United Airlines has expanded its complimentary snack selection on all flights. But is United prepared for greedy passengers?
Effective immediately, United will offer a choice of one the following three snacks, no matter the time of day or length of flight:
- Byrd’s Maple Wafers
- Pretzels
- Stroopwafels
Toby Enqvist, United’s Chief Customer Officer, said:
Since we reintroduced free snacks a few years ago, our customers have come to look forward to enjoying their personal favorites on board – whether it be the stroopwafel, our exclusive maple wafers or the classic pretzels. Now we’re going a step further and when it comes to snacks, every customer wins since our entire inflight snack lineup is available to choose from no matter the time of day.
I’ve bolded the key word…choose.
But what if customers want all three? What these snacks become like what wine flights did in United Polaris…an invitation to greatly increase consumption?
My Concern is Not Unfounded
Hear me out here. I’m not trying to rain on United’s parade; the news of offering three choices on all flights is a positive news story…there is no immediate downside.
But I have not seen any flight attendant memos limiting passengers to just one item. Will passengers be strictly limited to one or can they indulge, much like on JetBlue, and have as many as they want? Will see see people stuffing handfuls of cookies into their bags or gouging down on these treats, especially if there is not sufficient buy-on-board meals loaded?
Let’s go back to wine flights for a moment. It was a wonderful, customer-friendly concept that allowed a guest onboard to sample three different types of red wines or white wines, then choose. Unfortunately for United, this greatly increased alcohol consumption. Eventually, United cut wine flights, cut the number of wine choices, and ended up angering many passengers. It would have been wiser never to offer this in the first place!
So perhaps you see my point. United needs to ration out these snacks or else we risk seeing them all cut when stations start running out of snacks far earlier than forecast. I’m thinking long term, not short term.
CONCLUSION
Maybe just maybe United is happy to let me take a handful of stroopwaffels on my flight today…I’ll let you know and report back. And I know United has professionals it pays to think about these things. But let the wine flights (and Bloody Mary carts) be a lesson…
> Read More: United Polaris Cutbacks Coming Soon…
I always thought the biggest issue with the wine flights was with how the FA’s served them. I thought they were supposed to be three tasting portions and then you could decide if you wanted a whole glass of any of them. Every time I got one the attendants just filled them all up so it was basically like getting 3 glasses of wine at the same time…no one needs that. My point…great idea, poor execution which drove over consumption.
How can United offer passengers a choice of beverages? What if a passenger wants a Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, orange juice, ginger ale, AND water? How will this ever possibly work?
I feel like the bigger issue will be that it will slow down service as FAs have to ask passengers which they want and passengers will be unfamiliar with the options.
DL has been doing this for quite a while; you can choose between Biscoff and two other items (usually pretzels and Cheese-Its). I’ve flown several flights with them over the past year and can’t say I’ve ever seen a bank run on the snacks. I’m sure there are bad actors out there, but DL’s been doing this long enough that you’d think we’d have seen cuts already if there were issues.
Then again, while I like me some Biscoff, they ain’t stroopwafels, so maybe that’ll be the straw that breaks the camel’s back…
Does anybody even like those pretzels?
Get rid of everything but the stroopwaffels. Problem solved.
If United isn’t careful, a few people might think that the airline is adding value in a small way. That would sure piss off Scott Kirby.
How does anyone NOT choose a stroopwafel given those three choices? They need to shake up the salty snack choice and get rid of plain, boring pretzels.
Delta has done it for years without an issue, and JetBlue practically enourages fliers to ask for multiple snacks. Glad to see United has made it to 2015 in their economy offerings.
Agree with those above saying stroopwafels are the best. When United stopped serving them last year, on every post-flight survey, I pined for the return of the stroopwafel. I haven’t done any flying for work/business this year, but am really glad United is serving them again.