United Airlines will rapidly expand the ability for premium cabin passengers to pre-order meals starting in August.
United Airlines Expands Meal Service Pre-Order Option To (Nearly) All Premium Cabin Flights Over 800 Miles
Years after both American Airlines and Delta Air Lines introduced premium cabin meal preorders, United Airlines introduced it on select routes from Washington Dulles in 2019.
Over the last three years (though paused during the pandemic), United has expanded this. Currently, meal service preorders are available on domestic narrowbody flights over 800 miles.
Next month, United will greatly expand meal service pre-orders to all flights over 800 miles, with the exception of flights from Europe to the United States. Currently, this will be limited to premium cabins including United First, United Business, and United Polaris. Premium Plus, United’s premium economy cabin, will not have the ability to pre-order (yet).
That represents a HUGE expansion and a great move in the right direction toward standardizing the ability to pre-order your meal choice on United.
While some might liken it to a tempest in a teapot, there really is no reason with modern technology that virtually every premium cabin passenger should not receive their preferred meal choice.
New initiatives like the gradual build-up of pre-ordering and the use of United’s flight attendant app (versus paper) to record meal orders onboard has given United a treasure trove of data to better match catering with customer preference.
Even so, what better way to do it than to give passengers the choice before the flight takes off? That way, everyone (at least in theory) can choose their top choice.
Passengers can expect an email with a link to meal options in the days leading up to their flight. It is also possible to pre-select meals by pulling up your reservation on united.com or on the United mobile app.
Meals must be reserved at least 24 hours before flight departure.
CONCLUSION
For the the first time, United is expanding meal service pre-orders beyond North America to intercontinental flights and widebody aircraft. This is a definite step in the right direction in at least ensuring that passengers receive their first choice of meal onboard.
image: United
I see you did the “Untied” thing again when referring to United’s in flight meals. Nice work.
Like I said in the other thread, I do it all the time.
Didn’t someone at United do that on an in flight menu recently?
Was the “Untied” reference a whoopsie or on purpose? 🙂
It sounds like a good idea, if only they would actually provide the meal I pre-ordered. I pre-ordered my cheeseburger 3 weeks ago on ORD-BZN. FA asks “would you like dinner?” I said “I pre-ordered a cheeseburger” She says “They didn’t put any pre-orders on the plane” That and you have to practically beg for another cocktail in flight. The Kirby bean counter effect is in full operation at Untied. But what can you expect for a $1,300 fare on a 2 1/2 hour flight?
Sound like the same issue. I ordered my meal ORD-BZN a few days before departure and it never went through though the flight was an IRROPS delayed 19 hours.
800 mile flights currently have pre orders. I had them on the IAH/FLL RT
Surprised and delighted to finally be able to pre-order (every other time has either been widebody or simply didn’t have the option) on my trip Monday DEN-MIA. And had all 5 options of the current breakfast rotations.
I don’t think it is currently only over 1500 miles. I order on LAX-DEN every week and that is only 850 miles.
If only there was a meal worth pre-ordering. Until food quality improves beyond what is served in prisons, why bother pre-ordering?
It’ll be nice when they do this out of London. I flew LHRORD on AA a few weeks ago and my pre-ordered meal was excellent. I was also asked if I would like more wine!
Matthew.. like Kent.. no pre-ordered premium cabin meals catered on my UA ORD-IAH (lunch) flight recently. Sorry, they said.
United has a bad habit of promising things then failing to be able deliver on time (remember that Polaris rollout took over 5 years). We’ll see how this works out but not holding my breath.
Eating and flying. I’m not sure that really goes well. Can’t you wait until you land and go to a nice restaurant? For less than $1000.
I recently experienced this twice, though once, in spite of my email confirmation of the meal choice, the FA had no idea of my choice. She showed me her screen and nothing was selected. As a 1K, I got my choice anyway but rolling this out means testing to ensure it works under larger volumes before going mainstream with it. It’s great when it works
Agreed on your last point. It didn’t work for me once from LAX-DEN. Even as 1K, FA was not going to give me my first choice, but thankfully she relented when I made clear I ordered beforehand.
I’ve been 1K five out of the last 6 years including this year – doesn’t make a bit of difference to a FA anymore. They don’t acknowledge it much less try and provide the food you requested. And the next time I hear “sorry your meal choice wasn’t available” will be the FIRST time I have heard it.
Well that was fun while it lasted…they’ve already suspended this while they work out some technical issues.