American Airlines has a meal pre-order program, whereby eligible premium passengers can select their meal between 30 days and 20 hours of departure. This is separate from ordering meals due to dietary restrictions, as it ensures you get your first choice, and also potentially offers access to a larger selection of dishes.
In this post, I’d like to take a look at American’s meal pre-order program works. This is something I take advantage of almost every time I’m on an eligible flight. In separate posts, I’ll cover how to pre-order meals with Delta Air Lines and how to pre-order meals with United Airlines.
Reserve your meal before you fly American Airlines
There aren’t many areas where American surpasses Delta and United when it comes to tech, but meal pre-ordering is an area where the airline leads the way. American has been offering the option to pre-select your main course on many first and business class flights for over a decade, well ahead of its peers. So, how exactly does this work?
For which American flights can you pre-select your meal?
American allows first and business class passengers to pre-select their meal. This is available for all first and business class flights where a meal is served. This applies on American Airlines flights, but doesn’t work on codeshare flights on other airlines. It also doesn’t work on flights where just refreshments are served.
When can you pre-select your American meal?
You can pre-select your American meal between 20 hours and 30 days prior to departure of a particular flight segment. So be sure that you make your selection before that 20-hour mark, since that’s the point at which the pre-order system closes.
How do you pre-select your American meal?
Pre-selecting your American meal is easy, and can be done through aa.com or the American Airlines mobile app.
If you’re going to do so through the website, just go to aa.com and visit the booking management function, to find your eligible itinerary. You can do this either by entering your six digit record locator, or by logging into your AAdvantage account.
Once you’re on an itinerary management page, scroll down to the bottom, under the heading that says “Passengers.” There you’ll see the passengers listed, and you’ll see a section that says “Inflight food.” Click the little pen next to that, and you’ll be presented with the available options.
If you’re using the American Airlines app, the process is largely similar. Just log into your AAdvantage account, go to the “Trips” section, and once you’re on your itinerary management page, scroll down to the “Reserve food” section.
Once there, you’ll be able to select your meal of choice.
What are the American pre-select meal options?
Are American’s meal pre-select options simply what you’d otherwise be offered onboard, or do you get access to more options? It depends on the flight. The pre-select option will always give you access to the options that would otherwise be available onboard.
However, in most cases you also get access to additional options (sometimes up to three). For example, there’s often some sort of a greens and grains bowl, as well as some sort of fruit and cheese plate, which might not be available onboard.
Another nice thing is that the meal pre-order page actually explains the details of each dish. When you’re onboard, a flight attendant might only describe a dish as “lasagna,” or something, while you can get a better sense of what’s being served online.
How does this compare to ordering an American special meal?
Separate from American’s option to pre-select your meal, the airline also has special meals for passengers with dietary restrictions. This can be reserved through the same method as above. Go to the “Inflight food” section, and then click on “Show more,” and you’ll see all the special meal options.
Special meals are available to all passengers on long haul international flights. It’s also available for first and business class passengers on select domestic flights. I haven’t fully figured out the pattern as to which flights have special meals, because sometimes you’ll find it available on a two hour flight in one market, but not on a flight of a similar length in another market.
If you select a special meal, that will encompass the entire meal, including any appetizers, desserts, etc. While the primary intention is that this is for those with special dietary needs, I do sometimes order special meals just to mix things up from American’s otherwise boring choices. In particular, I’ve had pretty good experiences with Asian vegetarian and Kosher options.
Why I always pre-select my meal with American Airlines
Unlike some foreign airlines, American generally loads exactly as many meals in premium cabins as there are passengers (especially in domestic first class). If you don’t select your meal in advance, expect that you’ll get what’s left over, and not your first choice.
That’s because a significant number of people pre-order meals, and unless you’re the first to be asked for your meal preference, they may have already run out of your choice by the time they get to you.
American’s catering is nothing to get excited about (to put it politely), but there are definitely some options that are better than others (or at least less bad).
American Airlines meal pre-order FAQs
Bottom line
If you’re flying American Airlines in first class or business class, you can pre-select your meal between 20 hours and 30 days of departure. While American otherwise isn’t great with tech, it’s awesome for how long American has offered this feature.
It’s something I’d highly recommend taking advantage of, since you’re otherwise not very likely to get your first choice onboard. For that matter, it even gives you access to options that may not be available onboard.
If you’re an American flyer, do you always select your meal in advance?
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.