United told Live And Let’s Fly:
United is working through a transition in our catering provider in San Francisco. Some flights have been delayed while we make sure they are stocked with the correct meals for their trip and others have not had the usual availability of meals we strive for. In those cases, we are reaching out to customers to make things right. We’re sorry for these delays and we’re working to ease this transition and get back to our regular level of catering service in San Francisco.
United hopes to return to “regular” catering levels by the end of this week, but an internal memo to flight attendants warns that catering disruptions could occur for the next sevearl weeks.
What Really Happened?
Scolding United is not going to make the situation better, but I view this as an unforced error. Yes, even for an established catering company like LSG, the transition to such a big contract at United’s largest West Coast hub was certain to have some hiccups.
But what happened is not clear. It’s too early to blame United, LSG, or Gate Gourmet…we just don’t know what is going on behind the scenes or what may have led to this. You can bet if this was LSG not being prepared, United will hold them accountable.
My theory is that LSG expected many employees from Gate Gourmey simply to pivot over to LSG and that may not have occurred. Think about it: when Gate Gourmet lost its primary customer at SFO (United has a market share of about 47%), it most likely suddenly had a huge surplus of employees and of course, LSG, taking on a huge new customer, had to ramp up its hiring.
The expectation was likely that Gate Gourmet workers were offered a job at LSG, but maybe many didn’t take it…or maybe LSG simply does not have the equipment yet at SFO to take on a huge new client.
But one would expect United to work that out in advance as part of its due diligence. One might also expect United to negotiate a period of transition, even if it had to pay for both caterers for a week, to ensure the transition went smoothly.
No matter who is at fault, this mess was avoidable.
CONCLUSION
United is suffering a catering meltdown at SFO this week as it switches contractors from LSG to Gate Gourmet. As customers have experienced over the weekend, you might be in for a rude awakening on your flights from SFO, especially if you arrive hungry. Prepare yourself in advance by assuming your flight will not have food or beverages onboard..that’s your safest bet, at least for the next few days.
To be clear, what happened is United’s responsibility, independently of what were the actual screwups.
The buck ultimately stops with United, but if LSG blatantly lied about its ability to deliver, I have some sympathy.
I have zero sympathy. During this sort of transition, you need teams and contingencies in place. Extra United staff to facilitate catering. Much larger vouchers ready to go if there are catering failures and pro-actively dealing with such failures at checkin – not telling PAX they are f’ed on the airplane.
“vouchers” ? They will have no one to distribute the vouchers , and they will not hold up departure to do so .
Anyhow , no one wants a taco voucher .
I would love a taco voucher
A taco voucher in SF is probably a dude in a dress with a fondness for Paul Pelosi.
The urgent issues are :
(a) “Healthy Clean Food” ?
(b) Is the food preparation sanitary ?
Could this hiccup be related to a security issue? New employees would likely need background checks and clearances. And isn’t the TSA involved with seals on the food lockers? No matter why this happened the abrupt transition should have been foreseen.
would an Asian airline have the same problem in their primary international gateway?
Just the Asia part of UA’s SFO hub is larger than many Asian airlines’ entire international operations.
I’m quite happy to see the change to LSG because I thought the catering out of SFO was particularly bad, but any way you slice it, this could have been handled better. I know catering is very complicated with a lot of lead-time, but even so, understaffing is a huge concern in this industry and this is a problem that could have been predicted.
Honestly, be it GateGourmet/LSG SkyChefs/Flying Food Group or whatever company, if the customer (airline) is cheap the product will not be as good as customer (airline) who pays more.
GateGourmet caters LX at many airports (including iirc SFO) and their onboard food is very good, with that said, they are paying more than UA.
In general, I find LSG to be better overall than GG, but I agree that budgets are variable. Do&Co is better on TK/OS/QR than on BA, for example. Still, Do&Co is better overall than other caterers.
We all know UA’s playbook, this change wasn’t to create an ‘elevated dining / food experience.’ The change to LSG was to save $ peanuts. Wouldn’t want to be John Slater right now.
Matthew, already having posted this article on my social media, just letting you know I, in the last few minutes, heard via phone from a close friend in SFO who in the last few hours preflight bought a first class upgrade on a domestic meal flight. They sold him the upgrade with NO MENTION AT ALL that there would be catering issues. INEXCUSABLE!! There can always be issues when transitioning caterers.. but United Airlines OWNS this error.
Sad for all especially passengers and flight attendants!
Flew in from Munich to SFO on Friday 5/16 and the flight attendants told us they left 3 hours late the day before from SFO due to no catering.
Ours was fine leaving Munich, but the Purser made an announcement when we arrived at SFO to get food/water in the terminal before boarding connecting flights just in case.
Today 5/19, on a flight from SFO to SEA, catering was available yet limited.
Again, I felt sorry for the Flight Attendants though people in Business Class did not get upset and just went with the flow. No ice.
Coffee and wine were available.
The gate agent made several announcements about the catering issues and suggested getting food and drink before if people felt it necessary.
This is a complete disaster that should have had multiple contingency plans in place.
Again, the Flight Attendants did a great job!!