I’m currently on a flight in American Airlines economy, which brings me to something I’ve been meaning to write about for quite some time (since I do fly American economy a fair bit).
In this post:
American’s abysmal buy on board food selection
On “full service” carriers in the United States, it’s pretty standard to get complimentary non-alcoholic drinks and a very light snack (like pretzels or cookies) on domestic flights, with everything else being available for purchase. There are of course some exceptions, like Southwest serving snack boxes on some longer flights, some Hawaii flights having more complimentary catering, etc. However, that’s the exception rather than the norm.
You’d think that being able to sell snacks onboard would be a good revenue opportunity for an airline (American could use more of those!), yet it’s something that American seems to put almost no effort into. Ever since the start of the pandemic, American’s buy on board food selection has been so bad.
For example, at the moment American’s buy on board food selection is only available on flights of over 1,300 miles (roughly three hours), and consists of just three choices — packaged nuts, packaged chips, and a fruit and cheese plate.
Never mind the fact that there’s no option to pre-order these items, so good luck actually getting the item you want available. It sure seems to me like this is a very long minimum flight time to be able to buy snacks, and on top of that, the selection is just lousy.
As a point of comparison, before the pandemic it was possible to buy packaged snacks on flights of at least 700 miles, and there was a much bigger selection of fresh dishes on flights of over 1,100 miles, ranging from salads, to sandwiches, to cheese plates.
American lags the competition with buy on board
I don’t want to pick on American here, so let’s be objective and compare American’s offerings to those of other airlines. Let me summarize, roughly ranked in terms of quality:
- Alaska buy on board offers a huge selection of fresh and packaged snacks on flights of over 775 miles, plus legitimate hot meals on flights over 1,100 miles, and you can also pre-order them
- United buy on board offers packaged snacks and snack boxes on flights of over 500 miles, plus a variety of fresh meals on flights of over 1,190 miles; on top of that, you can pre-order your selection, so that you’re guaranteed your choice
- Delta buy on board offers snack boxes on flights of over 900 miles, plus more substantial options on flights of over 1,500 miles
As you can see, Alaska is by far the best, followed by United, followed by Delta, followed by American. In the interest of being thorough, I should mention that Southwest doesn’t sell food on any flight, but does offer free snack boxes on longer flights.
So I think the logical question is why American doesn’t offer more buy on board options. After all, you’d think this would be a way to generate revenue, no?
The only theory I can come up with is that American AAdvantage Executive Platinum members receive a complimentary snack and alcoholic drink in economy. Is American not selling more items because it doesn’t want to give them away for free? After all, elite ranks have definitely swelled due to the Loyalty Points system, and upgrades are also harder to clear, since American aggressively sells upgrades for cash.
That means there are a lot more Executive Platinum members in economy than in the past. For example, I was number eight on the upgrade list for my flight today. So perhaps the economics of buy on board are challenging because of the number of items that American has to give away.
Bottom line
American isn’t exactly known for offering a world class inflight experience, and that even applies to what the airline will sell you in economy. American has the weakest buy on board food selection of any major US airline. Food is only available for purchase on flights of over 1,300 miles, and even then, the selection is absurdly limited.
You’d think that this would be an area where American could easily improve. However, it seems that the privilege of buying something half decent in economy is another victim of the pandemic.
What do you make of American’s lackluster buy on board snack selection?
You rank Alaska first stating that they offer a huge selection of fresh and packaged food starting at 775 miles. That's incorrect. In the photo you posted below that it says Alaska starts serving fresh food at 1100 miles. United should have been ranked first for coach food with packaged food starting at 500 miles and fresh food at 1190 miles United sells hot food vs Alaska's cold food.
If I were a passenger, I would buy food inside the airport and then bring it on board. The airplane is not a restaurant!
AA has the same problem Boeing has - they aren't trying harder because they don't feel they have to.
Worst thing is they obviously offer the same Gin as Alaska does. Aviation Gin. Worst I have ever had, tastes like industrial dishwater. Or maybe that's because they serve it in cardboard cups, that start disintegrating during the second drink. Well, I guess it saves a few cents over a decent international brand, so the profit margin goes from 1,000% to 1,250%, But that's my guess. Who would pay more than 1$ wholesale for a...
