Tue, Jan 07, 2003
United Puts First Class, Business Travelers on Diet
Starting today, lots of United's frequent fliers are going to
notice that the airline is doing something completely differently.
Rather, the airline is not doing something: feeding
them the customary decent meal, in first- and business-class seats.
[It should be noted that United has simultaneously
reduced its top fares by as much as 40% --ed.]
With
so many of UAL's high-fare passengers' doing something else lately,
it's become an easier decision to make. As recently as 1999,
USA Today reported, "...United got 41% of its domestic
revenue from the 22% of passengers who paid first-class,
business-class or unrestricted coach fares. That group accounted
for 10% of United's passengers and 20% of domestic revenue in the
same quarter last year."
Here's when you won't be gettin' any:
- First Class and Business Class travelers who are traveling at
non-traditional feeding times will not get fed. If you're not
traveling at "normal" breakfast, lunch, or dinner times, you'll be
getting a drink, not a meal.
- Even if you're slated to get a meal, don't count on a hot lunch
or dinner, unless you're on a coast-to-coast flight. "Salad or
sandwich?" is the new customer-service mantra. That's for those
high-fare PAX.
- If you're one of those low-fare PAX, even between Hawaii
and the West Coast, your customary sandwich has been
eliminated.
- If you're a coach passenger on a two to 3 1/2-hour flight,
you'll skip the hot breakfast, and get a "snack mix."
United, of course, isn't the first premium airline
to cut meal perqs. As it slogs through its bankruptcy
reorganization plan, it's looking for ways to visibly cut costs.
Whether its high-fare PAX will value their grumbling bellies more
than their accumulated flier miles, remains to be seen. [In that
way, as well, this could be classified as a 'gutsy move' --ed.]
If this plan doesn't yield the desired results, United has other
options, short of giving food away. One, starting at US Airways
(also in Chapter 11), involves making those meals again available,
but at a price. That defrays the cost of the meal, while allowing
the traveler the option of paying for what he's getting.
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