In recent times, we’ve seen US airlines greatly improving their business class soft product, as they increasingly compete for premium travelers by focusing on the little touches.
Continue reading: Move Over Emirates: United Serving $200 Per Bottle Wine In Polaris Business Class
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I saw this first on FlyerTalk's '2026 Let's Eat ? Polaris Business' thread which is a great place to see what you might be getting, since UA doesn't publish menus 30 days out like AA. The thread also hilariously describes some of the food as inedible (or at least they do in the 2025 thread). Hopefully they still have it another month or so, although I would speculate they got a killer deal and/or are just looking for some fun buzz.
United loves to advertise premium stuff like this, but when you actually fly the routes they almost never have any available.
Polaris is a well-rounded product and the food really isn't that bad. Maybe I'm just not rich enough to be spoiled yet by the truly World-Beating products like Etihad The Residence and Delta One on a Boeing 767-400ER, but I still feel spoiled every time I am on Polaris
On the contrary, UA didn't advertise this but fellow travelers have spotted ourselves.
Was lucky enough to spot this on my flight to Sydney a few days ago and enjoyed a whole bottle’s worth over 6 or so hours. I’m not a wine snob by any means but it was noticeably excellent compared to what you’d otherwise expect.
On Champagne, surprisingly, United made the best choice, Laurent-Perrier over Bollinger and Taittinger. You'd think Delta, with it's Air France partnership, would have been better advised. Hon hon...
AA is kinda doing their own thing, but it's pretty wild lately how much UA has been pulling ahead of DL
Interesting, but note, price of wine is seriously inflated vs. what UA might be paying for it. There's a wine glut at moment and many labels are giving it away wholesale.
The other thing is that their food side falls flat. I had C Japanese meal to NRT recently, and it looked like a child's meal with a few cut carrots decorating the plate. They need to stop cheaping out on food, especially when you pre-order. The whole point is to give you and them better selection, certainty, and confidence it will be enjoyed. Why not have even more choices if pre-order, like Book-the-cook?
In my experience, expensive wine on planes tastes exactly the same as cheap wine. (Well, maybe not QUITE as bad as the watered down paint thinner they sell in small bottles in economy.) Dry, thin air wreaks havoc on your ability to taste.
I have to admit I find it funny that you wrote an article explaining where to see United in-flight menus, despite not having added them to your list of airlines that publish in-flight menus a month ago and despite most of the comments on that article being about United being missing.
I don't make that much of it. They got a good deal on champagne (I wouldn't be surprised if it was, in fact free, given the freewill the wine industry is in), so they have the champagne. On the available facts, whoever makes the food/wine decisions at United must have a turtle's anus for a palate, so I doubt they'd be able to taste the difference between $200 Laurant-Perrier/Krug/etc. and $5 Corbel.
@1990
this isn't a read, I'm genuinely curious.
How often do you fly business class? You have a lot of comments about it yet seem to spend your entire weekdays commenting on aviation articles suggesting you don't have a particularly strenuous job that requires much attention.
The Pinot Grigio that KLM served me in C on a flight to FCO wasn't just bad- it was a positively traumatic experience and was a lot worse than what's in some €2.50 Lidl bottles or €1,80 copas at suburban bars in provincial Spain.
Laurent-Perrier/Bollinger/Taittinger Really got any distinct difference? Laurent-Perrier is cheaper than Taittinger though, that's all I am aware of.
Will, “Polaris is a well-rounded product and the food really isn't that bad… but I still feel spoiled every time I am on Polaris”
Kevin M, “Was lucky enough to spot this on my flight to Sydney a few days ago and enjoyed a whole bottle’s worth over 6 or so hours. I’m not a wine snob by any means but it was noticeably excellent compared to what you’d otherwise expect.”
UA has really upped their international food and wine game recently, and Polaris is great and getting better with the new studios/suites that are coming in 20 new 787-9s being delivered in 2026. Can’t wait for the Starlink. 285 two-class UAX RJs (almost all of them) now have Starlink Wifi and it is awesome!
United’s dismal catering is what keeps me from flying them. I like United but their food is crap.
Let's not get too excited. This is a blend of left overs from other vineyards. Doesn't make it a bad wine, in fact these blends can be quite yummy. But this isn't a wine from a single farm or grower, they just sold off their juice to make a nice blend.
I also suspect (since it is 2019) that these were picked just before the Napa fires and were at risk for smoke infiltrating the grapes. Generally for a Napa Cab, 2019 is a bit early to drink, but should be OK as long as you drink it now. The longer you wait, the more the smoke will come out in the taste (which is not desirable). So United got a good deal on wine that needed to be consumed soon.
