One area where American has done a great job is with the ability to pre-order meals in first and business class. Now, you probably won’t enjoy actually eating what you pre-order, but at least you can be assured you’ll get your first choice.
Today American has announced that this option is being expanded even further.
In this post:
American rolls out pre-order meals to American Eagle
Up until now, the ability to pre-order first and business class meals has been limited to American Airlines “mainline” flights.
Fortunately as of March 11, 2020, it will be possible to pre-order meals on American Eagle flights as well. For those of you not familiar, American Eagle is American Airlines’ regional subsidiary.
This will allow passengers to pre-order meals on an additional 300 daily flights, bringing the total number of eligible daily flights with premium cabin pre-orders to nearly 1,900.
American is now the only US airline to allow pre-order meals on regional flights, and they allow meal pre-orders on more flights than any other US airline.
American’s Managing Director of Food and Beverage Services at American Airlines said the following:
“Ordering meals in advance is important to our customers, and we’re excited to bring this option to more flights. The culinary experience is an important part of travel that we will continue to invest in.”
I question the second part of that statement…
Meal pre-orders will soon be available on American Eagle
Which American Eagle flights have meals?
American Airlines serves meals on flights of 900 miles or more during meal times. The catch is that American Eagle planes don’t have ovens, so you can expect cold meals on American Eagle.
While meals vary based on time of day and route, you can expect pre-order options to include some of the following:
- Charcuterie plate
- Tex-Mex salad with adobo chicken
- Mediterranean turkey club sandwich
- Hot smoked salmon cold plate with seasoned potato salad
- Curried chicken salad on croissant
Pre-order your meals in American Eagle first class
American adds new pre-order option for long haul flights
Also as of March 11, 2020, American will be rolling out the option to pre-order lighter options on flights between the US and Europe/South America when traveling in first or business class:
- You can order a chicken cobb salad as a main course on flights from the US
- You can order a charcuterie plate on flights to the US
This is a nice alternative for those who don’t want a full meal. These options will exclusively be available as pre-orders, so you can’t order these onboard.
American is rolling out lighter options in first & business class
Bottom line
American does a great job with the ability to pre-order first and business class meals, and I’m happy to see they’ll soon be extending this option to American Eagle flights. Now if only they put a bit more effort into the quality of meals as such…
Had the charcuterie plate as a pre order JFK to LHR last week. Actually pretty good....
Hey Ben not sure where AA gets off saying they are the first carrier to offer preorder on regional flights. If they mean "all regional flights" then yes but UA began preorders on mainline and express flights from LAX and IAD months ago, now DEN and ORD are in the mix...so there's plenty of regional preorder options on UA....
God can’t you just serve us a hot meal instead of this salad and cold cuts bs
Does pre-ordering preclude one from doing a Same Day Flight change as easily?
I had the Almond butter and strawberry butter sandwich & charcuterie plate on yesterday’s RT DCA-MSY. They were both alright. Fruit good in AM cucumbers radish green bean salad tasty. But I had eaten before. Smash burger & . And some tasty crayfish corn chowder at the new MSY Lounge
"Curried chicken salad on croissant"
This sounds awful...
@Lucky Ah that makes sense. I have not had anything but the charcuterie plate on AA in over a year, so I don't have anything to compare it to.
Based on the menu its a great reason not to fly them if you can
UGH
Ben, I think your statement of American being the only airline to allow meal pre-selection on regional airlines is incorrect. I was able to pre-select my dinner option on a Delta Connection flight from Boston to Kansas City I took on 2/17. And was able to pre-select my meal on a flight from Kansas City to Seattle, also on a Delta Connection flight.
I was flying first from LGA-MIA last year and a week before my my flight I ordered the sweet potato gnocchi. Prior to take off the FA mentioned to me that my meal wasn't loaded on to the plane. Later that month I had the sweet potato gnocchi on AA out of Miami on a flight to South America and the dish was absolutely disgusting.
Lucky, not sure if you’ve heard...rumors are widespread in China today that HNA will be taken over by Air China in the next few days. HNA cannot survive the coronavirus.
@Alex the salmon is hot-smoked. It is then chilled.
@Lucky how long do the flights have to be to qualify?
@ Sel, D -- Meal time flights of 900 miles or longer qualify.
@Jim. When I fly in First or Biz, under "My Trips"- I see an option below my flight info that says:
(Below is a Copy/Paste)
Reserve a meal
Request your first choice on your flight. You can reserve a meal beginning 30 days (and up to 24 hours) before your flight.
Review or change your order
"You probably won’t enjoy actually eating what you pre-order." The charcuterie plate has been consistently good on mainline preorder. As in so good that I would order it at a restaurant.
@ Sam -- I don't eat pork so can't speak to that, but I've been consistently disappointed by the quality of America meals.
How can you have a "hot smoked salmon cold plate"?
How do you actually pre-order? I went into a AA mainline reservation I have in July, and did not see the option. Does it show up at T-7 days or something?
@ Jim -- The option becomes available 30 days out.