American Airlines will reportedly be making a very nice change to first class service on some short haul flights that didn’t previously qualify for a meal service, and it’s something I’m sure passengers will be happy to see.
New service in American first class on 700-899 mile flights
As things currently stand, American serves meals in first class on flights of at least 900 miles during meal times (900 miles roughly correlates to a little over two hours of flying, on average).
In the US, this is basically the industry standard, as Delta and United have the same cutoff of 900 miles for serving meals. On flights shorter than that, airlines only offer drinks and a snack basket in first class.
It looks like American will soon be leading the industry when it comes to service in first class on shorter flights, as it brings back a program it used to offer.
JonNYC reports that American will soon be bringing back the “light bites” concept on flights of 700 to 899 miles (700 miles correlates to a little over 90 minutes of flying, on average). The exact timeline for this remains to be seen, but it sounds like this will debut on flights between New York and Chicago, which isn’t surprising.
It must be a decade at this point since American offered this concept. The idea was to serve mixed nuts on these flights in a ramekin, and then to offer some sort of fresh item that’s plated, and comes with cutlery, a napkin, etc. For example, I remember options including a small fruit & cheese plate, a hummus & veggie plate, etc.
It wasn’t really a full meal replacement, but it was better than the snack basket, and definitely showed some effort than just packaged snacks. It remains to be seen what exactly this iteration of the concept looks like, so I’ll report back when we learn more.
This is a premium cabin quirk exclusive to the US
It goes without saying that expectations of premium cabin travelers differ massively around the globe. In the Middle East, it’s common to have a 30-minute business class flight with a lie flat bed, cappuccinos, champagne, and a substantial, tasty snack.
In Europe, you’re typically stuck with a pretty underwhelming hard product on short haul flights (just economy with a blocked middle), but regardless of the length of the flight, you’re almost always served something fresh, even if the flight time is well under an hour.
In the United States, we have the benefit of actually having a dedicated first class cabin with larger seats, but the soft product just isn’t great. You can be on a flight of nearly two hours and just be served packaged snacks.
We do have to give credit to Alaska for this, as it’s the only US carrier to serve some sort of fresh food on flights of under 900 miles. On most Alaska flights you’ll get a snack on shorter services, so kudos to the airline for that.
Bottom line
American Airlines is expected to once again serve fresh food in first class on flights of 700-899 miles. The exact timeline remains to be seen, but this marks a resumption of the mini-meals we saw the airline serve in first class many years back.
Among the “big three” US carriers, American will be the only one to serve fresh food in first class on flights of under 900 miles, so kudos to the airline for that. I’m curious to learn more details.
What do you make of American serving mini-meals on shorter first class flights?
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