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).
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?
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