I realize that meal service is not really a selling point for most flying on United Airlines right now, but I could not figure out why such an otherwise wonderful crew would choose such an odd time to serve a “pre-arrival” meal on my flight to Honolulu.
Odd United Airlines Flight To Honolulu…In Terms Of Meal Service
I was flying from Newark to Honolulu on United, a 10-hour, 50-minute journey that represents United’s longest domestic flight. Fortunately, I was able to fly business class on the trip.
Shortly after takeoff, breakfast was offered. That included a croissant, fruit, yogurt, and a main course of egg whites with kale, potatoes, and sausage. I have to be honest, this is one of my favorite United Airlines dishes and I quite enjoyed the breakfast. Breakfast was served at 9:15 am.
Since the flight is nearly 11 hours, a second meal is served before landing.
Or in my case…three hours later even though there was still over 5.5 hours of flight time left before reaching Honolulu.
It made no sense. Most were sleeping. The cabin was dark. I was not hungry (and you can bet if I was not hungry, most others were not either). And yet lunch was served.
So I took it. A hamburger with sweet potato wedges, a side of fruit, and a hot cookie. Once again, a nice meal, but why over Nevada instead of 90 minutes out of Honolulu?
And it’s not like the crew was lazy. They were quite attentive throughout the flight and after this mid-flight meal, they continued to monitor the cabin until final approach for drink refills and offered additional snacks like potato chips and nuts. I asked one flight attendant why we ate so early and she just said, “Well, that’s when they tell us to serve the food.”
But that’s not the case, actually. The meal guidelines do specify this is to be a pre-arrival meal.
About five hours later, I asked if I could have the other pre-arrival meal option, a soba noodle salad, and my request was granted. It was much better than I thought it would be.
CONCLUSION
In the end, I had more than enough to eat and quite enjoyed my flight to Hawaii (though United has still not brought back Mai Tais onboard). I still found it very strange that the pre-arrival meal was served while we were still over the continental USA with over 5.5 hours of flight time left. Even so, that ultimately just meant I ate three meals instead of two meals on this flight. #diet
I’ll share more about this trip in a follow-up post.
A similar thing happened to me on my daytime Virgin Atlantic flight from JFK-LHR this summer. The meals were served practically back. I was so perplexed about it. Of course I ate, I didn’t want to miss out on biz class food, but it was really weird. I took that same flight in November 2021 and the spacing was fine. As for EWR-HNL, it’s a decent flight, as long as it’s not the 2-4-2 biz class seating…
Not sure what the confusion is – the vast majority of these customers are likely O&D customers based in the EWR area (or elsewhere in the Eastern part of the US). We eat breakfast anywhere from 7 AM to 10 AM, and lunch from noon to 2 PM. The meals were served during those windows. Early dinnertime would be served around when you had your third meal, but early dinner could also be had on the ground. If you have two meals, it makes much more sense to serve breakfast and lunch rather than breakfast and an early dinner.
Who could possibly want to eat three hours after that calorie-bomb breakfast? Of course, what do I know…unless I am traveling, I don’t break my fast until 13:00 each day.
Perhaps a lighter breakfast could have been served – I’m just saying that the actual meal times weren’t unusual at all in terms of East Coast time. Similarly, a 9 hour break between meals on a fully daytime flight (which is what you are arguing for) is probably too long. Given it is a fully daytime flight, sleeping hours aren’t going be universal here.
FAs were supposed to pass snack basket during flight then serve meal before landing, which would have been east coast dinner time. Don’t you think that makes more sense?
I could see that.
It seems you’re always in business or first class. How about the passengers stuck in coach and they might not even receive water which happened to my daughter on a UA flight from EWR to LAX. What did they get to eat and what time were they served. At least you got served.
Matthew, something that drives me nuts about all you airline bloggers is that you have contacts at the airlines, in fact I have seen you write elsewhere that you have contacts in UA catering department.
