As most of you probably know by now, American and US Airways aligned their domestic catering as of September 1, 2014. For American flyers, these changes haven’t been pretty.
Beginning on Tuesday, November 18th, there will be some further updates to the domestic first class catering for both American and US Airways.
Which is a good thing, because while I’m not usually someone that has a lot to say about domestic airline food, I’ve been pretty vocal about these changes, based on my flights since September 1:
- My first experience with the new catering featured the worst chicken dish I’ve ever had in a premium cabin
- My second experience with the new catering featured an absolutely horrible beef dish
- Worst of all was my flight in early October, where I tried the new first class sandwich — I think the pictures speak for themselves
American’s current first class “sandwich”
American updated their website today to reflect the upcoming adjustments:
So what exactly is changing here?
- The minimum flight time for a meal switches from about 2:45 to about 2:30, and American is adding further exception markets
- On flights of 2:00 to 2:30, American previously just offered a snack basket, but will now offer hot nuts and “higher quality sandwiches” (which isn’t going to be a challenge, sadly)
- Ice cream will return on flights of over 3:30, as opposed to the cake American has been serving since September 1
- Beginning on December 1st, the breakfast window will be rolled back to 9:45, rather than 9:01, so more morning flights will actually have breakfast rather than lunch
Bottom line
Kudos to American on these changes. They’re ultimately not game changers, though it’s nice to hear that they’re listening. I certainly welcome the return of hot nuts and ice cream (even if my waistline doesn’t), along with the return of meals on slightly shorter flights. And I’m also happy that they specifically reference “higher quality” sandwiches.
And the always yummy baked onboard cookies are history, too. Now they are pre baked and I have been served them with the meal a few times now. The old FA cows seem to enjoy shoving it all at you at once.
The First chicken dish continues to be inedible. Sometimes I would just as soon not be upgraded, as the free (for EXP) BOB food has improved. The chicken Caesar salad has improved (better chicken) and the sandwich as well.
Unfortunately the US folks that are now running AA dining services continue to use sub-par quality items. All entrees are frozen "pop outs" instead of freshly prepared. Previously on AA at lunch time you had a choice of a fresh salad or a hot entree - so you had a chance to be a bit healthier. Now every meal is an option of two hot entrees - both frozen pop outs. Even the protein served...
Unfortunately the US folks that are now running AA dining services continue to use sub-par quality items. All entrees are frozen "pop outs" instead of freshly prepared. Previously on AA at lunch time you had a choice of a fresh salad or a hot entree - so you had a chance to be a bit healthier. Now every meal is an option of two hot entrees - both frozen pop outs. Even the protein served on appetizers comes in as frozen, pre-cooked. The worst part is that the sandwiches are pre-made, pre-packaged, frozen.
On Feb 1 UA will switch from the same type of meals to more freshly prepared including all sandwiches will be freshly prepared.
In the end - the US folks continue to downgrade AA, even if they are adding it to more flights. Until they change direction and understand that today's traveler needs healthy and fresh options, we will continue to deal with bad food.
there's this really annoying ad popping up lately that auto redirects me to phone booster app, absolutely ridiculous.
Any word on the rumored improvements to the meals themselves (other than the snack basket)? What good is a meal if it is inedible. I haven't seen anything official in this regard.
Another change is that DCA and IAD from MIA are now "enhanced meal service". I flew MIA to DCA right after the change in September and had a similar sandwich experience. 7-11 hot dogs would have been an improvement!
Gotta join the crowd and call BS on the headline. To "continue" to improve suggests that AA previously improved something.
not impressed! 'light snack such as a fig bar....' in F class? even on a short flight they can do better than that (i know i should not compare with the full meal service on LH e.g. AMS/FRA in C class, but i just can't help it)
AA still did not HK far enough the band of up to 699 miles for a fig bar? Horrible. And the communication they did was horrible -- new heights. Hell, we aren't even back to where we were prior to 9/1. Curious. Did aa brief you in advance and ask u to be positive on the changes? Because this is far from good.
Absurd that AA cancelled the ice-cream sundae dessert in the first place. I guess their attitude was: Let them AA flyers eat cake!
You've just committed the journalistic sin of not using your critical thinking and falling into a PR trap. The headline should be "rolls back some cuts" as opposed to improved.
So how much worse is AA's service after these rollbacks in comparison to before the cuts? It's hard to tell from your post -- you should do a new post with the before and after comparison.
And boy does the food on those pictures does look absolutely gross,
C'mob American. That sandwich artist should rethink their approach. Man this makes me appreciate Delta's inflight food & beverage even more. Hoping they get better.
I think your headline is too generous. "Continue to improve"? They are just partially reversing some of the more egregious cutbacks.