United Airlines is standardizing its multi-course meal offerings in Polaris Business Class and also expanding it new Dine & Doze for passengers who wish to maximize rest onboard.
United Standardizes Polaris Meal Service And Expands Dine & Doze Option
United Airlines currently serves meals in courses on flights longer than 3,900 miles, which excludes many transatlantic flights between the East Coast and Europe. Those flights tend to be very short anyway, with a protracted meal service eating away as much as 1/3 of the flight. On the other hand, the service seems rushed and impersonal on daytime westbound flights when everything arrives crammed onto a single tray.
This changes starting on January 15, 2026. A memo shared with Live And Let’s Fly reads:
Polaris course-style primary meal service, currently offered on flights 3900 miles or more, will expand to all international flights regardless of mileage on January 15, so customers can enjoy the elevated dining experience they’ve consistently asked for.
What’s new
- Course-style service will provide a more intentional service flow that ensures customers receive the streamlined service and premium experience they expect.
- An extra fork will be reintroduced to the primary rollup so customers have the proper cutlery for the expanded variety of dishes they will enjoy.
- A more distinguished rollup band for Polaris and United Premium Plus will be added in the coming months.
Why it matters
The goal is simple: A clearer Polaris service flow that reduces confusion and increases efficiency while providing our customers with an enhanced and consistent experience across every flight.
By reintroducing this service on all international flights, we position ourselves to deliver excellence and strengthen United’s identity as a global hospitality leader.
Here’s the Polaris primary meal service flow for the coursed service:
- Hot towels
- Pre-meal beverage
- Appetizer and salad cart
- Entrée delivery
- Dessert cart
More options are available for customers:
- Late-evening departures (22:00 and later):
- Dine & Doze, a cold entree served with beverage following the hot towel service, is available for preorder.
- Hand-run desserts instead of using the dessert cart.
- Express dine is always available at any time for customers who prefer a condensed service.
This is an excellent move for two reasons. First, it standardizes United’s premium cabin offering, making it clear for flight attendants and predictable for guests onboard. Second, it gives passengers three choices: the full extended meal service, Express Dine (everything served on one tray), or the new Dine & Doze option, which will be a cold entree and served even quicker.
Together, these choices raise service levels and will allow passengers who want to sleep to to sleep to sleep and those who wish to enjoy the dining experience do so at their own pace.
United Expands Dine & Doze Option
Dine & Doze is a new option that is being trialed from Washington Dulles (IAD) that aims to rapidly feed passengers who want to eat a light meal before going to sleep. It is currently available via pre-order only and as of January 5, 2026 will be offered on the following routes IAD eastbound routes:
- Amsterdam (AMS)
- Barcelona (BCN)
- Brussels (BRU)
- Edinburgh (EDI)
- Frankfurt (FRA)
- Geneva (GVA)
- Lisbon (LIS)
- London (LHR)
- Munich (MUC)
- Paris (CDG)
- Rome (FCO)
- Tel Aviv (TLV)
- Zurich (ZRH)
How Will Flight Attendants Respond?
What I’ve found in my travels (and others report the same) is that there is great inconsistently right now. Often, flight attendants will serve the entire meal on a single tray, even on flights longer than 3,900 miles (and sometimes even on ultra-longhaul flights).
Giving passengers more choice will create more work for flight attendants, but the consistent service offering should be clearer for them and for passengers and happier passengers mean less work and stress for the flight crew.
I expect, as usual when we see inflections in service, that we will see a mixed response. Some flight attendants will be happy about this change while other will gripe that it will require more work from them while cabin staffing remains at pandemic-era levels.
CONCLUSION
United Airlines will standardize multi-course meal service in Polaris in 2026 and expand its Dine & Doze option for guests who may just want a light bite prior to sleeping.
United has moved in the right direction with meal service in 2025 and arguably offers the best wine menu in business class worldwide right now. Its expanded appetizers, varied salads, and new tableware are also pluses. These changes are positive, but now United must also finish this pivot toward premium by improving its entrees, which still continue to disappoint.
Regardless of that, I’d currently choose to fly United over almost any European carrier right now in transatlantic business class, which is a testament to the improvements made onboard over the last couple of years.
image: United Airlines
Just took a TATL Polaris flight, the three courses were: drink & nuts (the bourbon was good); salad, shrimp, and main (the halibut was fine), topping off drinks (the wines were fine); and finally, dessert (ice cream sundae, fully-loaded, always.) Could they have done it all at once, skipping nuts and/or dessert with one drink? Sure. Would it have turned off the cabin-lights and stopped the clanging of others’ silverware sooner if I did that, but everyone else did three-courses? Nope. Use them eye-patches and ear-buds.
