United to start serving illy's premium coffee in lounges, during flights

United Airlines has announced a new coffee partnership with premium brand illycafe. The Italian coffee roaster's scuro blend and illy espresso will start appearing in United Club hub locations next month, and other lounges will start to serve illy's signature brews beginning next year. The scuro dark roast will be available on United Airlines flights worldwide by next summer.

Travel blogger Brian Sumers told Road Warrior Voices that the coffee partnership had been, um, brewing for quite a while following customer dissatisfaction with United's previous coffee offerings. At one time, the carrier served Starbucks on flights, but that was swapped out for a lesser-known brand, which didn't go over well.

United has since been taking its coffee selection seriously, conducting inflight taste tests and hosting focus groups before deciding on the illy brand. The airline purchases 1.4 million pounds of coffee per year, serving 197,261 cups per day to its passengers (that adds up to 9 million pots of coffee a year!) Jimmy Samartzis, United's Vice President of food service, said:

"Our collaboration with illy is helping to make the world feel a bit smaller and making flying that much more special, simply by way of a perfect cup of coffee. By serving the world's most well-known premium coffee in our clubs and on board, we are communicating an experience to our customers and our employees with the quality and care that comes with every cup."

So what kind of coffee can you expect if you're not flying United's friendly skies? Delta and Alaska both serve Starbucks' Pike Place Roast, in Starbucks-branded cups. American Airlines serves FreshBrew Coffeehouse Roast brand, while Hawaiian Airlines celebrates its home state's strong coffee culture, serving Kona coffee onboard.

Dunkin Donuts fans will enjoy jetBlue flights, Southwest serves LIFT onboard, and even offers hazelnut-flavored creamer. Virgin America brews San Francisco-based Philz Coffee and – believe it or not – Allegiant Airlines offers illy's iced coffee on its flights, but you know you have to fork over a few bucks for it.

Getting up for a crack-of-dawn flight is not a pleasant experience, but it can become almost bearable when you know a decent cup of joe is waiting for you on the plane.