There was no formal announcment, but in fine print on the United Airlines North American premium cabin dining webpage, the following has appeared:
*Effective May 1, 2014, we no longer offer special meals on flights between New York/Newark and San Francisco or Los Angeles. Special meal requests will not be accepted after March 13, 2014.
I will speculate here: I think the bigger issue is not just the elimination of special meals–quite imprudent as I argue below–but that this likely foreshadows a downgrade of overall meal service on these (no longer) premium routes.
Currently between LAX/SFO and EWR, menus are distributed with three entree choices and an appetizer is included in the lunch and dinner service that does not appear on non-premium transcon routes. The main courses are identical to the entrees served on longhaul international flights and tend to be much better tasting than “domestic” United meals. Meals are also plated and the appetizer and salad is served as a separate course.
We will see what happens, but I cannot imagine United would eliminate special meals on this route if it was not also going to eliminate premium meal service. With AA dropping service between LAX-EWR and UA now competing only with Virgin, it is in a position to get away with this and will not eliminate special meals on flights between LAX/SFO and JFK.
I maintain that United is hurting itself terribly in pursuing $2BN in cost cuts as its competitors improve both soft and hard product, and this is just another example. Delta and American offer special meals on similar routes (AA offers special meals on most routes with meal service) and it seems to me that United has again underestimated that many passengers flying from LAX or SFO via its Newark hub to points beyond buy business class tickets and will be less likely to do so if they cannot even get a special meal on 5.5hr flight.
I book many clients from LA to Tel Aviv via Newark on United who keep kosher and now I will have to advise them to bring their own food–or book on another carrier.
Offering special meals is a matter of respect–not just for religious meals, but dietary/health reasons as well–and United’s choice to further eliminate special meals on hub-to-hub routes will just anger more customers and make the competition more attractive.
Oh, my. UA sure can’t afford to lose your “clients” redeeming miles.
UA seems to think they can keep cutting and it won’t have an impact on revenue.
But isn’t UA’s real problem a revenue problem? That they are earning substantially lower revenue per seat mile than DL? Seems like they ought to be figuring why that is and address that instead of continuing to cheapen the product.
@listen: My clients don’t just redeem with miles…
I must agree. Several carriers made a Big Push to offer “Premium Service” from the major East Coast ports to the Left Coast ones and V.V. and the extract a very dear price. Now that they have some seats filled, the begin yanking services, but keep the price at the premium level. No Thanks! Regular “J” seems to work just fine and it costs me a lost less. BTW, “Special Meals” included a lot more than just kosher; in fact – in these flights, kosher was the skut end of the choices unless truly necessary. (Those trays may have been kosher, but in most cases they were horrible food. We’ll see about the ‘standard three’ choices, usually 26 servings fir 25 seats. Get used to hearing, “I’m sorry, we’re out of that – and that. May I offer you some leftover pasta.” Those “PS” flights are no longer worth the extra money. If flying “J” or better, the normal flights have poorer seats, but far better meals and service.
As a vegetarian, I’ve given up on airline food. Half the time they don’t have the”special” meal I ordered or it is a tasteless carb filled mess guaranteed to make you arrive sluggish and in a food coma.
As a long time UA Frequent Flyer it’s sad to see what this airline is declining too. The decline in PS service is just another of many examples where this airline is flying towards irrelevance in my opinion.
I suppose you’re suggesting your clients need to fly EWR-TLV, not JFK-TLV? If Kosher and Star are important they could also airport transfer EWR-JFK for $24+hassle each way on nycairporter.
Just another reason to fly Virgin, where even on coach the food choices are good, healthy, and vegetarian friendly. I have to wonder what the real costs are for providing specials — could the amount really be significant enough to bother annoying passengers, or is this more half cashew math?
I haven’t ever been on the LAX/SFO and EWR route so I’ve never had the opportunity for a “special” meal for the 5.5 hour flight.
I do, however, select a gluten free meal when traveling internationally. I also get a GF meal when on the GUM-HNL-IAH/SFO/ORD routes.
Domestically, when I upgrade, I know that the meals are not GF so I have to be selective. Fruits, nuts, salad, and often the cereal on AM flights is fine (honey nut Chex). FA’s take care of me and I get extras. I’m not always in first though so when United recently changed one of the snack boxes to be 100% GF I was happy because now there’s an option for the times I’m in E+.
For the big transcon routes, perhaps they are going to try to modify some of their more common selections to accommodate some of the special meals. There are some meals where I choose not to eat one of the items and I’m just fine. For vegetarians the shrimp salad can be had without the shrimp because they dump it on in the galley. Also, all salad dressings are now GF.
The airline can’t be all things to all people. They may be trying to get away with some things but menus do change. For me there have been recent improvements.