Worst thing is they obviously offer the same Gin as Alaska does. Aviation Gin. Worst I have ever had, tastes like industrial dishwater. Or maybe that's because they serve it in cardboard cups, that start disintegrating during the second drink. Well, I guess it saves a few cents over a decent international brand, so the profit margin goes from 1,000% to 1,250%, But that's my guess. Who would pay more than 1$ wholesale for a thimble of booze in a plastic bottle? And the food they offer? Well, that's why I always bring my own. But I guess, folks never learned the secret of making a sandwich of their liking, and sticking it in a Ziploc bag for a quarter of the price.
Surely a lot of Americans are fat enough without the need to snack on a flight?
Well actually that’s the whole reason. Fat customers are always hungry and there’s so much potential revenue being left untapped.
I don't fly Delta so can't comment there. With United and Alaska though, it's interesting.
Alaska has a number of pre-order fresh food items, and recently brought back a few hot options, but they have to be pre-ordered. If you don't, they likely won't have extras for you to buy. This helps manage waste but can be annoying for the customer. In case of IRROPS, you won't get that meal you ordered. (And on one...
I don't fly Delta so can't comment there. With United and Alaska though, it's interesting.
Alaska has a number of pre-order fresh food items, and recently brought back a few hot options, but they have to be pre-ordered. If you don't, they likely won't have extras for you to buy. This helps manage waste but can be annoying for the customer. In case of IRROPS, you won't get that meal you ordered. (And on one of my flights, they failed to board my pre-ordered dish completely, and the FAs had very few items to offer instead.)
With United, I do appreciate that you can get fresh food even if you don't preorder. Alaska's catering tastes better though.
Pre-covid AA had more options, nothing terrific, but decent. I ordered them regularly. But now they are too damn cheap to go back to normal.
Exactly Timo. And that’s a another shame that such a legacy carrier has gone the way of low cost carriers
Exactly Timo. And that’s an another shame that such a legacy carrier has gone the way of low cost carriers.
Air Canada has a robust buy on board program as good, if not better than most US carriers.
AA is deplorable - more than once have I been on a nonstop MIA-LAX transcon and they had nothing but pretzels. Sad state of what has happened to a once great airline.
Yes very impressive. Also including rouge which manages to have a better offering than AA
They also continue to serve crap snacks (pretzels... Yuck! And biscoff... Tired of them)
Last month flew American roundtrip economy LAX - Honolulu. The catering was abysmal. Going we only got a packet of Biscoff cookies (although I was able later in the flight to ask for a second packet); on the return we got the Biscoff cookies AND a small bag of pretzels. The buy-on-board were the Doritos (cool ranch flavor only) or I think the cheese plate. For the length of the flights this was pretty cheap,...
Last month flew American roundtrip economy LAX - Honolulu. The catering was abysmal. Going we only got a packet of Biscoff cookies (although I was able later in the flight to ask for a second packet); on the return we got the Biscoff cookies AND a small bag of pretzels. The buy-on-board were the Doritos (cool ranch flavor only) or I think the cheese plate. For the length of the flights this was pretty cheap, especially since the return was basically over dinner time, getting in too late to easily find food other than fast food. Fortunately I was aware of the possibility so we brought food on with us, but it sounded like others on board were not so prepared.
American has ALWAYS sucked in the catering department. Always... I think they simply don't care. In my organization I was authorized F class over 2 hours but in HAD to be on AA. OMG, when I would get IRROP to DL or UA ...WOW what a difference. No, American simply doesn't care, especially in the main cabin.
The AAdvantage program is a joke these days!
I can't redeem my miles for my choicest airlines to travel internationally, nor can I use them to book a particular hotel that shows up but can't be booked because of a bug or an issue. When was the last time we saw Qatar or Cathay showing up? Like never!
They have canceled at least 6 flights a couple of hours before departure in the...
The AAdvantage program is a joke these days!
I can't redeem my miles for my choicest airlines to travel internationally, nor can I use them to book a particular hotel that shows up but can't be booked because of a bug or an issue. When was the last time we saw Qatar or Cathay showing up? Like never!
They have canceled at least 6 flights a couple of hours before departure in the past 2 years, including sending an email at 2 AM for a 6 AM flight!
