United Airlines is adding a mid-flight tapas-style meal service on its longhaul flights between San Francisco and Singapore in November 2023 and Live And Let’s Fly has now learned what will be on the menu.
United Airlines Tapas Menu In Polaris Business Class
From San Francisco to Singapore, the tapas offerings will consist of:
- Two cold tapas items
- Thai lemongrass shrimp
- Hummus, turmeric, roasted cauliflower
- Five hot tapas options
- Stir fry noodles with peppered beef
- Stir fry noodles with chicken
- Vegetable pot stickers
- Shrimp in garlic tomato sauce
- Navrathan Korma (Mughlai vegetable curry)
You can mix and match, choosing up to four.
Meals will be served on a linen-lined tray with (up to) four dishes, a cocktail snack (Otsumami- rice cracker mix), and two Lindt Chocolates.
From Singapore to San Francisco, the tapas offering will consist of:
- Two cold tapas items
- Miso glazed salmon with sushi rice
- Roasted potatoes and Brussels sprouts
- Five hot tapas options
- Pork char siew with chicken rice
- Short ribs dumplings with morel sauce
- Chicken kofta with pulao ghee
- King prawn with egg noodles
- Falafel with cauliflower puree
You can mix and match, choosing up to four.
Meals will be served on a linen-lined tray with (up to) four dishes, a snack mix, and a box of chocolate with two pieces.
More details below.
The original article, published on October 27, 2023, is below.
United Airlines is changing up its Polaris business class meal service once again with a new service flow and the addition of a mid-flight tapas meal on a test route starting next month. There are also elements of the existing service that will be disappearing.
United Airlines Adds Tapas Option On Longhaul Singapore Flights In Polaris Business Class
As United continues tinker with its Polaris meal service, Live And Let’s Fly has learned that the carrier will be experimenting with a more elaborate mid-flight meal consisting of a tapas-style menu starting next month. This trial will begin on November 1, 2023 and occur only on the San Francisco – Singapore route (in both directions). It will also modify the way in which meals are served and eliminate popular desert items like the cheese plate and fruit tart.
- A separate paper tapas menu card will be boarded for passengers to select their mid-flight offerings
- It will placed on the console table with the original paper menu
- The completed card with preferences will be collected during meal orders or any time before the mid-flight service
- The mid-flight service will formally occur at the midpoint of the flight as based on flight time
- Meals will be served on a tray and include four tapas style items (two hot and two cold options) with cutlery, a cocktail snack, condiments, packaged dessert, and choice of beverage
Of course the pressing question is what kind of tapas will be served? That is not clear yet (the picture above is from Emirates), but we will provide updates as they become available.
The tapas will replace the grilled cheese sandwich and soup that are currently served on flights over 10 hours as a mid-flight snack. Packaged snacks and whole fruit will still be available.
Updated Service Flow
In addition to this change, United will alter the service flow of its first meal service:
- Offer hot towels
- Linen service (linens are placed over the tray table)
- Pre-meal beverage cart with mixed nuts
- Deliver express dining tray set-ups when requested
- Appetizer/salad cart
- Flight attendants will offer a choice of appetizer, salad, and bread, along with wine/water refills from a cart
- Pick up appetizer/salad plates
- Deliver entrees from a silver tray
- Individually pick up tray setups
- Dessert will consist of ice cream sundaes and boxed macaroons
- Cheese plates and dessert tarts will be eliminated to provide galley space for the new mid-flight offering
(bolded items are changes to the current service flow)
In a memo reviewed by Live And Let’s Fly, United claims “these enhancements are made based on customer and flight attendant feedback.” The pre-arrival meal will not change.
Again, these changes are being trialed only on the San Francisco -Singapore route. With a westbound flight time of over 17 hours (just under 15 hours going the other direction), there is more time for an elongated meal service.
More Work For Flight Attendants
The extra service elements will extend the meal service and create more work for flight attendants. As flight attendants bargain for a new contract, I would imagine this will be a sticking point.
In terms of service, the interesting element appears to be that rather than be on-demand, the in-flight meal will be served at a set time, which could disrupt a lot of people from sleeping on the late-night service if the lights or turned on or even if there is just a lot of clanking of silverware and glasses all at once.
