There's first class.....

....and then there's this.

During my last trip to Vegas this was my "first class" meal on United.

It was billed as "a Monterrey Chicken Sandwich" in reality it was a very (extremely) dry chicken breast on a stale bun with all of the sauce (some kind of gloppy, ranchy mess) and cheese having slid off of the sandwich and onto the plate. The day-glo orange pot beside the sandwich was "tomato bisque" Yes, it was greasy, having possibly separated, and just generally unpleasant.

Since I was in the middle of a free upgrade, and had the good sense to grab breakfast at Burke in the Box at McCarron, I didn't complain. Had I PAID for this "first class" ticket however I would have been pretty steamed. Not that I expected food like this on a 3-hour-and-change domestic flight, but I at least expect the food to be edible.

It should come as no surprise that this was served on a United 757, which I consider to be among their worst travel options. One thing that did irk me was that the seat plug wasn't working, so I had my iPad plugged in for 3 hours and it didn't charge a lick.

I'd complain, but of all the trips I've taken with Continental (United) and all of the surveys I've filled out I've only had ONE response. One. I've yet to fly on a 757 where everything is satisfactory (or even, in some cases, just OK) and one response. Because of my time and status with United I'm staying with them, they've got two chances in the immediate future to get it right. Fortunately, I'm not going to be on a 757 for either of these flights.

I'm just wondering in what world someone in charge of customer service takes a look at that Sandwich and decides that it's acceptable to serve on a flight whose price is north of $1,000? From what I understand from my friend Kevin, their Chicken Cacciatore is even worse looking than that. I can hardly imagine.


On the bright side: Yay! Upgrade! The seat was more comfortable for the inevitable nap home from Vegas than are the seats in steerage. I should also note that I've recently had a couple of regional flights with Continental express (United Express?) which were excellent.