For several years now American has been letting first & business class passengers pre-order meals when traveling in premium cabins. Up until now they haven’t given you access to food you couldn’t get onboard, but rather they’re just letting you choose in advance so that as many people as possible get their preferred meal choice. Presumably this also helps them better decide how much of each meal to load.
Unlike Singapore Airlines and some other airlines, though, they haven’t let you order anything that wouldn’t otherwise be available onboard. It looks like that will be changing soon.
As reported by The Forward Cabin, as of November 8, 2017, American will let first & business class passengers traveling within the continental US on a lunch or dinner flight order a fruit & cheese plate in advance in place of an entree. Passengers who select this option will receive a fruit and cheese plate with crackers, a side salad, dessert, and warm bread. This option won’t otherwise be available onboard, so it will be exclusively for those who pre-order it.
This is a fantastic concept. Sometimes neither of the main course options sounds great to me, or I just know I won’t be very hungry. In those cases, a fruit and cheese plate sounds like a nice option to have.
Interestingly American is sort of stealing Alaska’s idea. Just last week Alaska Airlines announced that they’d begin letting passengers pre-order meals when traveling in first class, on a limited basis. As part of that, they announced that passengers could also order a fruit & cheese plate in lieu of a main course. So while American will be the first airline to implement this concept on a large scale, I don’t think they can take credit for coming up with the concept.
Regardless, I’m happy to see it!
Could you see yourself ordering a fruit & cheese plate on an American flight in lieu of an entree?
(Tip of the hat to JonNYC)
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