You Don't Have To Be A Food Snob To Hate American's New Catering

You Don’t Have To Be A Food Snob To Hate American’s New Catering

Published: October 2, 2014

About a month ago American and US Airways aligned their domestic first class catering policies.

I’ve been pretty vocal about how horrible the changes are. I’m not one that’s especially critical of domestic airplane food, given that my expectations are low to begin with. Even so, they’ve managed to underwhelm me.

My first experience with the new catering on American was within the first week of it being implemented. The “salad” consisted mostly of shredded lettuce, and the chicken was possibly the worst chicken I’ve ever had in a premium cabin.

American-First-Class-Food-2

Unfortunately I had beef with my next first class meal as well… the “beef” was inedible and made me long for the days of middle school cafeteria food.

American-Meal-1

But all that looks downright gourmet in comparison to the sandwich I had on my American flight last night.

I was flying from Chicago to Los Angeles on an 8:40PM flight, and was actually in the main cabin (only my second time this year not in a premium cabin!). They didn’t have any food for sale. Not even snacks or anything, which I find to be kind of unbelievable (you’d think they’d at least have packaged snacks for sale — they’re leaving money on the table).

As an Executive Platinum member you get a complimentary snack and alcoholic beverage when seated in the main cabin (which I find to be a really nice touch on the part of American), so the flight attendant was nice enough to bring me the two sandwiches on offer in first class (you can apparently select both as a first class passenger).

ExecPlat-Complimentary-Snack

You ready for this? Viewer discretion is advised!

There was an “arugula pesto & roasted tomato” sandwich:

American-First-Class-Sandwich-2

Then there was a “turkey, swiss & honey mustard” sandwich:

American-First-Class-Sandwich-1

This is all that’s served in first class on a 4.5 hour westbound flight departing at 8:40PM.

Remember in 1998 when you’d grab a sandwich on your way down the jet bridge when boarding an economy flight? Yeah, well those sandwiches were downright tasty compared to these.

I just don’t get it. American’s buy on board sandwiches in the main cabin are actually edible and quite good when they’re for sale.

Yet they serve this in first class on evening flights?

Has anyone else tried American’s new first class “sandwiches?”

More discussion »

Conversations (39)

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Comment as a member

Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.

Loading comments…

Recent Comments

The latest from the OMAAT community.

Davy Jones Guest

August 25, 2016, 9:49 pm

Funny thing is that on a British Airways flight from Sofia to London, in ECONOMY, you get a sandwich that doesnt look like it is covered in radioactive bile, but stuffed with real deli. Not to mention that it already comes with dessert and drink. And whats funny is that everybody in the cabin got the sandwich, sans frequent flyer status. Also, the flight was only three hours, as compared to the 4.5 hour flight here.

‼ 0

Golda M Guest

March 27, 2015, 1:42 am

I just read this and the 'arugula pesto & roasted tomato' sandwich looked like a sponge used to wipe a baby with a bad case of... Yeah, that...

Ivan Y Diamond

October 8, 2014, 1:42 pm

Those meals, especially the so-called sandwiches, make United's snack pack I got on my late-night (~ 10 pm) IAH-SEA flight look like fine dining!

David V Guest

October 6, 2014, 12:39 pm

I had it for the first time the other day and the breakfast was DISGUSTING. I wrote a complain to American and I suggest everyone else does as well (especially if you are exec platinum. Every time I write them a complaint I start off by saying "congratulations on being the "new US Airways".

Tom Guest

October 4, 2014, 11:26 pm

I recently flew AA F to Hawaii. I go there for business 5-6 times a year and as EXP get upgraded almost all the time. This last visit was under the new catering directive. Unbelievable how bad it was. It was always a treat in F to Hawaii compared to the rest of domestic catering. They'd offer a glass of sparkling wine, or mimosa before take-off, choice of dressing for the salad, and especially nice was the desert which was ice cream offered with a choice of toppings, whipped cream, nuts. The new catering is simply just very bad. You couldn't sell that in any fast food restaurant anywhere in the US, no matter how cheaply. And AA are offering it to First Class customers ! It really is a joke, it's almost like a sketch from SNL ! I agree with a previous comment. They should just drop the pretense and tell their Executive Platinum customers, even when on a 6 hour flight in First Class, to buy food before they board, because the food they have on-board is pure garbage. It's what I'll be doing from now on. I've been a loyal AA traveller for nearly ten years because after UA it was remarkable to me how much better the experience was. It's sad to see them following the same formulae now that they are merging with US. It seems like a race to the bottom.

You Don’t Have To Be A Food Snob To Hate American’s New Catering

Support OMAAT

Save posts to read later