Catering On United Airlines Flights at San Francisco Are “A Mess” Right Now With Snack Boxes Replacing First Class Food

Flight attendants have warned that catering on United Airlines flights from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is “a mess” right now after the carrier switched to a new third-party catering supplier on Thursday.

Rather than being the seamless transition that United Airlines would no doubt have hoped it would be, the move to a new catering partner has led to some flights, including transcontinental services of five or more hours, going with limited pre-packaged food and no drinks apart from water.

In one example of the calamitous catering switchover, a flight attendant shared a photo of trash bags being used to transport snack packs, which had to be used as a substitute for the normal First Class catering that should have been loaded on the plane.

Because the catering switchover isn’t going to be planned, the carts from the previous flight, which were full of old and used supplies, could not be removed from the plane.

Other flight attendants have said that their flights out of San Francisco didn’t even have snack boxes loaded for First Class passengers, and only bottles of water were loaded by the under-pressure catering vendor.

In an internal memo, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA), which represents crew members at United, warned that catering ‘modifications’ could continue over the next few weeks.

“Yesterday, the transition to a new United catering vendor in SFO started,” the union told flight attendants in the memo. “Leading up to this, management briefed the Union and provided a detailed overview of the catering and operational contingency plans to support the operation, passengers, and Flight Attendants.”

“It is possible that additional catering or service modifications, beyond what was already modified, may take place,” the memo continued.

Although domestic services are being impacted the most, some flight attendants have reported issues affecting long-haul international flights departing San Francisco, with snack boxes again being used as a substitute for hot meals.

Passengers on flights that managers have identified will not be catering correctly are reportedly being offered $15 vouchers to buy food at airport concessions ahead of boarding.

Last week, United lauded its $150 million investment in food and beverage improvements that took effect at the start of this year, claiming that customer satisfaction has risen 12% in the first three months of this year on the back of the improvements.

Embarrassingly, San Francisco will be the base for United’s new ‘Elevated’ cabin concept, with flights from SFO to London and Singapore featuring new Polaris suites set to take off later this year.

Polaris business class passengers on these flights are set to enjoy a new caviar amuse-bouche service, while passengers in all other cabins are meant to get upgraded entrees.

Matt’s take – Inflight catering can be a logistical nightmare, but the current situation doesn’t seem acceptable

My take as a serving flight attendant: There’s no denying that airline catering is a logistical nightmare, and the work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure that planes are catered and resupplied is pretty amazing.

That being said, flight attendants will also tell you that certain airports are well-known for having bad catering provisions – from the quality of the food to constant problems, like missing meals and other supplies.

Presumably, United’s switch to a new catering vendor in San Francisco is part of its multi-million-dollar F&B investment, so while the transition is a bit of a ‘mess’ right now, hopefully, it will set the airline up for a much improved inflight catering proposition in the near future.

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