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Home  >  United Airlines  >  United Airlines Expands Preorder Program
United Airlines

United Airlines Expands Preorder Program

Matthew Klint Posted onJanuary 21, 2022January 21, 2022 13 Comments

United Airlines has expanded its popular preorder program to all U.S. domestic narrowbody flights over 1,500 miles, a big step forward as it attempts to offer passengers a more predictable experience onboard.

United Airlines First Class Preorder

Prior to the pandemic, United had introduced meal service pre-orders on a limited number of domestic routes. In fact, United’s Chief Customer Officer Toby Enqvist had told Live and Let’s Fly that the meal service pre-order program would roll out to all domestic flights with meal service in 2021. But plans to expand this systemwide, as American Airlines and Alaska Airlines have done for years, were interrupted by the pandemic.

Now United is using technology to be smarter about catering provisioning and ensuring that passenger meal preferences are tracked and properly prioritized. Currently, United has limited insight on what passengers order or how often they do not receive their first choice. Through the use of a flight attendant app versus pen and paper for meal orders, United will have additional insight into consumer preference.

Even more importantly for customers, United has now introduced the ability to pre-reserve meals on all domestic narrowbody flights over 1,500 miles. This ability will arrive via an email link sent in the days leading up to the flight.

In many cases, passengers have noticed that the preorder features offer additional selections than are available onboard:

Note, for passengers whose upgrade clears within 24 hours of their flight, this option will not be available.

United Airlines Economy Class Preorder

Economy class passengers can also preorder drinks, snacks and meals on domestic narrowbody flights over 1,500 miles on the United app or united.com.

All payments will remain contactless. Once you select your desired snack and/or beverage, your form of payment will be stored. However, it will not be charged until you accept the snack or beverage onboard. If you change your mind, you are not stuck accepting what you pre-ordered.

Premier 1Ks will be able to pre-order one free snack and beverage as part of their Premier benefits package. Passengers who are later upgraded to a premium cabins will automatically have their order cancelled (and can reorder again, if the meal is requested more than 24 hours prior to the flight)

CONCLUSION

United Airlines has expanded its preorder feature to all narrowbody domestic flights more than 1,500 miles departing from a hub or line station. Hopefully this feature will continue to expand and eventually be available systemwide.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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13 Comments

  1. Santastico Reply
    January 21, 2022 at 8:39 am

    I will always check the last option. Thank you but no thank you.

    • Slappy Reply
      January 21, 2022 at 8:49 am

      Lol, oh United. Matthew has a strange obsession with airline food that I don’t quite understand. Anyone optimizing for health is certainly choosing a hard pass on these domestic options.

      International business class food is a different story on international carriers.

      • Santastico Reply
        January 21, 2022 at 10:03 am

        The menu says “Italian ragu with served with polenta” Not even the description of the plate they can do correctly.

  2. Argosy314 Reply
    January 21, 2022 at 10:17 am

    Pre-order would be great….if there was anything worthwhile that UA was offering or even any guarantee that the catering facilities would offer consistent product.

    I’m not expecting steak and lobster served with champagne. We dealt with the big cuts that came after 9/11 but gradually found a happy medium. I find it hard to believe that offering higher quality sandwich/wraps or salads is impossible. It’s not like they haven’t done it before and they already do it in the clubs albeit in pre-packaged form. I see the 5 options above, know they probably come with a prepackaged roll, dessert and side of fruit. But I fail to understand how that passes as an acceptable meal in premium cabins on flights that are upwards of 7+ hours .

    • Brian Reply
      January 22, 2022 at 9:37 am

      Airlines operate on near 1% profit margins. Restaurants closer to 3-5%. One transports you, the other does not. https://www.businessinsider.com/airlines-have-a-small-profit-margin-2012-6

  3. Jared Houser Reply
    January 21, 2022 at 12:54 pm

    Are we sure it is only 1500 miles and above? I was offered preorder for my first class meal on DEN-LAX earlier this week.

    I denied both options though, you couldn’t pay me to eat the ragu or that chicken. Make meals great again.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      January 21, 2022 at 1:47 pm

      According to the memo, yes. I’ll clarify with UA. May be all hun to hub flights as well. As an aside, I don’t like the ragu, but find the chicken quite satisfying (though I’m bored of it).

  4. Adam Reply
    January 21, 2022 at 2:44 pm

    For premium Transcon not on a narrow body is pre ordering currently going on ? Just curious what to expect Lax-Ewr on an upcoming 787-10? Are special meals such as an Asian Veg not something US offers as an alternative ? Lastly , any idea when sundaes and warm bread baskets will be back on this route ?

  5. Jim Reply
    January 21, 2022 at 6:33 pm

    For what it’s worth, DL had it for all mainline FC flights pre-pandemic as well

  6. Arthur Reply
    January 21, 2022 at 11:53 pm

    Get the enchilada. You won’t be sorry.

  7. trust778 Reply
    January 22, 2022 at 3:02 am

    For a company so fixated on the bottom line, they should have rolled this initiative out much faster. Doing so also in Polaris could even help better manage their costs in my opinion vs finding ways to trim the service flow of a soft product that was really great at its launch in December 2016. Ai!

  8. HiIslands Reply
    April 24, 2022 at 11:07 am

    Please know that as of April 2022, as a paid first class passenger, I was not given any choice for my meal- either through pre-selection or onboard.

    On the 8.5 hour flight from HNL to ORD, the flight attendant told me the meal was cauliflower croquettes. Period.

    It was served in a pool of unseasoned tomato sauce that tasted like it was directly from a can.

    I have to wonder about the huge disconnect between this article and what is actually happening.

  9. Pingback: United expands pre-order meals, allowing for more entree choices - Jay's Travelogue

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