Had this last night on SCL-IAH - not a wine guy so no idea it was so expensive. Tasted nice of course.
On the food side, yes Polaris food is generally still not in any way leading but often is perfectly fine these days. It certainly has improved in the past 12-18 months (though from what I gather not every flight/station gets the better menu still).
When United or AA are coordinating their meals with say Gate Gourmet, I wonder if GG looks at what UA wants to serve and suggest a similar more appetizing alternative, and UA is like nah, we'll go with the slop. I mean GG caters to international carriers with good food, so it's not really an ability issue.
I've long felt that AA food is underrated. Not quite as nice as Delta's, but head and shoulders above United. I once had a Polaris Cod dish from Amsterdam that was so overcooked I saw the muscle fibers splitting like when you break a piece of wood. I couldn't finish it.
I boycott American products and prefer a 30 euro Côte du Rhône over some overpriced US plunk
Before the vicious backlog starts this is partly tongue in cheek as altitude blunts taste so unless you are drinking while taxiing the wine thing is mostly marketing flex
Are you chewing gum?
I just came back biz class, DFW-EZE and food was inedible. And I thought the new flagship suites were horrible. On return, I had old suites and enjoyed it more.
United has served Shafer TD-9 on a number of flights I've had with them. At $70/bottle that's nothing to sneeze at either.
Wine has always seemed like such an easy thing to do well, and it's great for word-of-mouth marketing amongst bougie circles.
UA publishes menus to the public? Or is it only once you have purchased a ticket can you access the menu?
Man they got this stuff from Aldi on sale. Spend money on the food, not wine.
Wine will kill you and is bad for your health. Drink water you imbeciles.
For flights in the next few days, you can see menus for any flight in Flight Status in the United app. (On the food side, that generally means if you have a flight later the same month then the food menu is going to be the same; not sure how often the wine lists change.)
This oft repeated canard is just moronic. If you can't taste the difference, don't blame the altitude. You probably just don't have the palette.
I think this is ultimately on United and not their contracted caterers. Whatever executive is in charge of United's food either has no taste (like...they either have the lowest bar for food quality, or don't care, or don't understand what competitors are doing), is incompetent at managing contracts to get more for their budget, is incompetent at managing politics inside United to get more budget, or all of the above. In any case they should be fired and replaced with someone who actually has a vision for what they can do with food and cares.
Whoever is doing the wine program has figured out how to do a lot inside this airline and if it's the same person, they should hire someone else to focus on food...
Yeah it was on my flight from NRT last week and didn't realize what it was honestly. I do think if they're going to invest in wine like this (beyond champagne), they need to market it better. Another flight last year they were serving a nice Freemark Abbey cab. I'm consistently finding very good wine options even if not widely publicized.
What's really special is being in F on a CRJ 500 and getting the canned wine they serve now. The stuff tasted like orangutang piss.
I think the food has actually improved. Maybe not enough, eg they need to improve their salad. But the mains are typically decent. Not close however to the meals in the Polaris restaurants which are pretty great- I eat in the restaurant before boarding and go straight to sleep on transatlantic flights.
Let me be the first to ask how you know, David, you know, orangutan piss. Inquiring minds want to know.
It's not leftovers, it's made from the young vines that eventually supply cult-followed wines like Harlan and Bond. Are you seriously trying to say this isn't a flex? Given that their program also has seen Shafer, Domaine Serene, Stony Hill and others I think it's safe to say they're not looking for leftovers in their program.
You do know that disqualifies Ben from adding UA to the list of airlines that let you preview menus without having to buy a ticket first?
The Mascot is a very solid producer, and 2019 is regarded as a very good vintage (the fire-affected one was 2020's). Impressive to see this served on UA tbh.
Also, 2020 was the vintage that was affected by fire (for those who picked late-ish in the season), not 2019.
They publish menus on all routes 30 days out! If you are booked on the flight you can see it, and if not, you can see it on flight status page in the app for that day if you look up the route.
This is the way. The seats and bedding are good and the food in the Polaris lounge is way better than what’s onboard
I had a 2022 Catena Zapata Argentino (~$80-90) on the menu on my flight a couple of weeks ago, which got me excited to try it. The thing was, it wasn't actually available on the plane. They had a cheap Bordeaux in its stead. That wasn't the first time I've encountered such a situation, so keep your expectations low - what's on the menu may not actually be available.
