News: Free meals go west

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The world's two largest airlines - both based in the United States - are taking radically different approaches to "frills" on domestic flights. American Airlines and United have been under severe pressure from low-cost rivals, such as jetBlue and Southwest. The bigger airline, American, will abolish free meals in economy class for domestic passengers this week.

The world's two largest airlines - both based in the United States - are taking radically different approaches to "frills" on domestic flights. American Airlines and United have been under severe pressure from low-cost rivals, such as jetBlue and Southwest. The bigger airline, American, will abolish free meals in economy class for domestic passengers this week.

At present, food is served on longer flights within the US, representing about one in five routes. From 1 February, these free breakfasts, lunches and dinners will be withdrawn in economy class. Instead, in-flight snack boxes will be sold at $3 (£1.60) each. These will also be available on some flights that do not offer food at the moment.

The second-largest airline, United, is moving in a different direction. It has rolled out a new high-quality product for the main domestic routes, from New York JFK to Los Angeles, and is doing the same from Kennedy airport to San Francisco. Customers on these routes are mainly executives and up-market leisure travellers. So United has come up with a new premium service, stylishly titled "p.s.", using refurbished Boeing 757s.

Each plane carries just 110 seats, 40 per cent fewer than the a typical 757 configuration. Every seat on the plane has laptop power and telephone access. First-class passengers get lie-flat beds, a first for domestic flights. Business class travellers benefit from more legroom and individual DVD players. Even the cheap seats offer more room, with a seat pitch of 34in compared with the standard of 31in. Fares are competitive if you book ahead and the airline is flexible about dates: on a range of dates I checked, a fare of about $320 was widely available.

British travellers can also benefit if, for example, they book a London-California ticket with a stopover at New York JFK in one direction; they can travel in the upgraded aircraft for the US domestic leg. They are likely to find that the domestic flight is more comfortable than the international part - the reverse of the usual state of affairs.

United is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which allows it to continue flying while receiving protection from its creditors.