It's disheartening to feel that my loyalty status, whether as a Platinum Pro or a regular flyer, is not being recognized.
AA removed their galley ovens with the oasis interiors so they *can't* do hot meals on narrowbodies anymore.
There is a recent video out there of AA's Vice-President of Inflight Service stating it does not matter that is served onboard because flyers choose AA based on onetime departure and reliability. After this confession, anybody who stills flies this airline is prohibited from complaining about service.
Most countries don’t stress about onboard food because their airports have decent sandwich and takeaway options at somewhat reasonable prices. American airports on the other hand have pitiful food choices at exorbitant prices.
If I had a four hour trip within Europe, I would want some option of onboard food.
Why eat the crap on a plane? Buy a tasty €4 sandwich in the terminal (add a € for a crisp and soft drink combo with the sandwich) and enjoy a tasty meal at 39000 feet. In an American airport you can buy a $16 dollar greasy buritto or an over-powered cinnamon bagel for $12. Yuk.
America West, what we serve is you.
America is a third world country when it comes to food. I wish I could buy food from another country.
Exactly! I call it a 4th world country in terms of quality of food.. but fine, I can upgrade it by a notch.
The hell are you talking about?
Most countries serve quality food even in their domestic flights, economy (pay option) and business/ first class (included). From Mideast to SE Asia, Asia and Europe, check out the quality of food they serve in flight or airport restaurants at a commendable price, and the cattle fodder garbage for $15-20 that they serve in the US flights or airports.
US is a fourth world country when it...
The hell are you talking about?
Most countries serve quality food even in their domestic flights, economy (pay option) and business/ first class (included). From Mideast to SE Asia, Asia and Europe, check out the quality of food they serve in flight or airport restaurants at a commendable price, and the cattle fodder garbage for $15-20 that they serve in the US flights or airports.
US is a fourth world country when it comes of quality of food, whether in restaurants or flights, doesn't matter to people or owners. Period.
"US is a fourth world country when it comes of quality of food, whether in restaurants or flights, doesn't matter to people or owners. Period."
Lmfao, nah.
America has great food, you just sound very snobby. Even Europe and Asia has meh or bad food. And no bringing up "but they eat processed crap" isn't an argument. It's just sneering and being overly arrogant.
Really? No, I don't sound snobby, but you sound ignorant in food category. I have never heard someone saying Americans have better food quality compared to Europe and Asia.
The amount of $$ the NIH (read Gov) spends to retrofit Americans goes to show what food you eat and what it does to the body.
Can we get better quality food or produce? Yes, but that comes with a price almost 3x the...
Really? No, I don't sound snobby, but you sound ignorant in food category. I have never heard someone saying Americans have better food quality compared to Europe and Asia.
The amount of $$ the NIH (read Gov) spends to retrofit Americans goes to show what food you eat and what it does to the body.
Can we get better quality food or produce? Yes, but that comes with a price almost 3x the value that you'd get in Europe and Asia. Go ahead, do some grocery shopping and you will see.
Also - AA CC's give you a % off or a daily credit on BOB food. The Barclay silver gives you $25 per day - so you can't use it. I have even total a FA - I want to buy up to the $25 - if too much I will give it to a seat mate. I get the 3X LP points at no cost.
“American Airlines : Why so bad?”
Fixed it for you
Completely agree. AA is terrible. Even on a long file, they don't even offer it unless you ask. As EXP of course it is free. I seem to think the AA don't offer it - they what is left over they can eat. Once order the cheese plate, and the FA they don't have it on the cart - she would bring it up after the service was over. Used to be they would ask...
Completely agree. AA is terrible. Even on a long file, they don't even offer it unless you ask. As EXP of course it is free. I seem to think the AA don't offer it - they what is left over they can eat. Once order the cheese plate, and the FA they don't have it on the cart - she would bring it up after the service was over. Used to be they would ask EXP if they wanted a snack. I think AA was mostly giving away to EXP's and then eating it themselves - so revenue from it. If you don't offer it no one will buy.