There is a glut of California wines, and the Canadian Liquor boards are no longer importing them about 10% of total sales. You don’t go from serving 14$ plonk on UA unless you got the deal of the decade.
Other airlines should pay attention, both to what United is doing, but also to the overall wine business. There’s been a significant contraction in the wine industry overall, and wineries of all sorts - including the cult wineries - will be newly motivated to move product at a better price than would ever have been possible in recent memory. I think this is a smart move by United, but I suspect what’s behind it is they are getting more calls than normal from wineries. Having said all that, I fly Polaris fairly frequently, and just in the last few weeks, the beverage carts have been full of wines that were not what was published, and were definitely not at the same level. So, be excited by what’s on the menu, but definitely temper your expectations.
Napa valley wines are consistently over priced and underwhelming. Mostly just hype and marketing with very little substance, like all things American.
The people that get excited by $200 bottles of wine, are the same people excited by Johnnie Walker Blue. Neither of them really know anything about what they are drinking, and are likely impressed by the price alone.
And there are insecure entitled snobs who think they are better than other people, are the same people thinking their taste preference is center of the world.
Neither of them really know anything about what they are drinking, and are likely impressed by the overcompensating with ad hominem alone.
How dare you criticize overpriced American products.
We proudly over pay for anything. Not just Harlan the Ghost Eagle.
Our V12 trucks proud owners who never tow anything more than a grocery trip to Costco and always on a paved road.
Insurance and healthcare.
Textbook, education and student loans.
Basic Economy tickets.
Concert tickets.
Superbowl tickets.
Baseball cards!!!!!!!
And we compensate overpriced items with tariffs and seize oil reserve.
And does the same orangutans piss red, white, and sparkling?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Who would dare try the Bin 389 when a Bin 95 drinker is accused of never crossing the Atlantic let alone set foot on BA planes.
Now go piss on Polaris for the better way of flying DEN-LHR.
I just flew ICN-SFO and this cabernet sauvignon was on the menu. The wine was terrific. The also had other $70-$80 range champagne and white wines. However the food was OK.. The service was really bad. The crew did not want to be there. There was no pre-departure drink. No proactive refills. No "welcome aboard".. It's really a hit or miss with United which is very unfortunate
@MJS, I won't disagree with that statement, but the reality is that some of the people making those purchasing decisions for airlines and other service providers aren't that knowledgeable about the products they're buying. I prefer a $60 bottle of Tomatin, or maybe some Bushmills expression costing even less, over JW Blue but there's no shortage of airlines serving JW Black or other questionable blends even if their overall standard of catering is quite high. In that context, I wouldn't mind an expensive drink which at least is better than what I might be served elsewhere!
I enjoy a good wine. I suspect this would be one of the CA reds that is pricey, but not to my liking (unlike Dominus). Regardless, UA if you're going to spend more money on J food and beverage, pick food.
The picture you show of the meal is about 7 years old. United has had new dishware for about 8 months. They have upped their meals immensely. As someone who flies long haul 3 times a month, I can tell you their meals top all U.S. carriers right now… not to mention, their champagne and wines are superb.
And that’s still impresssive - well done UA - even if it’s paying $30 for great wines
What did catering on Polaris look like back a decade ago? I’m curious how good it actually was.
Exclusivity is not always about price. I've just ordered a dozen bottles of Marsanne from an Australian winery for less than US$64 each, despite being the "top shelf" label. The clincher is that they were only able to make about 750 bottles, which is all that will ever exist from that vintage in the entire world. Keep your Krug and your Dom and your twenty-thousand-bottle vintages, it's not about the price, it's about the availability. The very best wines are available in minute quantities that are offered first to regular customers, and the likes of Emirates don't even get a look-in.
California has some real beauts, as do Oregon and Washington, but they're not necessarily the labels that command huge prices from collectors.
Penfolds wines are not bad, at all, but like in the United States the very best production from smaller, niche Australian wineries disappears into the "IYKYK" domestic market, and is rarely seen overseas. Big ticket Aussie wines command premium prices around the globe, but there are myriad vintners producing excellent drops that are unknown outside their regions, let alone on the other side of the world.
Speaking as a European wine enthusiast, this isn't really a fair evaluation. Yes, against global averages, one could call Napa wines overpriced, but this stems largely from labour costs, insane land prices and more, not just Napa winemakers making and pocketing ridiculous profits on hype alone. Some of the best red wines I've tried in my life (and I've tried more than 2000 different ones) came from Napa and Sonoma.
