Before our flights on Singapore Airlines, Sharon and I preselected our meals from the onboard menu or a “Book the Cook” meal selection.
For our flights from Singapore, we both chose the Lobster Thermidor.
You can imagine my surprise when I received an email from United about our red-eye flight home from SFO-MCO.
You can select your preferences starting five days before your departure and up to 24
hours before your flight(s). If you don’t want to choose a snack or drink right now, we’ll still
have some options you can choose from once you’re on board. After selecting your
options, you’ll be asked to save a credit card to hold your order, so you won’t have to use
your credit card on the plane. But don’t worry, you won’t be charged until you receive your
selections on board – giving you a fully contactless experience.
If you’re a bit confused by this email, as I was, let me explain.
United asks you to prepay for the snacks and drinks they sell on the flight.
Have you ever been on a flight with a tight connection and couldn’t stop for food out of fear you’d miss the plane? You get to your seat and look through the snack menu, trying to decide between the protein box and the Pringles. Then when the cart gets to your seat, the flight attendant informs you that they are all sold out of the pay-on-board snacks.
So you ask for the cookies and the chips so you’re not starving when you land.
This feature from United will apparently prevent this from happening. You can now preorder the $4 Pringles, $10 tapas, and $8 Lesser Evil Himalayan Gold popcorn.
Am I the only one who thinks United is missing the point?
Not once have I WANTED to order snacks on a plane. I can never remember sitting at home 3 days before my flight, dreaming about consuming a small pack of Pringles at 40,000 feet. If I’m willing to overpay for mediocre snacks, it’s only because I have no other option.
Therefore, I won’t prepay for a pack of Pringles or almonds that I can throw in my bag before the trip.
What I want is to be able to buy a more substantial snack in the case of a food emergency. That would require airlines to stock more than the minimum amount of snacks they expect to sell during a flight.
Honestly, there have been flights where I would have paid for ANY of the options on the menu only to be told they were sold out of everything. If selling snacks is supposed to be a profit gainer for airlines, why don’t they stock enough snacks?
So thanks, United Airlines. But I’m not going to pre-book my onboard snack purchases. If I was thinking that much in advance; I would have thrown a hummus pack, OREO cookies, almonds and pita chips in my carry-on bag.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.