As such you can go directly to the horses mouth and report the odd meal timing, inquire if it SOP or not and get to the bottom of it very easily or at least far easier than us mere mortals.
Why not before writing an article (I am not even sure if on blogs they are considered articles) ask someone at UA catering and not just write about a “mystery” but actually provide the real answer?
At the end of the day you and other bloggers could act as an ombudsman so to speak for us regular joes passing our feedback to the folks that actually make the decisions vs. customer service who take our complaints and collates them into large spreadsheets that take far longer (if at all) to reach the folks who make the decisions.
An internal contact shared the catering sheet with me for the flight. The meal was supposed to be served before landing. That’s not an open question. What should I have asked United?
Since you already knew from catering it was meant to be a pre-arrival meal served 90 minutes before landing, surely you asked the FA or purser, right? What did they say?
No, I requested it after the flight.
I have many questions from why are the Polaris meals so poor, what is the internal thinking is just cost savings or is there a reason.
To why a bowl of fruit with all domestic First Class meals instead of a salad which seems more appropriate and so forth and so on.
well it was served before landing 😉
That used to be my pet peeve about flying CX between the US east coast and Hong Kong- in coach and premium economy (but not business) they’d serve the second meal halfway through the flight. It was usually around or after bedtime, local time for the origin, and most people were already sleeping…. And they’d turn the lights on and wake everyone up. The speculation was this avoided having to provide a real mid-flight snack on those 15-16 hour flights.
Good thing they served the pre-arrival meal when they did, or you would’ve been famished once yoi got off the plane…
Matthew sounds like a snitch y’all.
Snitch? I think I went out of my way to praise the FAs…
You praised them but yet you created a whole article complaining about not getting your meal exactly when you wanted. *rolls eyes*
Snitch
You think UA is going to spank them?
Wow. What a world problem Matthew! You are complaining …as you are in business class to Hawaii — most people in the world or even in the US. will never experience that– and you are complaining that your food came early!! And you even got a 3rd meal.
I hope someday you get your life priorities straight. If that is your biggest problem in life- complaining about when your meal was served to you – you are one very lucky person. Although i doubt, in your self-consummed “me me me” world, that you will ever realize or appreciate that.
Unreal. No wonder much of the world can’t stand Americans.
Repeat after me: This is a travel blog. This is a travel blog. This is a travel blog.
It’s supposed to be a break from reality.
Thanks, Bob.
Although he certainly doesn’t need me to speak for him, I’ll take this question on:
Standards are either a race to the top, or the bottom. Aside from princess-and-the-pea style nitpicking, if a company is having issues with details at the elite level, what will that mean for the economy cattle class below? If you go to a fine steakhouse, you’ll gripe if they bring paper napkins just as folks gripe at IHOP if they don’t bring out pancake syrup. There’s also the concern that food served at improper times undermines the experience. People won’t be hungry or in the mood and may just not eat it and it goes to waste, which is tragic.
“I’m just standing up for my rights as a consumer.” — D Fens, Falling Down
Travel blog or not, that’s my point Matthew lol. You are detached from reality and real world problems. So are many others. But travel blog or not, maybe be a little less self-entitled, and a little more appreciative of what you have? Seriously, complaining about a free airline meal being a little early for you?? Really???
That’s why Southwest does so well. No frills. Period. And no matter what legacy airlines offer in their premium cabins, most Americans will still complain and expect more.
Sad. Their self-consummed perspective is completely out of whack.
Can you detail how you booked the flight? EWR-HNL is a notoriously difficult award to snag in J. Did you just get lucky? Use a GPU? Or just straight up pay cash?
Was a paid ticket, but had some help from a UGS member. Details to follow. I will do a mini-trip report after the Croatia trip.
Yeah, that’s weird. It’s happened to me the other way around more often, though. Like getting served when it seemed like we were making our descent already.
Slightly off-topic, I’ve made the flight to Hawaii plenty of times from SFO, LAX, EWR, and IAD. I actually miss the 767.
