United Airlines transforms lounges and onboard dining
As its centennial anniversary approaches, United Airlines (United) is focusing on evolving its food and beverage offerings throughout 2026 to enhance customer experience, forge new partnerships and promote environmental responsibility. Based in Illinois, Chicago, the major US airline is an industry leader in both fleet size and available locations, connecting travelers with a range of domestic and international flights. Alongside an extensive variety of destination options, United strives to deliver premium amenities and provide an escape from busy terminals with United Club products.
Since Transportation & Logistics International last sat down with United, the company has continued to invest and elevate passenger experience, making several improvements across all cabins over the past two years, comprising an increase in high-quality food on many long-haul flights and, in some cases, expanding choice through its new pre-order program. Head of Hospitality, Aaron McMillan, joined us to discuss recent developments and reveal more about United Club’s plans for the upcoming year.
“My role involves overseeing United’s hospitality team and I’m responsible for all commercial aspects of the club and lounge portfolio, as well as catering contracts and financial controls,” explains Aaron. “I also manage the onboard experience team, and the food and beverage team, who essentially plan all our menus. Our investment road map will continue throughout 2026 and into the beginning of 2027. We want everything to operate smoothly and, with 150 to 160 kitchens around the world delivering the product, we need to ensure seamless coordination. The club and lounge experience is extremely important for our customers and it’s an area we’ve been dedicating a lot of time toward. Our focus is making sure that all seven domestic hubs have enough space to support 2030 and beyond. The second half of this year will see some significant openings for us, but we’re also working on strategic plans to update and renovate our current domestic line station footprint, while continually evaluating new markets and researching potential sites for opening further United Clubs.”
Superior customer experience
The primary United Club product offers a variety of hot and cold items for breakfast, lunch and dinner, comprising a standard buffet service that allows customers to pick and choose their meals. Its Polaris lounge product is designed for international business-class customers, providing a combination of buffet options and dedicated a la carte dining. Additionally, it has two Club Fly products in Denver and Houston, consisting of grab-and-go options for local customers or those with short connection times. “Towards the end of the year, we’ll be opening a United Club on Houston’s Terminal B North concourse, which will be our largest club in the network,” Aaron discloses. “This presents an opportunity for us to increase capacity and ensure we’re meeting that 2030 and beyond demand for customers. At around 50,000 square feet, it’s a massive space, yet we’ve worked closely with our design team and construction partners to break the space up into multiple buffets and bars, ensuring it doesn’t feel too cavernous. The amenities and design-styles in Denver and Newark will echo through the new club in Houston. Furthermore, we’re opening two more new clubs in San Francisco and Washington Dulles. We’re incredibly excited to get these three clubs open before the end of 2026 and create an even superior customer experience.”
Brand partnerships
An ongoing part of United’s menu management process is the constant evaluation of products, both onboard and in club lounges. To keep offerings fresh and innovative for customers, Aaron says they explore different partnerships, primarily smaller local businesses, who the group can feature and support. “As customers travel, there’s that touch of variety and local flair being woven into the food and beverages,” he highlights. “We offer a diverse range of items to mirror United flights, and we manage our menu cycle very closely. For any new destination, we have dedicated team members who carry out onsite visits and work hand in hand with catering partners to source local ingredients. Using India as an example, we went out there with a local caterer to work on the design refresh and spent time eating in local restaurants, talking to culinary talent and understanding what’s on trend in local Indian cuisine. We then collaborate with our catering partner, using that information and looking at how we can consistently incorporate those flavors and components into the onboard menu.”
United works closely with its business partners when making product selections, including third-party logistics partner, Michael Lewis, who provides logistic support for nominated food and beverage items. “It’s important for partners to understand our volume needs, where the product will be required and its role in the ecosystem in North America and Europe,” emphasizes Aaron. “One of our marquee snack items is Stroopwafel, which is produced in Europe – once the product is in the US, it’s held in Michael Lewis’ warehouse until our kitchens need it and Michael Lewis then delivers the goods. My colleague who oversees catering operations has a team dedicated to supply chain and logistics, so we also work very closely with them.” Further brand partnerships include Laurent Perrier champagne, which we discussed previously with United – with the partnership successfully entering its second year, the champagne is hugely popular with customers and Aaron describes working with Laurent Perrier as a delight. Alongside brand partner relationships, sustainability is equally important to the company. It has recently launched a pre-order and pre-pay program, enhancing product availability for customers and minimizing food waste. “Previously on a domestic narrow body flight, if we had ten burgers on board, we could sell out by row 20 and there may be nothing available for customers at the back,” continues Aaron. “Or if those fresh items were leftover, they would unfortunately end up in landfill. By transitioning into a pre-order approach, we can guarantee that everybody gets what they want, plus it eliminates waste. As a business, this is a great win – it’s good for the environment and it’s good for customers.
Reducing waste
“Food waste is at the top of our list when it comes to sustainability, but we’re also looking at advanced AI capabilities and camera technology to help us analyze what is and isn’t being consumed on the plane, allowing us to investigate why and evaluate opportunities to scale back. We piloted some of this technology on a Sao Paulo to Chicago trip where we discovered about 20 percent of customers were taking advantage of the mid-flight snack options, yet we were provisioning one-to-one. With this knowledge, we could pull back the provisioning ratio and slightly reduce the amount of food boarded, saving money and space on the aircraft, burning less fuel and sending less to landfill. Another area we’re concentrating on is reducing single use plastics; about 18 months ago we converted from plastic silverware to a bamboo product and this year we’re looking to provide multi-purpose sustainable cups for both hot and cold beverages.”
From a food and beverage perspective, key initiatives for United in 2026 include a menu design refresh for the entirety of the business class product. “Looking further ahead, I think the club and lounge footprint will look dramatically different in five years, using our current road map,” concludes Aaron. “We’ll be piloting some new food and beverage offerings and measuring impact for a potentially broader roll out, in conjunction with updating facilities and expanding our network. I’m unbelievably excited about the future.”