I wound up in economy class on a recent flight from Los Angeles to London on United…by choice…and want to report back on the latest meal service.
Meal service began shortly after takeoff. Rather than start with drinks and pretzels, meals were offered first and the drink cart immediately followed. There were two meal choices: Asian noodles with chicken or cheese ravioli. Both were served with a grain salad (with parsley and white raisins — a nice combo) and a bread roll.
I think you can rarely go wrong with a pasta dish on an airplane, especially in economy class, and I thought the ravioli was very tasty. While I liked the salad, I would have preferred a green salad.
I nodded off to sleep right after dinner and never received the dessert course, which is always an ice cream or sorbet. United also serves a bottle of water with dessert.
Although I slept though it, United offers a mid-flight snack, which I found on my tray table when I woke up the next morning. It was simply a small turkey and Swiss cheese sandwich. On daytime flights in the other direction the snack is usually crackers and cheese.
A full breakfast was offered before landing: eggs or pancakes. I actually really appreciate this breakfast. The omelet with potatoes and sausage is the same omelet business class passengers receive. So is the Chobani yogurt, in this case peach-flavored. Breakfast also included a very tasty, somewhat healthy blueberry Greek yogurt cake as well as sliced pineapples and grapes.
CONCLUSION
You can see economy class food is economy class food, but two hearty meals plus a snack on a 10 hour flight is not bad at all. In case you are wondering, I did not upgrade because United imposes a W-fare class requirement (or above) in order to use a Global Premier Upgrade. For whatever reason, that ran significantly more on my flight and a cost/benefit analysis made clear I’d rather use the money elsewhere. I ended up sleeping fairly well in EconomyPlus with an open middle seat next to me, so it turned out okay.
Consider yourself lucky. Just last week I flew economy on United EWR to TXL and my meal wasn’t nearly as good. For dinner we were given the choice between chicken or pasta. I picked the pasta and it ended up being ramen noodles with vegetables in a sauce that wasn’t distributed well. Half of the noodles were dry. I don’t recall dessert being served at all. And my breakfast was so unremarkable I can’t even remember what it was.
Interesting reading. I had to search for a cheap tkt LAX to LHR one way in October and found a UA flight for just £200 against the 1000 quoted by others ( I don’t fly Norwegian).
Its many years since I flew ‘The Friendly Skies’ (Do they still use that?) so I shall see how it goes. Sounds as though I won’t go hungry.
Thanks for the review. Most people never fly business/First class long haul so those reviews are pretty useless for 99% of readers. Even business road warriors have to fly economy sometimes. Economy class reviews are the most important you can do. Please do more.
I flew UA from ORD-FRA in Economy in July. I had the chicken for dinner but I saw the pasta dish and it looks identical to what you got. The breakfast was the same yogurt as you had, plus a croissant and I think a fruit cup. We also didn’t get any mid-flight snack. I’m assuming they serve more on the longer West Coast to Europe flights compared to the shorter Midwest/East Coast to Europe flights. I found UA’s food overall to actually be better than the food on Air Canada but still not as good as Lufthansa or Swiss in Y.
UA used to offer the ice cream as a mid-flight snack on that route. Dessert with dinner was a (packaged) brownie or cookie for dessert. It seems they scrapped the brownie/cookie for dessert and now offer the ice cream as dessert and not a mid-flight snack. Oh well.
The sad thing is that I looked at your pictures and wasn’t able to determine from them whether your main was the chicken or the pasta….
These days, when in Y, I rarely touch any of the food offered and just eat before / after the flight.
That honestly looks better than what I had in DL Y from DTW-AMS a couple of months ago, by a wide margin.
I think it was much better. I read your report, of course, and thought the meal looked very sad on Delta.
I’ve eaten enough United meals between US west coast and Asia (and the short lived SFO to MUC route) to see that this basically the same crap they serve on all their flights. I do see they didn’t give the usual prepacked processed vending machine brownie as the in tray desert. My trips to Asia and even to Europe are even more sad when transfer in ICN, NRT, HND, TPE into one of their partners like ANA Asiana, LH, Eva and you realize how bad the food and service are on UA.
Usually on their partners you get a menu of exactly what is in each meal and what is avail to choose. In UA your choices are always chicken or pasta and when you ask what is in either, it’s always blank stares from the FA while their partners will go to great lengths to explain even when you have a printed menu.