This flight must have been a while ago? Looks like a 767-400, and those haven’t been operating Newark to Honolulu since May. Unless you just got a random aircraft swap?
I really dislike the 767-400 business seats, and cannot wait for the Polaris retrofits to get going.
The 767-400s are back as of recently. Just booked the same flight later in Sep and its a 400 as well
bummer at least I have the single seat in the middle
Slow news day again for MK. The 55 minute Eastern Airlines flight from Denver to SLC used to have eggs benedict, filet mignon, champagne and bloody mary;s always sometime after takeoff and before landing. It was weird.
Lollll! So good
Mind you. It’s an airline blog. I read it and enjoyed it. That’s the whole point right?
I guess “MK” should do more articles about what exactly?
I’m terms of timing it almost ruined my last aa flight to London when they served breakfast almost 2.5 hours before landing with all the lights on. Ugh
I interviewed for my first job in Boulder, CO, in 1976, before deregulation. I flew on Frontier (a prior version of the current airline) from Rapid City on a prop plane, a flight that lasted about an hour. I remember being served steak and lobster on this flight!
Later in my career when UA still served meals in economy, I remember being able to order McDonald’s Happy Meals on UA for my then young children.
Now, I dread taking any flight.
Common sense is long gone. Explains it all.
I experienced something similar on the same flight. The second meal, consisting of a hamburgers, was served just as we were over Los Angeles. Not as early as Nevada, but still with 5+ hours ahead of us. It didn’t make any sense to me either.
Not about the time but about the quality of meals I had two fantastic meals on Delta first class flights couple weeks ago. A chia pudding breakfast with fruits that was delicious and a burrata salad with chicken and roasted vegetables that was one of the best cold meals I had in years on any flight. Things are getting back to normal.
I don’t know any more Mick. It just seems like the newest Sarah Lee Microwavable Croissant in, “whatever” class just is not that great a read anymore. Cheers though.
They served the arrival meal at the time they would as if it were a regular trans con flight. Seems like an error to me.
Holy man. If I ate all that food, I’d be in the bathroom all the time. And sitting down? You must have weighed a ton. I would take the opportunity to do a little “intermittent fasting”. Much healthier. Of course, I’m older.
I do 16 hours of intermittent fasting every day when not traveling. Maybe I’ll work up the discipline to do it while I am traveling next year…
I might add: 1) they just wanted to serve the food asap since it might not be as fresh by the time you got there. 2) They go by their own convenient schedule to serve it and not necessarily to the passenger’s schedule to’ when they were hungry.’
As a LT Plat on UA, and one who flies to HI every other week, you should have taken the Hawaiian flight out of JFK.
I admit I never have gotten on a plane concerned about when and what I was going to eat. On this particular flight I would eaten and been anticipating what I was going to eat when I got to Honolulu.
Thanks for a good report. Please consider doing a future report covering the 3 major USA airlines on what to expect and what are the individual airlines rules covering this matter.
The bigger issue is why long haul Hawaii are not Polaris flights with Polaris lounge access
Both AA and DL have their full international product to the islands. UA is lagging behind
I been seeing the change in airlines. Pretty amazing. Just one thing. Why are you all complaining about times? You got three meals?
What happened ? I am use to -Here’s a 2 ounce bag of nuts and a coke cola can? Big step up. You know with all the big changes. I know it’s for the better. But it’s hard. The world’s service industry had been beat down from working long hrs, long days, not enough help, to guest not understanding we are doing our best. A little good job. I know you all been working during a worldwide scare to service us. And put up with our craziness. And airlines had it bad. The world’s changing fast and we need more positive. Motivation is a driver to success. And kindness is part of being human. I would have loved to hear about what was amazing about your flying. Or the planes. Like United getting supersonic and hydrogen jets. Savibg the planet and our country. Exciting times. Bravo United Team we got this.
You will. I stretch out my flight reviews for most dramatic effect. But the crew was wonderful.