On other hand, Singapore Airlines, which competes fiercely with United on this route despite a codeshare and alliance partnership, offers an extensive a la carte menu in business class with meals served on-demand throughout the flight. On Singapore Airlines, you can start with breakfast and end with dinner or start with dinner and end with breakfast…with an extra dinner and snack in between.
CONCLUSION
United Airlines will experiment with a new service flow and a more formal mid-flight meal service on its longhaul San Francisco – Singapore route. While tapas will be added, the cheese plate, fruit tart, and mid-flight soup and sandwich will be eliminated. Whether this is a positive or negative change will really depend upon what kind of tapas are served.
United’s new service flow will better mimic the competition and should represent a higher level of service. Based upon the trial, United will evaluate this style of service on other routes.
Interesting experiment and nice to see the less rushed flow for the main meal.
Forgot the galley space is so tight on UA I’d rather tarts than macaroons, but at least they’re trying to increase the overall premium feel from today.
Separately on that whole Alaska pilot story…echoes of a JetBlue pilot in 2012 (who in the comments of this story was involved in selling MLM supplements, and a colleague in that area said they had an effect on him)
https://captainbillywalker.com/from-the-heart/the-captain-clayton-osbon-story-draft/
That’s sad; I like the cheese plate. i’d rather have that as an option than tapas when I still might be asleep.
What is it you like about the cheese plate? I remember when it used to be okay, but lately it feels like basically the cheapest cheddar from the grocery store and some bargain basement blue cheese. Is it the novelty, or is there something about the quality you like? Even I as a cheese lover have given up on it.
I know it’s not special (many years ago we had better offerings along with port and many other airlines do way better) but I just like cheese and a bit of fruit to finish off a long meal on a long flight. More importantly, it really craters desert options. Typically I like to sleep/lie down for most of the flight and don’t really care what’s on offer for snacks as long as they are reasonable. I certainly am not going to want tapas in the middle of the flight.
Funny Jason, I loved the cheese offering and was saddened to see it go, but your comments made me pause. Each time I have been served the cheese option; it comes out a negative experience for the reasons you mention. It used to be high quality cheese, Jacob’s biscuits, chilled fresh fruit and a glass of Port. Lately it has been a child’s lunchbox offering minus the note from Mom. I think I only order it as a time killing exercise.
Not enough galley space for cheese plates and tarts?
Come on.
Do they know how muck EK and SQ, etc can fit in their galleys.
And why can’t this be on demand? To me, it’s decidedly not premium to disturb an entire cabin mid flight.
To me this is a downgrade. Add some tapas with the soup and sandwich. Keep them on demand. Don’t cancel the cheese. Serve the leftovers as mid flight snacks.
Not all galleys are the same size even if the aircraft is the same. Each airline can customize their galley to fit their needs. The bulk of United’s international routes could be consider mid-range or long haul international flights. SFO-SIN-SFO moves into the ultra-long haul routes. And I think the only routes UA flys that fall into the ultra long haul range are SFO-SIN and IAH-SYD. I think all other routes are either long haul or mid-range international. Having said that UA doesn’t need devote extra space to their galleys when so few routes fall into the ultra-long haul range. If you look at seat maps for both SQ and even EK but take SQ for example their A359s, they have 3 versions of that same aircraft and each aircraft has a different setup for their galley with their long haul A359s which fly to LAX, EWR, JFK among other places have the most space devoted to galleys. United doesn’t have aircraft specifically devoted to routes like SFO-SIN or IAH-SYD so when they make changes to the flow of service or any service changes they have to take some thing off to make room for some thing else.
Have all meal service on demand with a preset menue choice online to be filled out by pax before their flt. Crew has a better service flow on intl longhaul flts knowing what’s expected during their working time . Ual would do better to serve food prepped by a known fast food company as the current kitchens have food choices by celebrity chefs past their prime. Consistancy is what pax want.
I think this is exactly the aim. I am hearing it gets hairy after the first 60% of the cabin has firmed their orders. But still, at least you are completely satisfying 60%. An additional 20% could be further satisfied by the luck of their choice (which is current method) and only % 10 dissatisfied, but also that last to preorder online. Better stats.
