I flew yesterday from Orlando, via Chicago and on to San Francisco. Both flights were operated by ex-UA A-320 aircraft, although the experiences could not have been more different.

The flight from Orlando to Chicago was full, and we had the United lunch options of Chicken Salad or a Cheeseburger. As usual I picked the Cheeseburger. Both options come with a nice spicy chicken soup.

The service took ages to get started but was pretty attentive once it did. The food was fairly tasty and there were warm chocolate chip cookies to finish.

Channel 9 was available as were drop down screen with short comedy shows.

The flight from Chicago to San Francisco was also full, with a lot of seat dupes and people downgraded from Economy Plus to plain Economy. It was a Friday evening and I think everyone wanted to get home. 44 on the upgrade list:

Only when it came to meal time did the Purser tell First Class that the ovens were inoperable and so there was a ‘Mediterranean Plate’, which was cold. Single option. This was on what supposed to be a Dinner service flight. If anyone had been prepared to say this before departure we could have gone purchased pizza. Even, United could have gone and got Pizza!

The plate was pretty boring and every passenger was complaining that United thought this was OK. I tweeted the problem via the onboard WiFi to United but  no follow-up has happened. One might have thought that meeting the plane with letters of apology might have been possible.

The upside was that we arrived on time, and Gate 68, whilst a tow-in gate, was only a short walk to baggage claim.

(My evening however was mightily improved with a super upgrade at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero, which I will write about tomorrow)

So I am afraid another disappointing way for United to handle a service problem.