I shouldn’t complain though, it’s really my choice to bank my miles on UA and to redeem them on the UA network to get to Southeast and East Asia.
I flew JAL as a new carrier last week between KIX to LAX and back and was surprised at them. Even better than ANA… Economy meals were absolutely delicious. Meaks even better than ANA and Emirates. UA has such a long long way to go.
flew JAL economy to NRT, almost left me speechless,service,meals,comfort,did I mention free night at NIKKO hotel,awaiting onward flight to BKK. This after dismal KLM business class transatlantic.
I flew to NYC from Edinburgh with United on October 4th. I am usually happy with Aeroplane food. However this breakfast was inedible. The choice was omelette or chocolate cream. I chose omlete. The potatoes were uncooked and slimy inside, the sausages were white as if they had been boiled, the omlete easy like rubber an the tomato and mushroom were so tiny they were unrecognisable. Really awful!!!!
The meals described seem very similar to what i received on a UA flight from Heathrow to Houston. I am used to flying with the middle eastern airlines. The food, along with the service and the aircraft itself was incomparably shoddy. It was as if UA had given up competing.
Back when I was younger and flew long-haul economy, my favorite for food and drink in Y by far was Air France.
I failed to get an upgrade on my flight last week from DEN to LHR–about an 81/4 hour flight. Same dinner (which I skipped–brought cashews and had some wine. Skipped breakfast also and had some instead at T2 after arriving. Sorry, but United food in economy does NOT impress me at all.
I fly regularly to Philippines every 8 weeks.My longest flight Averages near 15 hours. I’ve flown all major
Airlines. With United, honestly it’s hit or miss
On meals. Having flown United, Delta, American
Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines Korean Air, I must
Say, Korean Air has my vote for top service and food. If you’ve not flown Korean Air, you should
Try them. Oh, all my flights are economy also.
Obviously the service was not the way its supposed to be. FAs were rushing through it to get longer breaks. Which is okay if it’s east coast to Europe flight but I don’t like to be rushed on a longer trans Atlantic flights.
Flying United IAD – FRA on 12/22 so we shall see how the economy meal service is on that flight. Hoping I might be able to snag a cheapish upgrade if any are available but I’m not worried if I don’t since I’ve already pre-selected an aisle seat.
It’s a good thing you didn’t order “chicken” instead of pasta. It would have been too spicy for many people to eat, and/or a horror of extruded, molded, gelatinous substance without a discreet nugget of real meat in it. I fly United economy class LAX to NRT regularly. There is NO snack between two skimpy meals on an 11.5 hour flight. Ever. The meals look like elementary school lunches– one item less than the ones reviewed here, and if you can’t eat one portion it becomes a light snack. The FA’s almost never know any details about the meal, but it doesn’t matter; they don’t have time to tell you anyway. Tip: if you pre-order “gluten-sensitive” meals, though the “bread” is inedible (because it must be heated to be soft), you are likely to get a decent serving of real meat or fish that has not been spiced beyond recognition). My family has learned: bring food with you. I recently got bumped up to business class. It was a king’s feast; I could not believe it was the same airline. I have flown a lot over decades, and expect barely adequate quantities of merely edible food, not gourmet or abundant. United economy fails. Consistently.
This review is not what thebrelaity is. United airlines food on long haul to Europe and Asia consistently have really tasteless and bad meals. I would challenge any United airlines executive to eat the economy class food and compare it to other carriers. The food is hot and you will not fall sick that is about all. United Airlines food consistently fails any gradation of taste or choice.
Having said that I still prefer to fly United. It is American and I am proud to fly American. Also it is consistent when it comes to departures and arrivals.
If anyone from United is reading this , food does not need to be Thai or Italian or Indian or whatever. Be consistent with American food. Serve food recipes which are ‘soul food’ for Americans. Food from out Texan borders, or from New Orlean or Philadelphia. Food from the Midwest and Canadian borders. Like your brand, make it consistent not unique. We customers will thank you for that.
I would have loved that! On UA 73 from Tel Aviv to Dulles right now and the food is inedible! I have a breakfast crepe of some sort that is filled with something I can’t identify. There is no salt or other seasoning. The white cheese served along side the “bagel” was warm and liquidy. I should have taken the kosher meal which they had extras of. I would share a picture but don’t see an option to do that.
Dinner the night before was tough chicken and overcooked pasta almost as bad. There was no mod flight snack. They did have tiny bags of thin pretzels available. United has gone to the bottom of the barrel.