“I do think if you fly United today the food experience is dramatically better than where it was a year ago.”
-Andrew Nocella, Chief Commercial Officer at United Airlines
I would wholeheartedly agree.
But the work is not done.
How United Airlines Plans Continued Onboard Meal Service Improvements
Speaking at the Skift forum in Dallas, Nocella was asked by Brian Sumers about meal service on United, specifically why it is so bad.
I would have phrased the question differently, but a good discussion followed which gives us a window into the C-Suite mentality over the meal service at United.
Nocella has assumed the role of the meal fixer at United, taking a hands-ons approach over the last year to help bring United’s meal service up to par at least with its domestic competitors American Airlines and Delta Air Lines.
He conceded, “We didn’t bounce back from the pandemic as well as we would have liked,” but noted that progress is ongoing and that United is serving 165,000 premium cabin meals a day across its worldwide route network and spending $2 billion per year on food.
What takes so long to make improvements? Nocella blamed supply chain woes.
“It takes about eight months to change the menu on an airplane. You would think just oh just snap your fingers but just like everyone else complaining about supply chain issues, the same issues are related to food…But we have made plenty of progress.”
I’d quibble with him here that the issue is likely supply chain woes + cost. Tell your caterer to supply, say, soup with salad and it is possible on a very short time horizon, but not at a cost United is willing to stomach.
Nocella promises:
- Upgraded wines
- Upgraded bread
- New entree choices which vary by region
On that last point, United used to offer different menus to/from different markets, but since the pandemic the menus have largely been standardized with a very similar menu on all Polaris flights out of the USA and identical menus based upon region for inbound flights to the USA.
That has changed a bit lately, with the reintroduction of special dishes like Japanese meals on flights to Japan or local dishes on the new San Francisco – Manila service. United is also trialing a new tapas service on its flights between San Francisco and Singapore.
But without offering further elaboration, Nocella said, “Part of it is that we changed the process.” By that he meant that United went from in-house to third party catering during the pandemic and that fundamentally transformed quality control and for many flyers, resulted in a degradation of meal service quality.
Speaking as a very frequent United flyer, I give Nocella great credit for the improvements he had made over the last year, including:
- A better domestic rotation of food plus expanded preordering
- The return of ice cream sundaes and appetizers in Polaris business class
- Improved pre-arrival meals in Polaris business class
- Enhanced wine selection in Polaris (though the Champagne quality has been greatly reduced)
There are still mysteries for me, a frequent flyer, like why United has failed to update its premium transcontinental menu in three years or why the preordering system for Polaris flights merely allocates a preset number of meals rather than actively determines what meals will be catered.
I’d also love to see United offer something like hot mixed nuts in first class on all flights, even very short ones, which is the sort of small touch that tangibly builds loyalty.
But Nocella seems to me to be the right man for this role and I am quite pleased with the progress he is making, even if I do not fully buy the “supply chain” excuse for the slow speed in which these improvements are rolling out.
You can watch the entire interview below (I’ve queued it up to the meal service question):
CONCLUSION
I do give United credit for improving meal service onboard: we have come a long way from a year ago and the food on both short- and long-haul flights is much better than in the past three years (both in terms of volume and taste). Even so, if United truly hopes to win a revenue premium for better food and be a leading global carrier, the investments must continue.
image: vintage United Airlines ad
I’ll believe it when I see it. Saying it’s better than it was a year ago, doesn’t necessarily mean they have a benchmark. But if they could bring back a distinction between lunch and dinner particularly adding more salad/sandwich/soup options I think it would offer a better selection and variety.
Agree they have a lot still lacking and it’s costing them business though will give credit for the improved Polaris wine.
I wish they would improve their bread. Nearly every time I have flown United, the bread has been a hard dinner roll with cold butter. And salad on about any airlines is nearly inedible
I would place United’s domestic meals ahead of Delta – mainly in that it’s stuff I would want to eat given a choice between the two. I’ve had some downright odd meals on Delta… turkey salad isn’t quite the same as chicken salad. But, the offering period is better than not in most cases even if it isn’t something that you particularly like.
Interesting that I see very little criticism of the lack of variety of menu on some non-US carriers. Japan Airlines has had the same western menu of beef filet or sea bass for Lord knows how long. Turkish Airlines – how many “potpourri of seafood” and rigatoni can you have? I guess because if the quality is generally better then complaints about lack of variety hold less importance. I think of a long-time (now closed) favorite Italian restaurant in Atlanta called Alfredo’s that was on Cheshire Bridge that had Chilean Sea Bass on special for a decade.