As riveting as the in-flight tapas updates are, it would be great if we could get an article about new & cut routes for 2024 & the major changes to NS24 international route network UA just made
That is coming tomorrow at 12:39pm ET.
Any changes are good, so I see it as positive.
However, the “new” service is basically going back to pre-Covid service. How UA want to generate publicity indicating it is an enhancement, it may get little excitements from long time frequent flyers.
On the midflight tapas:
OK, printed menu and tapas are new, but during the first two years of Polaris introduction (and before), mid-flight meals were a normal. For example, we had noodle soup with wonton/dumplings (pre Polaris), and then Korean friend rice, stirred fried noodles, fish’n chips (during the first two years of Polaris services) before cutting back.
As I said, rolling back to original Polaris Service is still a positive stepp.
Why on earth would anyone take this flight over a new Singapore A350 and “book the cook”?
Judging by their wait lists, alot.
Ahhhh finally a return to former CO like BusinessFirst service; that’ s how I’m envisioning the flow of the appetizer/salad cart. I had to review my photos when Polaris first launched in December 2016 and this is going to be a return to CO BusinessFirst like service as the flow in Polaris back then had the appetizer and salad pre plated along with the bread. SO, THIS BETTER NOT BE a salad OR appetizer, but not both kind of deal because THIS CHANGE will be a minus and not a plus/restoration of service. Careful UA, we will be keeping a very close eye on this change, lol.
This is a joke. For the rotund men an women who populate UA1/29 this will do nothing to sate their girthy gape.
If you want service and great food, book SQ on the same route instead.. They have 4 more FAs on a plane with roughly the same number of seats in each cabin. That’s right, 13 FAs for SQ. Just 9 for UA. That’s how you get service.
There are 11 FA’s on sfo-sin not 9!!
Macaroons or macarons? Can you confirm?
I had the same question, more likely macarons.
As an aside, it’s clear from the majority of the comments in this thread that most people continue to confuse commercial aircraft with Michelin-starred restaurants. I don’t know how or when this happened but it’s become an obsession.
So continues the ad nauseum coverage of even the dumbest details of a mediocre airline
Interesting, more service and not enough staff.
United flies with minimum staff. How are they supposed to make this a memorable experience to us, their customers? It’s already messed up. Lights are going to be on for longer time, dirty trays are going to be sitting on customers tray tables because they have to finish serving before picking up. United only has two Flight Attendants working in Polaris . How are they supposed to do all this?
Sin 18 + crews
UA 9-10
Tapas to Sin is wrong option. S Asian don’t care for cold dish !
Fewer S Asian passenger mix on the flight. Mostly North Americans.
I can stomach UAL, AA or even Delta domestically but when whenever I go over a pond I’m picking one of the ME3, Singapore, or any number of others who offer far better service at an equal or lower price. And FWIW I’m paying with my own money.
I’m not sure why they don’t get that but nevertheless…..
I suspect because a majority of business class fares are purchased under corporate contract – and for most business travelers convenience and ability to sleep trumps any “fancy” meal or “service.”
I don’t know what that stuff in the picture is but I don’t think I’d want to eat it.
At first glance I thought UA was going to be distributing to Polaris pax the Tapas box from the domestic buy-on-board selection…
Why would anyone fly UA instead of SQ in this route is beyond me.
+1
Even though I am a BA apologist at times, SQ is phenomenal
Oh goody … the stuck-up elites sitting in the front get more food while the rest of us in the back (the vast majority of the flying public) get nothing.
Nothing? The price gap is huge and in economy you get a hot dinner choice, a mid flight snack and sandwich, a hot breakfast choice and snack baskets in the galley. That is more than I eat in a normal day without the miracle of flight between continents.
Ugh. Hope this doesn’t work out and cheese plate/tarts return. Wasn’t a single tapas item listed that sounded edible.
Sadly, I agree.
And I quite like the grilled cheese toasties and soup…
Would it kill UA to have both?
Yes, apparently.
You can start with breakfast now and finish with dinner on United, or vice versa. If you want to swap the services, all you have to do is ask the flight attendant. Both or all meals can also be served on demand, Express style, at any point during the fight with 20 minutes notice. Source: I’m a United FA and we do this all the time; just ask!