United Service Changes: Guess What…Less Service
Aug 20th, 2008 | By Jared BlankCranky does a full overview of the changes United is now implmenting in its service, but here are the low…er…highlights:
- No more free food in coach on trans-Atlantic flights.
- Raised prices on buy-on-board meals.
- Removing pretzels and biscotti on flights up to 1149 miles.
- Basically eliminating business class on aircraft configured as 3-classes in the US. You’ll get the good seat, but that’s it. (if you fly United a lot, this will mean something to you; if not, keep moving, nothing to see here, please disperse)
- Removing pre-arrival snack in PS service.
More and more, Southwest is looking like a full service carrier.
United should change their musical theme from Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” to his “I Got Plenty O’ Nothing.”
are they killing free food to Europe, or just on the IAD outbound flights?
At some point for this fake a la carte pricing, aren’t consumer’s going to demand more? I don’t mind crappy free airlines meals. For $7 a sandwich, I want something decent. The more you breakdown the pricing, the demands for service on that particular item might increase.
if the ultimate idea is to reduce demand, that is great; but as a revenue model I don’t think it will work.
United changed its mind about charging for [cold] food on European flights. They sent out an email today saying the were keeping their hot food service because everyone was unhappy about that.