They’re not offered from the cart because they only board about 7 per flight, usually not enough to even give each EP one, so FA wait until they ask. If they were offered from the cart, they’d be gone by row 10.
they blame “poor sales” as the reason they don’t wanna update the buy on board. we the fa’s have continued writing this up & asking for more options and they keep saying they will not as it isn’t “profitable”. it isn’t profitable because they have our 3 options for sale at 1300 miles which is very specific flights and there’s no fresh food & their times are so specific that many flights don’t make the...
they blame “poor sales” as the reason they don’t wanna update the buy on board. we the fa’s have continued writing this up & asking for more options and they keep saying they will not as it isn’t “profitable”. it isn’t profitable because they have our 3 options for sale at 1300 miles which is very specific flights and there’s no fresh food & their times are so specific that many flights don’t make the cut. before covid all of our snacks and boxes were sold on all flights over like 150 miles or so and fresh food at 1200+ and the timings weren’t as specific and we had breakfast offerings and could pre order! to be fair the main reason it also wasn’t working recently was a lot of our fa’s don’t want to bother even doing a food cart like we used to which marketed the food for sale while in the aisle.
Wow - so the FAs don't want to be bothered to sell it. They just want to sit in the back and chat the whole flight. And the want a big raise to just stil around for 80% of the flight.
It seems pretty obvious that every department at AA operates their own P&L with little to no overall strategy/coordination, beyond each individual department must show the best P&L. Food is probably little to no profit. So as no one then owns an overall product vision that includes any onboard food, this is the result.
What's the primary purpose of an airline? Is it to get one from point A to point B - or - is it a gourmet restaurant?
Next time, FedEx yourself.
What's the purpose of needing a seat if you're just going from point A to point B.
What a strange comment. Who said in economy it had to be a gourmet restaurant? But some decent food choices would be good. Is that OK with you? For me, along with no seat back TVs, this would be yet another reason not to fly American on anything other than the shortest of hops.
AA's (mis)management team views each ticket purchased as a vote of confidence. Until people stop flying on American, things will not change.
JetBlue has a great offering onboard, definitely have a look at it as well for comparison.
AA recovered service in FC / BC faster then either UA or DL but continues lag with BOB which I think is a result of Zoe's Kitchen going under during the pandemic and other priorities like getting planes in the air and FA contracts got in the way. Also the mess that they made of their business program didn't help either. I hope that in the coming year they partner with a Panera or a...
AA recovered service in FC / BC faster then either UA or DL but continues lag with BOB which I think is a result of Zoe's Kitchen going under during the pandemic and other priorities like getting planes in the air and FA contracts got in the way. Also the mess that they made of their business program didn't help either. I hope that in the coming year they partner with a Panera or a Kneaders (American Bistro by Panera mabye?) to bring some type of pre-order and BOB limited options for longer flights. Also, a step up would be add free cold meal to cross country / Non XLR or Flagship service flights, like PHL to PHX or MIA to SEA for example and flight to Hawaii to start to raise the bar. AA service in general domestically is on par with DL and UA (sorry TV screens don't improve my experience one bit, nor does slow and free WiFi) but adding this perk to long haul and making selections available again would be a hit and make a difference.
Look at European airlines. British Airways has high quality but on board, and Easyjet’s might even be better. Improving the payment technology will go a long way (chip and pin maybe too!) and a major improvement in quality. BA outsources much of their food products to a high end British purveyor.
They even cut the sparkling flavored water I enjoyed! It's a crime how bad their catering is.
To be fair, Coca-Cola discontinued the AHA brand.
I am now retired, and don't fly as much as I did a couple of years ago. I live in an AA hub, currently Platinum, but also a Million Miler so have "Lifetime Gold". AA has definitely gone downhill, but so have the others. I wish that they had a more robust B-O-B program in place
I fly mostly AA, but still sometimes on UA - AA EXP and UA LT 1K. But a United flight is so much more pleasant.
This is a mix of incompetence, laziness, and going against their anti-customer ethos. Why sell food (where they—unsurprisingly— haven’t figured out how to make/take money) when you can sell…cReDiT cArDs.
United offers free food items to 1K's and there are a lot of 1K's that don't get upgraded as well given UA's monetization of first class so it in theory would be the same problem.
United, of course, has far stronger technology so they've had iPhones for all flight attendants and pre-loaded credit card readers for quite some time. While they sometimes give away food and drinks out of policy, it's largely recorded (they even...
