V-Flyer

UA today have taken the industry to an all new low according to a company memo on a.net.

From October all flights ex IAD to/from Europe will only offer buy on board service (BOB) in all classes excluding United First. No word as to why it is only IAD at the moment.

United Business passengers will get complimentary beverages and a complimentary BOB meal. Anything else will have to be paid for. One would imagine that the complimentary meal in Business will be a free meal of the standard that is being offered currently in Y.

Y passengers will have to pay for everything.

BOB Prices (BOB was already in operation domestically) have also been increased across the board now $9 for fresh food per item and $6 for non fresh items.

The current economic climate is being cited as the reason for this rather sad and drastic measure.

It will be interesting to see if the hits UA hard. I wonder how *a partners will be feeling about this. After all BD can't be too happy about offering seats on a plane which requires you to purcahse your meal!

BOB will be fine if we see a reduction in fares. Somehow I doubt this will not happen.

The most worrying thing is this now gives the green light to other carriers to follow suit. If BA and VS decide to stay full service then I am sure they are rubbing their hands with delight as premium and Y passengers start moving airlines. US seem favourites to introduce this next!


There seems to be some confusion on a.net as to exactly what service is on offer on what routes especially if J class passengers TATL will be included in the above one complimentary meal rule or not

Wonder what the defintion of 'fresh' and 'non fresh' will be? I don't think any airline meal I've ever had would classify as 'fresh'...

Glad to see the spirit of Sir Freddie is taking another turn around the block - lower fares excepted!

Paul

I suspect this may be the thin edge of the wedge in the current economic climate although carriers who don't adopt this approach may end up benefiting.

So UA are now basically becoming a LCC long haul airline. I sincerely hope VS and others don't follow this route, but I guess there is a market for it.

UA very recently sent a survey to some of its frequent crowd, which I had the pleasure to fill. Kind of multiple choice test type of thing, would you pay for this, that or the other? This already got some play ...

The pitch was 'buy-on-board restaurant quality meals'. It was hilarious, 'would you pay 9 dollars for a meal our most respected food denizens on the board would not sniff at', with pictures of dinners at Le Gavroche type of thing, vs 'would you eat this garbage free', with pictures of messy Y meal.

Now, in J, if they really give you a free BOB like the Le Gavroche thing, the only real change would be elimination of the second service, which from/to the east coast is doable. Cheap, but I don't know about brand devaluation. I am guessing they figured they survived with 80s business class seats for so long, now they have installed beds in J they can save some money somewhere else ......

The problem for me is that I don't believe anyone can really cook meals that good on a plane. But ... it doesn't matter, as I said if you read between the lines what they seemed to be pitching really is offering J-level meals at a fairly hefty price across the plane (this IS logistically challenging, but we'll see), with free drinks and one free meal only in J, and if you still like your breakfast/afternoon snack in J, you pay for that. If you are a J-flying, company-rule-tied United premier, you'll be stuck with this.

If this is the case then its definitely the time I fly United domestic first. Often booking at short notice and paying saying $1k for ORD-LGA alone I fully expect a decent drink and a meal, especially so since my timings are often 7pm ish departures ...

However, one of the many, many problems US domestic carriers have is the ease of upgrading from coach to first for free. Frequently, I book a flight with 16 domestic first seats and only two are taken, then on board whoa all are occupied for no extra revenue. Problem is, they've all chased the frequent fliers with this free upgrades and consequently those people book coach knowing more often than not they'll get first anyway. Then mugs like me pay full fare and if this move happens will get a reduced service. Easy answer, cut back on the free upgrades, saves money and encourages people to buy higher priced tickets.

Seems to me, United has dug its hole, and is managing to fill it in by itself at the same time ...

Also interesting to see that they have said they will be stopping the 2nd meal on their PS service. Again this goes to confirm that they really are just trying to cut 2nd meal services on all flights less than 7 hours or so.

Slinky has hit on one of the main reasons for this. On a.net a UA staffer has said the airline was realising that it was wasting money as very few people where paying for a J seat domestically. One would imagine that the long term plan of UA domestically is to make the J cabin smaller, they say they will offer a two class service on 3 class planes. Guess they will make less J seats to stop what SLinky is talking about.

Originally posted by slinky09

Seems to me, United has dug its hole, and is managing to fill it in by itself at the same time ...

No doubt about that .....

Just to clarify and not defending UA in any way shape or form at this move.

On domestic flights operated with a 3 class aircraft the J cabin will receive a free meal from the BOB menu.

On flights to Europe from IAD Y will have a BOB menu while C and J will have a full menu.

The reason for IAD flights being chosen is that they are red eye flights of short length.

Either way you look at it UA is now out of the running for a lot of people who spend a lot of money...Greta move UA (where the heck is the gun to the head smiley when I need it)