UA is spending more on the food which has been excellent on my recent trips. I love the standardization so we can plan our day and meals ahead of the trip. Steady and continuous improvement. Great to see.
Well done United nice to see the use of a cart for the salad and app presentation and language indicating more choice
They are finally making improvements; maybe, they’re trying to compete on same routes as Singapore Air and Thai Air ; they have a long way to go on that in terms of food catering & inflight service.
@Matthew, could you please clarify something. In the memo, it states that Dine and Doze is only offered on flights that depart after 22h00, but then you indicate that essentially all ex-IAD European departures will receive this service. I know the majority of these flights depart well before 22h00. Thanks!
Love the changes! As an IAD flyer, very excited to try this Dine & Doze option
Matt-
Express Dining has been available for years, as you know, regardless of departure time. It’s not something new that’s being introduced with Dine & Doze.
I don’t think he meant to imply express dinning was new. In fact most pursers do express dinning because they know their FA’s are more concerned with getting more time for crew rest than actually doing the service the way United wants it done. United lets them get away with it there seem to be no consequences for pursers who decided to express dine the entire Polaris cabin.
As far as dine and doze it seems like a good idea until a customer changes their mind once onboard. It’s my understanding that if a customers chooses dine and doze which is a preselect then United will not board a hot entree or appetizer for that customer. it could be a problem if people get onboard and realize they want or need a more substantive meal.
I don’t think “most” is the proper term here. Only a few lazy, disgruntled pursers would stoop low enough to do an express-dine service for an entire cabin when it’s not warranted. If you ever see that on a flight, write them up!
What is “course-style”? That seems to suggest it doesn’t necessarily have to be served in courses.
It’s served in separate courses with pick-up in between: Warm nuts and a drink is the 1st course. Appetizer, salad, and bread is the 2nd course. Main course is the 3rd course. Dessert, ice cream, cheese, coffee and tea is the 4th course.
You mentioned that a distinguished roll up band. What is that?
It says that will also apply to premium plus. Does this mean hot towels and courses are coming to PP as well?
PP should introduce a wider seat with more pitch before moving beyond a domestic F meal
This is certainly part of UNITED’s ongoing investments in elevating its food and beverage offerings…
UA’s fierce competition with AA’s Premium Flagship Suites keeps its momentum…
I am surprised that you would choose United over a European carrier (excepting LH) when flying TATL.
Is it because of status (which is a great reason)?
I guess our primary reason to select BA for TATL is to maintain status – although, I will say that BA is slowly but surely getting close to the heydays of the 1990’s.
I would be happy to contribute a Christmas review of our flights!
Meh, a huge step in the wrong direction. I’d much rather have the whole cabin quiet and dark ASAP instead of doing more noise and lights for good no one wants to eat at the time. Why can’t everyone just copy the BA sleeper service?
Agreed, the faster the entire cabin finishes the better. They should prioritize warming the meals ASAP and get them out, their internal benchmark should be takeoff time to main course. If they actually want to improve, add more premium snacks or in between meals. For the hard product, put more effort into hiding the overhead lights and make the reading lamp buttons more obvious.
“I’d currently choose to fly United over almost any European carrier right now in transatlantic business class”
Almost meaning Air France is an exception?
Choosing United over European carriers for TATL is some real ‘glutton for punishment’ vibes…
Says the ‘pro-labor’ pretender who has no problem spending money on airlines owned by Kafala states.
Can it really be worse than flying business class on LOT?
As a 1K with United, I am so happy about this change. I hate the shortened Polaris service that they have been providing since Covid ended. (Your main course gets cold by the time you finished the app and salad). It’s long overdue to bring back all of the pre-Covid services, including the multi-course Polaris service. Every other airline has had a multi-course business class service for a while now…. United is literally the last one to bring it back on all routes. Good news for sure.
I’m an FA at UA, and I view this as a good thing. It’s so much easier to refill drinks from the salad and appetizer cart, rather than run around like a maniac. I’m glad all the flights will have the same service. Less confusion for crew and customers, and less running up and down the aisle for the flight attendants