United offers free food items to 1K's and there are a lot of 1K's that don't get upgraded as well given UA's monetization of first class so it in theory would be the same problem.
United, of course, has far stronger technology so they've had iPhones for all flight attendants and pre-loaded credit card readers for quite some time. While they sometimes give away food and drinks out of policy, it's largely recorded (they even note when they're giving a drink or food item for free if someone switches seats for a family for example) and certainly they're mostly charging for it for non-1K's.
Apparently, we don’t care what they serve onboard. We only care if the flight is on time, according to AA management.
And they aren't even successful with that.
Note that Alaska's 100K members get a free food item too, and that doesn't seem to preclude a solid food selection for AS.
I think you are over-thinking this. AA management is just incompetent and managing a in-flight food sales requires a certain level of planning and execution that they just lack.
Agreed. They focus on one issue/metric only: on-time departure.
I've never understood this. Pre ordering is like pre paying for your meal at a high end restaurant. It's just smart business sense. You know exactly what you need and for whom. Let customers pre order food and even pre mixed, batched cocktails.
Hell, when I flew on Virgin in the US years ago, you could order shit on your headrest screen and have it delivered to your seat. Literally a decade ago for a domestic flight....
They're so good, they're gone.
"yet it’s something that American seems to put almost no effort into."
Sadly this applies to a lot of the AA product anymore.
UA does have some ok offers but those snack boxes contain almost all highly processed crap.
It comes down to money. Clearly AA looks at the coach product as a slightly better version of Spirit.
Yes, but even Spirit has a more robust offering of buy on board items. So they clearly understand the revenue potential, whereas AA seems to be shortsighted on that.
Zoe's Kitchen doesn't even exist as a restaurant anymore; all their locations (and their corporate name) changed to Cava.
This would make you suspect that the Zoe's Kitchen brand has been repurposed as catering / airplane food. But I just checked Cava's latest annual report; it shows zero revenue related to Zoe's Kitchen and makes no mention of its business with American Airlines.
My theory is AA never bothered to update their printed menu....
Zoe's Kitchen doesn't even exist as a restaurant anymore; all their locations (and their corporate name) changed to Cava.
This would make you suspect that the Zoe's Kitchen brand has been repurposed as catering / airplane food. But I just checked Cava's latest annual report; it shows zero revenue related to Zoe's Kitchen and makes no mention of its business with American Airlines.
My theory is AA never bothered to update their printed menu. When you go to AA's website, the only buy-on-board food they mention is an $8 pack of almonds, $5 can of Doritos, and $11 fruit and cheese plate.
Everything is a mess.
Ben was saying that Zoe's Kitchen was the provider/brand they used prior to COVID, they haven't partnered with Zoe's/Cava/etc since 2020.
Hi Ben, FA for AA mainline here.
Money, it all comes down to money. The #1 reason for our lack of offerings is because we have a long standing issue of not being able to properly record sales. I’m loosely quoting a communication from management, but almost 50% of our onboard product goes unaccounted for. AA claims to actually lose money with our buy-onboard offerings. Part of this reason is the abysmal credit card readers...
Hi Ben, FA for AA mainline here.
Money, it all comes down to money. The #1 reason for our lack of offerings is because we have a long standing issue of not being able to properly record sales. I’m loosely quoting a communication from management, but almost 50% of our onboard product goes unaccounted for. AA claims to actually lose money with our buy-onboard offerings. Part of this reason is the abysmal credit card readers (POS) that we’re issued. Later this quarter we’re rolling out a new credit card reader that is supposed to be much more user friendly (and actually work), and it’s been mentioned in company comms that linking cards to AAdvantage profiles for purchases is coming down the pipeline as well. And let’s be honest, we can barely get catering right out of our major hubs like DFW/CLT/PHL, so why complicate things by adding more. Cheers!
It wouldn't be a proper representation of America without the ironic inability to quickly facilitate purchases.
From buying furniture to getting contractors to do work on a house, to paying with a credit card, it's almost like most businesses in the US don't even want your money anymore. When we had movers deliver a truck full of our stuff interstate, they would only accept PayPal to complete the transaction and allow the workers to...
It wouldn't be a proper representation of America without the ironic inability to quickly facilitate purchases.