I have a friend who manages an airport kitchen for one of the major catering companies. The effort behind the scenes, especially on the security front (with separate vendors to oversee), is more than most passengers would appreciate. Introduction of a new flight or adding a meal to a segment can provide logistical difficulties because of course everyone has the same meal windows, more or less, and it’s inevitably going to fall on a peak. Could that kitchen have more business/support more flights? Yes, but it’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Add complexity or volume quickly to comply with the customer and have a higher failure rate and get complaints, or take time to improve the supply chain, hire resources, etc., and get complaints because it isn’t happening quick enough.
Bottom line will still be there isn’t an airport in America you can’t get a better meal from. And this includes the sandwiches packaged in the cooler.
Still amazed how infatuated some of you are with the quality, or even the need for airline food on the typical 8 hour or less flight. Probably the same people that sh#t on an plane too.
Is this the Zach Griff crusade? LOL
Hahahaha.. you ever been on a flight with the Grifter? I have. Please, please no, never again.
What am I missing? Did Zach write about this too?
I think one article awhile ago, but he posts about it repeatedly on social media whenever he flies ‘em…
$42 billion on food?
Was a typo. 2 billion, not 42 billion.
No.
He says in the interview at about 18:43 “we spend almost $2billion per year on food”
UAL’s total revenue TTM was $52 billion– they’re not spending 80% of their revenue on food. This isn’t a grocery store.
The answer is very simple. They need to go back to Continental days and follow their catering practices. Continental, before the merger, had the best airline food. It was truly a restaurant in the sky.
I have to agree on that. Food was great (even if it never changed).
If you put his numbers together, 165k meals per day, $2billion per year on food– it comes out to the idea of spending about $33 per meal.
I’m glad to hear they are trying to make improvements. The last few meals I have had on united have been absolutely terrible.
In my job, I eat relatively low-end cafeteria style food pretty much every work day– and usually I think it’s okay, very thankful to have it. I have never complained about it. I don’t think I’m a picky eater, but some of United’s food is terrible.
A few notes about your calculation…Nocella notes that they serve ~165k Premium Cabin Meals per day but the total spend per year is $2B which includes all of the alcohol as well as economy meals, snacks, non-alcoholic beverages, etc for all flights. I had heard at one point the average business cabin dinner service cost around $4-6 per person which seems paltry but then when you consider the volume being handled you can understand why pulling off an olive or limiting the bread choices can make a difference to the bottom line. I rarely complain about food on United or any carrier sans the cold chicken they serve from Hawaii because I understand how incredibly difficult the job is.
Thanks Bob, that is very interesting. You are right, I hadn’t considered all of those other elements to this. Thanks for pointing it out.
Funny you should mention the chicken from Hawaii, as that was one of my last meals.
There’s always so much focus on premium cabin food but I wish some more attention be paid to what the rest of us are eating. I’ve always found the economy class food on United to be adequate but at least once I’d like to read and article on how an airline is improving the economy expeeience!
That’s fair and I will say that United has replaced its pre-arrival yogurt and biscotti with a hot egg sandwich on flights from the US to Europe.
“Dramatically better”? No, it’s not. It’s still not very good, with a few exceptions like the enchiladas that I rarely see on my flights. The EU airlines are dramatically better than UA, though, both for intra-EU and international. I have not flown UA internationally for a few years due to the better food and service (and lower or same cost) on the competition. I have booked one TATL Polaris for the spring, and expect to eat only in the lounge, not on board.
Perhaps the best way to improve domestic carrier meal service, as well as all other aspects of service would be to re-introduce competition into the market. Non-US based carriers don’t seem to have any problems providing edible food and superior service. Maybe a little less protectionist regulatory coddling and a few billion less in quarterly profits will help. If wanted, they could provide 5 star meals again, it isn’t rocket science, its just money.
Do you really feel comfortable eating on board an airplane? I don’t. I mean, it’s not really meant to be an restaurant.
Last month I flew Austrian Business from Vienna to Palma. What a lovely experience: delicious hot meal, wine, amazing dessert all with impeccable service. Then UA Polaris from Zurich to San Antonio via Washington Dulles. The meal service was uneven to say the least: while mine was acceptable (fish) my seat mate’s was inedible (meat) and he returned his tray barely touched (he’s not a finicky eater). The snack was awful. The “meal service” between IAD and SAT (on a mainline flight) was dismal – and I’m being generous. The crew are competent enough and certainly friendly but until the quality of the on board product in Polaris improves, eat in the lounge if you can and avoid on-board meals.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Also, “upgraded wine/bread” is subjective.
“We ‘upgraded’ from theose sheety wines to these cheap sheety wines because our customers demanded it.” LOL