Just when you thought there was no more free lunch…
It was just another in a long litany of new charges this summer. As reported last month in Tripso, United Airlines announced they would start charging for meals in economy class on international flights from Washington-Dulles, starting October 1.
The airline also announced it would start charging business class passengers for meals on domestic flights. And raise the price of a snack box to $6 and a sandwich or salad to $9.
Apparently, United has decided that at least one of those proposals was a bad idea. So economy class meals on international flights, for now, will remain free.
In a letter from United Airlines to some passengers today, United’s chief customer officer, Graham Atkinson said:
The response from you and many of our corporate and Mileage Plus elite customers, even before we launched the test, told us what we would have undoubtedly learned had we proceeded — you value our hot meal service in economy class for international flights. We will continue to listen and make changes that enable us in this environment to provide you with the choices you value.
Translation: we are going to continue to try to find more ways to charge you for stuff that used to be free, but we don’t want a revolt on our hands.
The United pilots’ union had criticized the plan as “out of touch.” I also have to imagine flight attendants weren’t too keen on the idea either. Just what you want on an eight or nine hour flight — hungry, cranky people, including children. And, I would also imagine, that more passengers would begin bringing on-board, for example, french fries and pizza. Surely it would not help the “fresh scent” of the cabin.
The decisions to charge for business class meals in the US and the price increase for buy-on-board food appear to be still be proceeding. Though no doubt the airline is still reviewing their emails on those subjects. Passengers who fly business class on United, or who are regular economy class Mileage Plus elite members, keep that barrage of emails, cards and letters coming. The meals you save may be your own.
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I suspect that charging business class passengers extra for meals (that are currently included in the price - there is no such thing as “free”) will be dropped too. No other airline has followed United’s lead, so the idea has died. I suspect that, like baggage fees, United had hoped that where it lead others would follow. They got it wrong this time. The other airlines obviously don’t want to offend their highest yielding passengers. Even if you use points, pay an additional fee at checkin or use an upgrade certificate to get into business, you’ve sent engough business the airline’s way to make them want to keep you happy.
US airlines are already offering less than non-US airlines on international routes and often charge more. In the last four years, I have made eight intercontinental round trips from New York, on only one occasion did a US carrier offer a competitive fare. US carriers charge for alcoholic beverages in economy on international flights, non-US carriers do not. No US airline offering international routes gets more than three stars from skytrax.com, yet all the four and five star airlines fly here, often charging less, offering higher standard of product, and belonging to an alliance that lets you earn rewards on a US-carrier. I can’t see me flying a US carrier on an international route unless it was for a reward flight.