Transforming In-Flight Catering

At Wheels Up, catering was an important part of the member experience—but the ordering process felt outdated and created unnecessary friction during trip planning.

Members who wanted catering had limited visibility into available options and were asked to manually type their requests into a text box after booking their flight. This created uncertainty for travelers and operational inefficiencies for internal teams responsible for fulfilling requests.

To improve the experience, Wheels Up partnered with a catering provider to offer a curated menu experience featuring chef-inspired meals, beverage selections, and bundled offerings included as part of the company’s premium membership experience.

The Business Challenge

Create a scalable self-service catering experience that reduced operational dependency on account managers while elevating the premium membership experience.

Key business goals included:

  • Reduce manual catering requests

  • Improve operational efficiency

  • Increase visibility into available offerings

  • Deliver a more premium member experience

  • Encourage self-service trip management

User Pain Points

The previous experience created multiple frustrations:

  • No visibility into available menu options

  • Users didn’t know what could actually be ordered

  • Manual text entry created ordering errors

  • Lack of confidence after submission

  • Required additional support from account managers

My Role

I partnered with product stakeholders to redesign the catering experience from a manual request flow into a guided self-service experience.

Responsibilities included:

  • Identifying friction in the current ordering flow

  • Mapping opportunities across the trip journey

  • Designing the new catering experience

  • Creating browse and customization functionality

  • Improving post-order confidence

Surface Catering at the Right Moment

OPPORTUNITY 1

We identified a key opportunity immediately after booking, when users are already planning trip details.

Catering was introduced on the flight confirmation page and trip management dashboard.

This made the feature more discoverable without disrupting the primary booking flow.

OPPORTUNITY 2

Replace Manual Ordering With Guided Discovery

The existing text box created unnecessary ambiguity. Users had no idea what was available and often had to guess what they could request.

Solution:

I designed a browseable menu experience inspired by familiar ordering platforms like Uber Eats.

Members could:

  • Browse curated meals

  • View chef-inspired entrées

  • Explore beverage options

  • Select bundled packages

  • Easily compare offerings

This introduced familiarity while maintaining a premium brand feel.

OPPORTUNITY 2

Enable Personalization

Luxury travelers expect flexibility.

To support this expectation, I designed customization features that allowed members to personalize select menu items based on preferences.

This helped create a more tailored experience while preserving operational efficiency.

OPPORTUNITY 4

Build Post-Purchase Confidence

Because catering fulfillment required operational review, members needed reassurance after placing their order.

Solution:

A confirmation flow clearly communicated that:

  • Their order was successfully submitted

  • They would receive a confirmation email within 24 hours

  • Their request was being processed

This helped eliminate uncertainty.

Outcome

The redesigned experience transformed catering from a manual operational task into a premium self-service product experience.

The new flow:

  • Reduces friction

  • Improves order confidence

  • Increases feature visibility

  • Reduced dependency on account managers

  • Creates a more premium and scalable member experience

Most importantly, it allows members to manage more of their travel experience independently while maintaining the white-glove expectations associated with Wheels Up.