Ice cream sundaes are making a glorious return to United Airlines next month and will also be returning to domestic premium transcontinental flights.
United Airlines Will Restore Ice Cream Sundaes, Even On Premium Domestic Flights
After United posted a teaser on social media, it has been widely reported that ice cream sundaes will return in February. However, Live and Let’s Fly can provide two additional details not reported elsewhere.
We all scream for ice cream! 🍨 Because the United Polaris business class Sundae Cart IS BACK!
Currently available on select flights out of San Francisco and coming to all long-haul international flights in February. pic.twitter.com/1R5XEaySPD
— United Airlines (@united) January 9, 2023
First, ice cream sundaes will gradually roll out during the month of February. While a memo to flight attendants reviewed by Live and Let’s Fly suggests sundaes will roll out on February 1st systemwide as part of the monthly catering menu rotation, a United spokesperson explained:
“The sundaes are currently available on select flights out of San Francisco and will be on all long-haul international flights by end of February.”
The same memo to flight attendants also notes that ice cream sundaes will return to premium transcontinental flights, those flights between Newark (EWR) and Los Angeles (LAX) / San Francisco (SFO).
“Premium Transcon flights will also see the ice cream sundae service return.”
It is not yet clear if sundaes will return in February or later in the year.
During the pandemic, United eliminated sundae service from premium transcontinental flights, substituting a cookie or economy class-style ice cream in its place:
At one point in 2021, ice cream briefly returned:
But “supply chain” issues quickly led to a substitution for pre-packaged Eli’s cheesecake, which has been a staple for over a year:
Meanwhile, pre-dressed ice cream sundaes returned to Polaris (longhaul) business class last spring:
The return of “real” ice cream sundaes on these premium domestic and longhaul routes will be highly welcomed.
CONCLUSION
United Airlines will not only bring back ice cream sundaes to longhaul flights in Polaris business class, but also on premium transcontinental flights. Sundae service will begin to rollout on February 1st, but may not be fully implemented until the end of the month.
fingers crossed when they bring this back to premium transcon they do so with the hot fudge and not the godawful Hershey’s syrup they used to use. Hated the transcon sundaes, liked the international ones.
Great to hear, now time to bring back starter/salad before main course
Big deal. Who cares. The majority of the people on the plane will be lucky to get a mini bag of pretzels.
This blog isn’t exactly aimed toward economy class fliers
Good scoop Matthew. Nobody else reported about the premium transcontinental return.
How does this stack up against the competition? Pretty sure AA and DL have resumed it already on international but what about transcontinental?
Yes – both have. It is good UA is catching up.
What about long haul Hawaii since the catering aligns more with premium transcon?
They were there pre pandemic
Nothing yet on Hawaii.
Well they’re going to sell 4 round trip Polaris tickets to Europe to me and the family because of this. We went in June for my kids first Polaris trip, and my kids generally love ice cream, but what we got this year was salted caramel ice cream in a small paper tub, melted to half liquid already– it was truly terrible, they wouldn’t eat it. We’ll try again, sundae cart hooray!
Oddly, I don’t think the Elis cheesecake slices were a bad offering, I thought that their presentation was the problem.
If they had removed the slice from jt packaging and placed it on a plate, it would have been perfectly fine.
A friend of mine is a GM of an inflight catering kitchen and he said that the cost difference negligible and if UA was smart, it might not even be a cost difference at all.
I actually agree with you. In fact, I remove it from the package and put it on the bread plate when I am on those flights.
Hopefully, this puts pressure on Delta. Delta’s first-class and Delta One business-class catering and overall F&B have been a joke since the pandemic. Supposedly, a project is underway to bring back a more “elegant” Delta One service but the $5 wines is pathetic. I miss the old post-dinner dessert cart with cheeses, ice cream, tea, port wine, etc.
Delta could start by not serving economy slop in premium select