Just tried this red wine (Mascot Cabernet Sauvignon 2019) on Polaris NRT to EWR. Didn't realize it was that pricey. I thought it was too acidic, and preferred their other red wines on prior flights which are much more affordable and are actually pretty great. There was also the chateau de beaucastel coudoulet rouge 2022 on this flight, and I didn't really think that red was that great either. It's odd for me because I think Polaris red wines are usually pretty good and the only thing I look forward to on Polaris flights. New sommelier perhaps. The food catering really needs improvement on Polaris. Nothing to look forward to.
Pete, visited South Australia last year for the first time; had been to Yarra before, but, I must say, Adelaide and the surrounding regions got it going on. Keep up the good work down there.
Does it really matter? I'm not going to dox myself. Depends on the year and season; sometimes once a week, sometimes once a month. I'm more of an av-geek with a left-of-center bent. Are you just here to mildly-counter-balance Tim with pro-United bent? gEnUiNeLy CuRiOuS.
But, United has a partnership with Emirates! ...hmm. (And American's OW partner Qatar!) ...HMM. ((And, Delta's partnership with Saudia!)) ...HHHMMMMM.
The 'best' wines are often 'subjective' and highly conditional; like, where are you in life, what are you pairing it with, did the cork go bad, did some fool leave it in a hot room, etc.
This is more meant for Ben but I wish when one would search a term like 'Polaris' on the OMAAT search bar that all the results could be sorted from oldest to newest (and vice-versa) and most popular to least popular (and vice-versa).
Ok! So, how many United, American, Alaskan, etc, etc, travellers are going to change their preferred carrier just to experience this particular wine?
One doubts that any Emirates passenger is going to “Move over” because of it either. Still, as long as someone enjoys it then no harm done.
Eskimo, I’m impressed with the number of words which you have managed to string together in your post, however, why do you insist upon replying to someone else’s post rather than initiating your own thread …. what are you afraid of, pray tell?
Again, lots of words Eskimo, is this another one of your impersonators to blame?
Flying long haul 3 times a month?
That's how you make yourself credible?
FWIW, Tim can fly DeltaOne twice a day and have no clue what Polaris is serving but will still claim DL "top all U.S. carriers right now…"
@PeatAU
"The very best wines are available in minute quantities"
I'll offload you my special Eskimo Estates 2025 vintage for a very special price.
"The clincher is that Eskimo is only able to make about 2 bottles, which is all that will ever exist from that vintage in the entire world."
So as a fellow reader, I'll hand delivery you for $1,776,000 a bottle.
I can assure you Emirates will never get one.
VladG, it sounds to me that you are in excellent company following this blog. You total up your alcohol, while Ben, his air miles.
One hopes that you did not drink 2000 bottles, as that would amount to approximately 1,500ltrs and take you plus or minus 51/2 years, if drinking one bottle per day.
What state is your liver in Vlad?
VladG, it sounds to me that you are in excellent company following this blog. You total up your alcohol, while Ben, his air miles.
One hopes that you did not drink 2000 bottles, as that would amount to approximately 1,500ltrs and take you plus or minus 51/2 years, if drinking one bottle per day.
What state is your liver in Vlad?
VladG, it sounds to me that you are in excellent company following this blog. You total up your alcohol, while Ben, his air miles.
One hopes that you did not drink 2000 bottles, as that would amount to approximately 1,500ltrs and take you plus or minus 51/2 years, if drinking one bottle per day.
What state is your liver in Vlad?
PeteAU. I'll admit my preferences. My cellar is virtually all French Bordeaux and Rhones (plus some Ports). I have no Burgundy or American Pinot Noirs. Dominus (had to enter that three times to get my spell corrector to stop using Domino's) is my only American wine. That is not to say I don't drink Pinot or American wines, I just don't cellar the ones I drink (no need to).
The Mascot is mainly a PR gesture. Even if United purchased every bottle it would only last 24 days at the rate of one bottle per flight.
You’d need something to swallow what they call “food” in their so called premium cabin -it’s foul and their ridiculous and tacky table cloths make it laughable
“and United is partnering with Laurent-Perrier.’
I’m all for any upgrades to the wines themselves, but I’ve noticed that they don’t store the sparking and whites in ice baths anymore, but rather leave it on top of the catering counter in the galley where it becomes and stays room temperature. I don’t know if this is an official policy/edict or just b/c pursers are lazy and/or don’t know any better. What good is having decent or good wine if it isn’t served at the proper temperature. Anyone else notice this?