According to this Flyertalk thread, United will once again prioritize meals in premium cabins for 1Ks (and Global Services, of course). An email was sent to flight attendants on November 27th with new prioritization as follows:
1/ Global Services (GS): our invitation-only membership program exclusively for our top members.
2/ Premier 1K customers (1K): 100,000 Premier qualifying miles or 120 Premier qualifying segments.
3/ All other revenue customers
4/ Pass ridersThe effective date is November 30.
I’m a bit surprised they didn’t add in full-fare passengers after 1Ks and before “all other revenue customers,” as was the case on pre-merger United. Still, it’s a marginal improvement for those of us 1Ks a bit miffed when meal service switched to a front-to-back system. Rather… whatever system the crew decided to use on any given flight.
Now we’ll have to see if it’s actually followed.
Hat tip: Matthew
Spoke with a CO FA last night on HNL-IAD, she said that was indeed the case, but they don’t want them hopping around from seat to seat, just 1st and 2nd choice for other people basically and make sure GS/1K get theirs if possible.
What about people using miles/award tickets? Do they fall in bucket 3 or 4?
@Scott: Thanks for the info!
@Shane: They’ll still be prioritized by status on an award, as far as I know. So if they’re a 1K using miles, they’ll still get priority over #3 and #4
@ Shane – Miles/awards always consider as a revenue paying ticket, so it will always prioritized by status, and on the mainifest it wouldn’t even listed you as you are using miles/awards. Therefore, if you have no status flying F, don’t be surprise you may not even a choice of meals.
Wasn’t followed on my SFO-YYZ flight December 10th. Left with a lousy turkey roll on a 5-1/2 hour transcon flight! Then again, the other choice was a chicken salad. Hardly a real meal for a flight departing at 1:30p and arriving after 11p local time.
@David: Sorry to hear. I have several United flights this week and will be curious to see how they work it.