United providing free beverages for passengers waiting for delayed flights!?

I was at Orlando airport (MCO) earlier this week. As I was walking to my gate, I saw a large cart with ice and cans of juices and sodas parked at a gate just before mine.

More on my full blog post. On my blog, I got a lot of comments on my post from people who have seen the same. Is this the 'new normal' for United? Any other airlines following suite?

I've seen this done sporadicly for years on CO. There doesn't seem to be any pattern as to what flights get this and what don't, as far as I can tell. It must be at the whim of the agents/management at the airport.

I think last time I walked past the customer service counter at SFO (behind security) I saw what looked like beverages and snacks (?) set up. I have seen LH do that in Frankfurt. Given the cost of a palette of soda cans (Cosco run?), it doesn't seem that costly of a gesture.

Never seen United do this. But Air France did it on my delayed flight from Berlin to Paris earlier this year.

I know exactly what you're talking about, remnants of a bygone era. In the 90s, around the time of CO Lite, Continental would offer sack lunches to passengers as they boarded shorter domestic flights. AA (Bistro Bag) and DL (SkyDeli) had similar products. The carts would be filled with the bags, wheeled over the jetway, and passengers would grab one as they boarded.

The bags disappeared, but the carts stuck around, mostly at outstations. I've seen them at MCO, MCI, RSW and PBI. CO ultimately re-purposed them for the use you mention here. It's definitely a nice gesture but (I suspect) not one of policy nor something I would expect for all future ground delays at United!

I saw UA does this at SFO for the delayed HKG flight a few weeks back. They had water, juice, soda, finger sandwiches, and oreos.

cheaper than the vouchers they used to give if flight delayed over 2 hours

Was in TPA returning home 2 weeks ago. A UA flight from IAD to CUN had to make an unplanned stop in TPA for a mechanical and was there from 11AM to 5 PM. I arrived at 4 PM and they were feeding the passengers and everyone else who wished free pizza and soda or water. I suspect the flight was full of kettles who did not know enough to ask for meal vouchers but they certainly had a ton of pizza and drinks.

I am not certain that the pizza would compensate for a lost day at CUN, however.

I have also seen this at SFO and LGA on occassion. Bottled water and soft drinks. The only snacks I have seen are the snacks they give out with beverage service on planes (pretzels?)

I've seen it quite a few times over the years at IAH as well, although, I must admit I haven't seen it there since around 2010 or so.

At one time, when meals were still free in Y, on some flights that were severely delayed they also offered sandwiches similar to those served on board, at the gate.

Beverage carts are an old CO thing done after a known 90 minute delay. You will still find this happening at SFO around the Customer Service Center are really bad nights when alot of people misconnect or experience cancelled flts. The food is provided from the inflight kitchen.

Couple years ago when a blizzard shut down EWR they ended up bringing most of the baked goods (muffins & such) over from Chelsea to the main terminal and set up huge spreads near the PClub in C1 and elsewhere. Kept people mostly in good spirits until the planes started to move again and they didn't completely waste all the food for the TATL flights which weren't going to be flying.

Had this happen in IAH last summer on a PMCO flight delayed 3+ hours. Red coats came with the cart...

Yeah in that situation it's essentially a no-cost gesture. The food was already bought and paid for, and would just be wasted.

I've seen similar things at IAH when severe storms set in for hours and closed the place down for an extended period.

In the old days, airlines would give out food and beverage vouchers to long delayed flyers, and it surely was a nice gesture on their part.

UA gave me one of those last Friday at IAH, for what was at the time a two hour delay in my schedule.

I am happy to see a report of this, it goes back to how the airlines used to do things from the old school days.

Nice idea.

Sounds like the Flagship Lounge. The food there is mostly stuff they serve in domestic F, recycled and served at the Flagship lounge.

I was on an LHR-EWR flight that got delayed too long, the pilot cancelled the flight because the catering went bad.