United Airlines is “telling on itself” with an ironic post-flight survey that unintentionally yet humorously highlights United’s current deficit when it comes to its Polaris business class product.
Post-Flight Survey On United Airlines Offers Questionable Choices
After you fly United Airlines, you’ll typically receive a post-flight survey, inviting you to offer feedback on your recently flight. United measures customer satisfaction via Net Promoter Score (NPS), which asks whether you would recommend United Airlines to a friend. Surveys start with that question, but allow you to custom-tailor how specific and how many questions you answer after that point.
Take a survey question asking about satisfaction with the Polaris seat:
Are you very dissatisfied or just somewhat dissatisfied?
Or perhaps the selection of movies and TV shows onboard? Are you neutral or unsatisfied?
And don’t forget the desert (sic) selection. I hear the choices are very dry.
United uses Qualtrics to provide its surveys and probably pays a pretty penny in an attempt to gather passenger feedback. It isn’t clear to me (nor does it really matter unless it was an intern playing a joke) who is responsible for this problem, but it is deliciously ironic considering United’s tepid effort in terms of Polaris dining, especially as other U.S. carriers bring back multiple courses and full service onboard, including hot towels, appetizers, and ice cream sundaes.
I should add that I just took a post-flight survey and my options were as expected ranging from “very satisfied” to “very dissatisfied.” It isn’t clear how or what triggers such odd survey options. The screenshots above were collected from Flyertalk.
CONCLUSION
This is all a good laugh, but I hope United Airlines is paying attention to these surveys. On the whole, its Polaris product offer comfortable seating with great bedding. Service is usually perfectly acceptable (to sometimes very good). But the food is still really bad on most routes…an area United has fallen greatly behind its competitors and now needs to play catch up on.
If you’re a regular United travelers and sick of the lack of rotation and poor quality of the food choices, do take advantage of post-flight surveys to voice your concern.
image: United Airlines
I wanted Mojave for my desert selection, but by the time the cart got to me, all they had left was Sahara.
Agreed, it’s bad enough that schools don’t they teach spelling, grammar and cursive writing anymore, but it now seems they don’t even bother with checking the spell checkers “corrections” ….sad commentary on the current decline and fall of the Western empire….
They need to stop deleting the 777 PW return. I just got kicked off my Hawaii flight because there aren’t enough seats now on the GE 777.
If it were up to United they’d have been back in service months ago. The FAA, Boeing and PW are really dropping the ball and United is sadly at their mercy.
Specifically booked a 777 SFO to OGG, for the Polaris lie flat seating. 2 weeks before flight no notice, I looked online and found that they had changed me to a 757 back row near the toilets very smelly seat, limited reclin, not happy.
Call UA. Change to flying via DEN or HNL if you still want lie-flat.
And at this point all premium cabin catering on United flights of all lengths is below the competition in quality and quantity. Keep pushing on it.
The good news is United is restoring full-service 3-course Polaris meals to all long-haul routes starting June 1. They are also planning a menu refresh for when the resumed service starts.
As with all UA announcements since the Polaris rollout, I will have to see it to believe it. Right now, at the beginning of June I am flying TATL on KLM/AF. I’ve been saying that if UA opened up PZ space, I might switch, but I am increasingly thinking not. (And UA has been raising prices while the loads on the flights on my dates are pretty light. Who knows what their RM software is telling them.)
Just flew LHR- SFO yesterday in Polaris and was wondering when the full service would be resuming. Miss the multi-course service and the ice cream sundae/dessert/cheese round at the end is always great.
At least the nuts are back in ramekins and warmed.!
United outsourced all the catering so United no longer does it. That’s the problem now! When it was run by United it was much better.
United outsourced catering to the same vendors which cater all other airlines. The transition was a complete debacle but the state of catering now is all on UA and it’s unwillingness to spend as much as competitors AA and DL do on their respective products.
It’s pathetic.
I totally agree. I cannot eat any more couscous with vegetables.
Try the Vegetarian chili over Polenta! It’s amazing! And I’m a meat eater!
No vegan options even in international flights. Domestic 737 aircrafts are total garbage. Worst than greyhound buses. All of their airplanes are totally garbage. United private screening and WiFi on domestic flights is a joke. They need to revamp their cabins. Take out all the yellow plastic and lighting. Add new bins. Personal TV’s should be a must at this day and age.
Actually vegan options have just returned on most domestic and international routes. I was served a VGML special last week in Polaris on a flight from Newark to Lisbon. Although truth be told it was a debacle. It was a disgusting chick pea slop you’d get in a school cafeteria, served with a prepackaged cookie for dessert. And worse it served it with butter and a dairy based salad dressing, neither of which are vegan obviously. I complained and was offered a $50 travel certificate.