So good to know a self considered expert on whether or not a crew is “lazy”.
A very cringeworthy and patronizing comment indeed.
Stuff like this happening is one of the reasons the people of Haiti hate our guts.
Haiti?
I’m scheduled on this exact flight next Tuesday and had heard from someone in a FB group that the only meal service was the breakfast 90 minutes in and then nothing but snacks for purchase after. Glad to hear there will be options (ill-timed or not) and I won’t have to bring a ton of snacks in my carry on!
In coach, it is breakfast after takeoff then only snacks. But if you are in business, you will get the second meal…at some point in the flight.
Lucky you! We get nothing but a take off meal in the back!
I will add here since I can’t edit: About FOOD and JETLAG. I would feel terrible with the Jet Lag and adding to that, all that food. I would rather go without food until I arrive at my destination. Then again, I’m older, and fasting, going without food for 12hrs, promotes health and well being when you are older. Try it. (but you would have to not fly business class).
Matthew, I work this flight a lot. I’ve been working it on and off since the inauguration on June 15 1998 on a DC-10 with Continental. The customers are always so hungry mid flight. They start asking for food shortly after the initial meal. Snacks are not enough! Lately, esp. economy ppl are bringing their own food which is very smart. P.S. this is a tough crowd this is why I take several breaks from this route even tho I live there
AA serves On The Rocks brand Mai Tai’s in premium cabins to Hawaii. I highly recommend.
I wasn’t aware. Good to know.
Meals are an important part of a long haul flight. The meals are not only meant to fill one’s belly but to most travelers, it is expected to be an upscale eye appealing spread. On a plane the meals are supposed to be wisely spaced & served before the hunger pangs appear.
Better appetizing food on a fight is always
remembered as a good reference. So all airlines should pay special attention to it as an effective as a tasty marketing ploy.
That actually sounds like a great flight. I live in Hawaii so I make the trip to the mainland quite often. I’m too cheap to fly first class but I had enough accumulated miles at American and decided to splurge. Along comes Covid after I’d already scheduled my flight. I got a good seat in 1A but that’s all I got. No food. No drinks. Even though I could see the flight attendant in the kitchen making himself many drinks throughout the flight. So they did bring all of the supplies. That was my first and last experience flying first class.
FAs sometimes mistake the time. I was once 2/3 into a cross-country flight when the FA announced we were making our initial descent and landing in 20 minutes. I was up front so mentioned to her we were still at least 90 minutes out, she dismissed me entirely. And then 10 minutes later had to correct herself.
Maybe the timing was just an error on the crew’s part. The food itself looked really good, especially the noodle dish. Isn’t this significantly better than AA and Delta’s follow-on service (if they even have one?) I’m thinking they just have a snack basket.
I commute in this flight. The normal routine is a meal served as the flight passes over the coast into the Pacific. My body clock is tuned to eastern time, so after more than 5 hours, it’s well past lunchtime. Unlike overnight flights, I expect some sort of meal every 5-6 hours. So, united’s schedule works fine for me. I will say that the current breakfast offerings on that flight are my least favorite ever on united. Instead, I grab a meal at EWR and just have a bloody mary on the flight. The mid-flight lunch is a bit better. Oh, and starting in October, united downsizes the aircraft to an old 767 without Polaris seating. Sigh.
I think my biggest gripe would be-
Why In the heck would they serve Yogurt the way they do so high up where it often explodes the moment it is opened.
It happened during all legs of my flight that served a breakfast or early morning pre arrival flight between GUM-HNL-SFO and then also on my return from LAX-HNL
I opted to be a passenger who dresses up for travel. Now I understand whey people don’t care to dress up as they used to in the past. I love to eat yogurt butI was irritated with having to dry clean my suit after my traveling g from Guam to San Diego to visit family and then having to do it all again when returning back home to Guam. Lesson learned for me don’t wear anything nice when breakfast is being served because more than likely that yogurt will be part of my attire upon arrival.