From buying furniture to getting contractors to do work on a house, to paying with a credit card, it's almost like most businesses in the US don't even want your money anymore. When we had movers deliver a truck full of our stuff interstate, they would only accept PayPal to complete the transaction and allow the workers to get started. PayPal.
Earlier this year in India, we used tap-to-pay to buy mangoes from a roadside vendor in Kerala. In fact, going from LHR-BOM-TRV-DXB over the course of two weeks, I don't think we hit an ATM once.
But then that's all the more reason to invest in pre-ordering where payments are more likely to be processed correctly.
Yes, catering from hub is still an issue.
How could you not cater amenity kits and slippers from your hub for long haul flights.
If you can't even take care of customers for one flight how do we expect to rely on when being a long term elite.
These are several thousand dollar tickets that will go towards Delta next time.
As an EP, I can share the chance for a complimentary snack in coach for EPs this year hovers around 10%. There’s simply no quality control…no one’s watching over the program.
In regard to buying snacks on board….AA is hoping no one notices and their service level can become the norm.
Is food seriously that big of a deal on flights, especially short domestic ones in economy?
Most people know that airplane food is gross and overpriced.
@ Yoloswag420 -- We're not talking about short flights, we're also talking about five to six hour transcon flights.
I took a business trip from LAX-PHL where we only got a biscoff because the scheduled departure time was 5 minutes before their BOB window.
I thought you didn't fly economy on those since you're only doing economy on short flights, based on your previous post.
Regardless, this is such a non-issue, I'm surprised people are up in arms about it.
If you need to eat on a plane, pack some food, it's cheaper, healthier, and probably tastier.
No one is so short on time that they physically cannot go to the store and do that.
Some people are short on time. No time to buy food in the airport and no time to buy after landing. So eating while on board may be the only sustenance they get for awhile.
I generally wouldn't have the food, but after a 5 hour CLT-SAN flight without food in the airport because my inbound flight was 90 minutes late and learning AA decided that 2,000 mile flight didn't deserve BOB catering that day (not even sold out, it simply wasn't catered and the FA said that happens way more than they like), it's extremely annoying that AA completely half-asses BOB.
Pretty simple reason, it doesn't actually make any money.
It's cheaper than offering free food, but still pricey.
Alaska and United offer it as they want to satisfy their customers, but AA cannot care less about them.
They're not making money on an $8 bag of almonds?!?
At what rate are they buying 100,000 of them wholesale? 80c each?
And on the opposite side I think they’re the only carrier to offer a meal in economy on premium transcon routes
One thing to remember as well is that American primarily excels at connecting people through Dallas (roughly <3 hours from about everywhere in the continental US) or, on the East Coast, through Charlotte (less than 2.5 hours from most places up and down the East Coast).
Yes, there is Miami to Seattle, but those are the exception, rather than the norm. Alaska, Delta, and United rely much more heavily on their coastal hubs (if we...
One thing to remember as well is that American primarily excels at connecting people through Dallas (roughly <3 hours from about everywhere in the continental US) or, on the East Coast, through Charlotte (less than 2.5 hours from most places up and down the East Coast).
Yes, there is Miami to Seattle, but those are the exception, rather than the norm. Alaska, Delta, and United rely much more heavily on their coastal hubs (if we count Atlanta as a coastal hub), with a larger number of longer flights. Thus, catering better meals at scale is, in theory, easier.
I don't have the hard data, but that's my guess.
@ HT -- Totally fair, and I think that's largely accurate. Of course it's still important to note that CLT and PHX are huge connecting hubs, and are also nearly coastal hubs, in terms of some flight lengths. Even for those connecting in DFW, though, many don't have time to get any food at the airport, given the short minimum connection times. So if anything, the frequency of connections through DFW should be all the...
@ HT -- Totally fair, and I think that's largely accurate. Of course it's still important to note that CLT and PHX are huge connecting hubs, and are also nearly coastal hubs, in terms of some flight lengths. Even for those connecting in DFW, though, many don't have time to get any food at the airport, given the short minimum connection times. So if anything, the frequency of connections through DFW should be all the more reason to have a better selection on shorter flights, in my opinion.
Absolutely agree!
Correct. Although I wouldn’t say they excel at anything. They just primarily connect people through Dallas (quite poorly, usually).