I know what you are thinking… this blog is nothing but a glorified rant session detailing the things that travelers despise most about long flights: the meals and the movies. Well, surprise! I spent the last month traveling more than 10,000 miles–six different flights on three different airlines—and surprisingly I don’t have much to complain about. In fact, I plan to share only the positive parts of my flights, beginning with the meals. (I’m not saying all of my meals were positive experiences, I just plan to limit my writing to the positive ones).
In this blog I will cover United Airlines. I flew United in December and was pleasantly surprised that their menu had changed since my last flight with them (they updated their menu in August 2006). The big change has to do with the new partnership the airline formed with the renowned restaurant, “Trader Vic’s.” The restaurant’s chefs designed a new menu of Polynesian cuisine designed to create a tropical experience for passengers on board all flights to and from Hawaii. United says they wanted to add a Hawaiian flair to the menu to “elevate our customers’ in-flight experience and help begin their vacations before they reach their destination.”
Nice pitch, but how does it taste? Believe it or not, I found it to be quite tasty. (I’m a picky eater, so that’s saying a lot.) If you are sitting in first or business class you’ll be served a complimentary Trader Vic’s original Mai Tai cocktail and fresh garden salad with the Trader Vic’s signature Javanese dressing. The entrees include macadamia nut-crusted mahi mahi and Trader Vic’s barbeque-glazed short ribs and pan-seared chicken with miso-sake sauce. Economy passengers (that’s me) chose from items including a Maui chicken sandwich (it’s smothered with a tangy “tropical” sauce and Maui onions), sesame chicken salad, and a turkey/wasabi wrap.
My suggestions: if you like onions with your chicken (I don’t) then go for the chicken sandwich. The chicken was surprisingly moist and flavorful and the portion size was more than I expected. The sesame chicken salad was delicious. It came with Trader Vic’s signature Asian sesame-ginger dressing, which I poured over a hearty portion of crisp (yes, crisp) greens, including spinach, lettuce, arugula, and radicchio. On my return flight I dined on the turkey/wasabi wrap. It was a bit soggy and the wasabi infused mayonnaise was barely present, but I have no complaints about the turkey. Also, the lettuce and cucumbers included in the wrap were (again) very crisp. All the sandwiches came with a bag of chips, while the salads included fresh mixed fruit. Both the sandwiches and salads cost $5 each.
If none of the aforementioned entrees sound appetizing to you I would suggest opting for one of United’s five snack boxes. Each contains a variety of snack options including chips, salsa, tuna, crackers, cookies, pepperoni slices, sausage sticks, cheese spread, and trail mix. The boxes are prepackaged and sealed so it’s just a matter of finding the one that contains your favorite items. Each of the boxes sells for $5.
I was traveling with a toddler so I didn’t have the opportunity to sit through the entire movie selection. However, one of the two movies playing during our flight was the Oscar-nominated film “The Queen.” After the selection aired a few passengers seated next to us commented that all mentions of God were bleeped out of the movie.
As it turns out (I learned this after we landed), a California company reportedly made a mistake. A censor was told to edit out profanities — including any blasphemy – for versions of the movie, which was distributed to a number of airlines. According to a company spokesman, a rookie censor also bleeped out every time a character said “God.” Which meant my fellow passengers heard dialogue like “Bleep bless you, ma’am.” In all, the word “God” was bleeped seven times. The company said it is currently replacing all those versions with the original, unedited movie.
I was just shocked to see a current movie listed among the in-flight selections.
Have you had similar experiences with meals and movies while flying United?
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