CHICAGO - In time for the busy Thanksgiving travel season, United Airlines (UAL) is introducing its winter menu, offering customers more options of food items from the airline's economy Choice Menu, including a 100% cage free egg breakfast sandwich, a first for any U.S. carrier. Responding directly to customer and employee feedback, the winter menu also features a new take on one of the most popular items purchased by customers - the cheeseburger. United is introducing a new Smoked Gouda Cheeseburger complete with condiments by Sir Kensington's, one of the airline's newest food partners.
The new menu additions, available now, are a result of a research process with customers and employees to understand the culinary desires of customers inflight. Results from discussions and inflight tests with customers showed that the top three most sought after snack items were chocolate, a meat protein and potato chips. In response to this, barkTHINS, Duke's Shorty Sausages, and Kettle Chips have also been added to the menu. For main dish options, the Southwestern-style omelet, previously only available in United First class, has received such demand and positive feedback from customers, that United has added it to the economy menu enabling more customers to purchase it.
The partnership with Sir Kensington's, a first for any airline, provides gourmet options for customers' taste buds. Two of the signature products offered included a ketchup made from whole, vine-ripened pear tomatoes, sweetened with organic raw cane sugar as well as the first and only non-GMO verified mayonnaise flavored with free-range eggs and a hint of fresh lemon juice.
"We are excited to offer great options like barkTHINS for that chocolate fix, gourmet cheeseburgers for a little indulgence, or a healthy cage free breakfast sandwich to start the day off right," said Kate Gebo, chief customer officer at United. "Being able to offer several new food options, based on feedback from our customers and employees, means we can meet the varied needs of our customers when they are traveling with us."
All new menu items are currently available for purchase on flights within the U.S. with a scheduled flight time of more than 3.5 hours and on all international flights from the U.S. to Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Snack Shop items including the barkTHINS® Snacking Dark Chocolate with Pretzel and Sea Salt; Duke's® Tomato & Basil Smoked Chicken Shorty Sausages; and Kettle® Brand Sea Salt Potato Chips are available on all flights over 1.5 hours within North America, including the Caribbean and select Latin American cities, Singapore and Australia. Learn more about United's new snacks and refreshed Choice Menu items here.
The newly refreshed menu is just one part of United's evolving culinary strategy. Most recently, United started complimentary meal service to customers seated in Economy Plus on its premium transcontinental routes operating between San Francisco – Boston, San Francisco – New York/Newark and Los Angeles – New York/Newark.
