American Trialing Business Class Service Improvements

February 16th.

Olives!!! In the 1980s, American famously removed one olive from its salads, claiming it saved $1 million a year. But, good to see American working on its premium products, on the ground and in the air.

I bet you they will keep serving the welcome drink in a plastic cup with a Coca Cola paper napkin.

Lounge access on domestic first class flights would be welcome having paid a higher price than economy.

Too little, too late.

Thank You! Much too little, WAY too late!

The new hard product will be great but everything else will still be the same old. Still good news with new aircraft and business class product .

Well, add a few olives (yuk!) and everyone will be happy! That’s such an AA thing to do. I get adding doors. Too late??? Lounge access for domestic first class, never. Why?

I can take or leave the olives and the warm desserts. The problem lately has been the celebrity chef offerings which are spice laden with crazy ingredients which just don’t come together for my palete. I’d prefer they focus on quality prime ingredients and abandon the current program.

So much better than anything on United and better seats and newer planes than Delta.

you and your alter ego (T-) sure do feel triggered today. Lounge access for Domestic first class? No one does that. lol.

On a side note, I don't actually get the deal with doors on a J suite. Maybe it's just me. it does seem to be the direction of the industry, but I don't really get how that's an improvement. It almost feels creepier having the Flight Attendant peer over the door to check your seatbelt.

Glad to hear that. I've recently balked at AA Flagship pricing for international routes... 0% chance I'd pay the same as other OW carriers for J or discounted fare. Hopefully this will change things.

Based on the photo, is AA offering labia crisps in first?

Georgia O’Keefe would have been impressed.

Alaska provides lounge access for paid domestic first.

Just wait, in 2-3 years, some AA minion will get promoted for cutting costs by eliminating the olives...

Alaska Air gives lounge access to everyone in domestic first.

I have noticed an improvement in helpfullness in forward cabins and in premium lounges. iIn
The attendants in domestic and intl forward cabins present a helpful attitude. The service in the new AA/BA lounge is outstanding. Flagship lounge staff are helpful also.

What I dont know if it is because i'm Exec Plat or just general improvement in premium service.

What ever the reason, please keep it up. I recently flew Qatar Biz and Qsuites. Once can hope American and domestic flights get to their level

Did your grammar/spelling checker not catch "trailing" in the headline for this post. Verbing nouns is not a good practice:-)

I would rather have American focus on the quality of ingredients than olives, celebrity chef inspired menus,...

With the rise in business class fares, it's good to see American reinvest some of its profits back in the product.

Flying JFK to LAX is a 2300 mile flight. The A321XLR has too much range for this distance. Curious what AA plans to do for JFK-SNA/SFO/LAX aircraft.

They should improve their economy class meals that are the worst in the industry.

All served with the traditional warm welcome and AA cabin crew service smile!

It would be better if AA worked on improving the quality of the current service and food rather introducing new food item (s). Adding a dish of olives will increase the work for the flight attendants which some are already edgy.

Business class with doors is rated highly with many female business travelers for the security and privacy when sleeping.

Only in the oblivious bubble of AA World is plonking a few (3 - 4) WalMart olives in a little serving bowl considered an 'improvement' worthy of a 'trial run'(!)

This just feels like a red flag that indicates AA still doesn’t get it. I mean a few olives, really? And what exactly is there to “test?” Of course people will like having more stuff, and some people just won’t like olives. Do you really need to roll this out to learn that?

As others have said, I would much rather see AA improve the quality of its food. Stop with the beef cheek and short ribs already, they are fatty and gross and stink up the cabin. Every time they have fish on the menu, they seem to run out by the time they get to me — shouldn’t that tell them something? That’s a real world test that’s going on every day and they still don’t seem to adjust their catering.

I think they should also focus on the quality of the service from the FA’s. This has always been my gripe with AA.

Love that you’re getting all excited about the potential arrival of nuts AND olives before meal service ….yeah, that’s going to make me continue reading your blog….

I know the feeling. But still better than reading those interminable credit card advertorials.

My Wife and Me travel from SJ/Mia Mia/SJ once a Month. There Service and Personal Actitud are better. And the food flavor and Look 200 o/o better. We paid a Premium, but we received the Quality.
Kudos! Jaime/Aida

Pre-order your fish. Problem solved.

you all seem to be missing that Alaska is drastically reducing that access now. We'll see if they keep it in the future.
With all respect to Alaska, they aren't one of the major US3 network carriers and, like I said, they're reducing that access already.

@Ben I agree with you that it really doesn't matter if they improve food if they don't improve the service culture. I just flew JFK-TLV and TLV-MIA. The service could be considered at best indifferent. TLV-MIA is one of their ultralong hauls so they had mattress pads which were awesome -- should be on every long haul flight -- and PJs which were much cheaper than the F ones. But even though my FA bonded with me about living in Atlanta, she was still indifferent at best. Really sad. So much opportunity there...

I have never flown AA Premium Cabin Internationally, but what I have read on here aligns with most sentiments on UA...Stop getting crazy with the ingredients, the majority of the traveling public isn't into it...A nice beef, a decent pasta, and an edible fish or chicken, that's all that is needed...FWIW, I eat in the Polaris lounge before getting onboard and am more then satisfied with nuts, champagne and dessert onboard...Hard to go wrong with that...

I'd rather AA put some effort into the staff flying their long haul routes. I've flown between Auckland and Sydney and DFW and LAX Recently and found it very off putting that most of the crew had never travelled on such long haul flights let alone worked them. It's a safety issue They were clearly having difficulty physically with such long flights which is not good for the passengers or the crew themselves. They had no clue as to the importance of passengers moving to avoid DVT or providing them with water regularly. And of course they had no clue about service ie getting a refill drink or anything else. I also find it very strange that they collect the Bose headsets at least an hour before landing as though they think they premium passengers are about to steal them, very strange.

I don't mind if I'm flying PBI/CLT & they say there'll be no service & just stand there chatting to each other. I don't mind about extra nuts or better food even on long haul flights but I do mind about safety and I do mind about staff not being familiar or experienced with the job required for a long haul flight.

Pretty sure the only reason they are adding olives is so that they can then take away one olive and save $50,000 a year.

So this means that the rest of us will be paying for this in additional higher airfares!!