United Airlines now offers you a preview of what to expect on your flight in terms of food and drinks with flight-specific digital menus available online for every flight.
Digital Menus Now Available From United Airlines – Know What Food And Drink Will Be Served On Your Next Flight
With the elimination of the print edition of Hemispheres Magazine and an increasing focus on digitalization, United will make a complete menu available online for each flight in all cabins of service.
A memo reviewed by Live And Let’s Fly explains:
“In addition to the printed menus available on board, the digital menu is available for all cabins on all flights. A general menu will be viewable up to a year in advance so customers who are booking flights can see what kind of experience they can expect, and the actual menu will be available anywhere from 75 to 45 days before departure once the menu is finalized. The menu can be viewed while in flight. On flights with meal service, please make the following announcement to encourage customers to view the menu: “If you would like to see what we’ll be serving on board, today’s menu can be found on united.com or in the United app for your convivence. Simply navigate to Flight Status > Inflight Menu.”
Indeed, when you navigate to the flight status page on united.com and pull up a flight, you now see a new link that includes flight-specific menu information:
You can also see a “view menu” link if you pull up your reservation:
And on the app:
That takes you to a page in which you can view the menus in all cabins of service:
It even includes the full wine list in Polaris Business Class:
Over time, United will add allergy information about each dish (it would be great to see nutrition facts and ingredients as well…). It will also add these menus to its seatback screens. No timeline for either initiative has been announced.
As an aside, Continental Airlines used to offer menus online prior to its merger with United Airlines, such that you always knew what to expect when traveling in BusinessFirst.
This is an excellent effort to help passengers better prepare for their flights, especially when traveling in economy class, and is the sort of low-hanging fruit that adds value and creates the perception of a more quality experience. It also holds flight attendants accountable to offer the full service (i.e. that midflight snacks are available).
CONCLUSION
United Airlines now offers digital menus with food and beverage offerings on all flights. Over time, this will expand to seatback screens and will also include additional allergen information.
This is a great move from United and I’m pleased to see this roll out not just for business class, but for all cabins.
Yay to United for finally doing what over a dozen airlines are already doing!
Yeah ok that was snarky but still, kudos to tbem anyway. Now if they can just throw a few more $ to the catering budget…
@Aaron … +1 . True . However , why know in advance what I will Not wish to eat ? I will being my own food , regardless of what UA promises , and choose from the menu on the plane for extras .
Good for you.
Also noticing on one of my reservations that it’s integrated into the preorder experience as well. Pretty cool. I’ve seen some menus online before but somewhat limited in how they’re presented. This type of app integration and depth tends to standout.
The app/website side of UA is pretty good, but I wish the actual food on the menu were more edible, especially in Polaris.
It would be nice if you could also access a version of this on the IFE screens. That way you can make an informed decision mid-flight instead of just relying on “chicken or pasta”
Any information offered is good but sometimes things don’t work out. We were biz class on an AA non-stop from DFW to Maui a couple of years ago and I told the purser I’d like a particular merlot from among the dozen wines listed on the menu. He said, “I’ve got red and I’ve got white.” After a good laugh we agreed red would be a nice choice. Not a world-ender. It’s an airplane, not a fine dining restaurant.
Being able to order a beverage via seatback screen was one of the things I liked about flying Virgin America many years ago. I am quite content with basic conveniences. Providing much more than that sets us up for angry passengers with high expectations. Just grab an quality sandwich from a local deli the morning of or the night before your flight.
If United keeps hiring ex AC execs they will have all the same things. Think digital menus and the grab and go concept. They may also have the same shortcomings unfortunately .