Look out for Polaris-style salt and pepper globes on your upcoming United Airlines flight in domestic first class, affectionately (or derisively) called the “Death Star” by frequent flyers.

United’s Polaris “Death Star” Salt And Pepper Shakers Are Headed To Domestic First Class

A flight attendant sent me a short memo about a recent change in  salt and pepper provisioning on domestic flights:

Salt and pepper globes: Starting May 15, while supplies last, we’ll use the salt and pepper globes on mainline domestic premium cabin over 900 miles departing from hub kitchens (excluding ORD, SH Hawaii and PS Transcon flights).

I realize that salt and pepper shakers are not exactly breaking news…but I’m just mentioning it because I find it’s an interesting and practical way for United to exhaust what it probably has a big leftover supply of. When United updated its Polaris soft product last year, it switched to a three-tiered spice container with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes:

The memo says PS (premium transcontinental service) flights are excluded and that’s because they already use the “new” salt and pepper containers are now branded as Polaris. Chicago O’Hare is excluded because the supply has already run out there.

For those unfamiliar, the globes looked like this and were called “Death Star” becuase of their resemblance to the moon-sized space station and superweapon constructed by the Galactic Empire in the Star Wars franchise.

These “Death Star” globes are not quite the collector’s items that the salt and pepper “airplane” shakers are on Virgin Atlantic, but date back to the first iteration of Polaris, which debuted in 2016.

So keep an eye out for them and if you see them, now you know why…

Get Daily Updates

Join our mailing list for a daily summary of posts! We never sell your info.

SUBSCRIBE!

You have Successfully Subscribed!