UA Drops Free Snacks
United Airlines to drop free snacks
George Raine, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
(08-19) 17:54 PDT -- It has come to this: Beginning Sept. 2, United Airlines will no longer hand out complimentary pretzels and cookies to economy class fliers across North America.
The airline is also dropping complimentary meals in domestic business class, effective Oct. 1, except for premium transcontinental flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles to New York. And it's expanding the BOB, or buy-on-board, food offerings.
Oh, and the BOB prices are going up, also Oct. 1.
The adjustments are outlined in an internal United Airlines memo that was distributed to flight attendants Monday and obtained by The Chronicle. The changes are all in the name of the "cost reduction and revenue-generating opportunities" United is focused on, the memo reads.
"In the wake of high fuel prices and a challenging economic environment, we must continue to examine every aspect of our business and find new ways to improve our day-to-day operations through efficiencies that still meet our customers' expectations," reads the memo, titled "Catering Changes Provide Value and Options."
"These are difficult but necessary changes," said United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski, in Chicago. "We are looking at everything we need to do to offset fuel prices, which are still skyrocketing."
Also planned: Doing away with meals and going to buy-on-board in international economy class on flights from Washington-Dulles to Europe.
The airline industry is in economic quicksand, given sky-high fuel prices and a tumbling economy, but at least one analyst wonders if service reductions will further alienate passengers disgruntled by the flying experience as it is.
"These moves are flat-out stupid," said Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst at Forrester Research in San Francisco. "The savings they will get doing away with lunch in business class - they will lose more than that when corporations yank business.
"The challenging thing about business is that whether things are good or bad, you have to invest in your product for the sake of keeping customers and to make it harder for competitors to catch up with you. This does nothing to encourage people to pay more because you give more. They really make me question whether the inmates have taken control of the asylum."
Also in the memo: There will be fewer flight attendants in the domestic business class cabin because of doing away with the complimentary lunch, and the pre-arrival snack given out on the premium transcontinental flight will be history, also Oct. 1.
"We'll monitor customer feedback," said Urbanski. "The industry is changing."