American has announced a minor but positive change, which passengers on both select domestic and international flights may notice (though flight attendants aren’t happy about this)…
American expands drink service in economy
As of Wednesday, May 14, 2025, American will reinstate a second beverage service on domestic flights of over 1,500 miles. For context, American used to offer a second drink service on these flights, but cut it earlier this year, instead moving the service to being “on request.”
Obviously this was a cost cutting move, hoping people would stay less hydrated, if they weren’t proactively asked if they wanted a drink.
On top of that, the airline will introduce a pre-meal beverage service for select international flights departing before 9:01PM local departure time, rather than just serving beverages directly with the meal.
American states it “remains committed to further enhancing the customer experience throughout the travel journey, and that the changes “incorporate customer feedback and insights, ensuring the airline is adding even more value to the customers’ journey.” The airline also looks “forward to continuing serving customers and providing a premium experience in the skies.”
My goodness, if the airline were any more “premium” and committed to customer service, this would be Delta! 😉
American is slowly righting the ship, sort of
For so long, American basically found every little opportunity that it could to cut costs. It’s kind of like that story about how in the 1980s, American saved $40,000 per year by removing one olive from each salad served onboard. The airline has been doing that, except across the entire airline, but not with labor costs.
Obviously American has now realized that strategy isn’t working, based on the current financial performance. The airline is pivoting to become more premium and customer friendly, but on a budget. So we’re not seeing the airline install seat back TVs on a narrow body flights, but we are seeing the airline reverse a lot of the easy-to-fix mistakes.
We’re also seeing the airline selectively invest in things that will make customers happy, like holding more flights for connecting passengers, when there are no operational impacts.
American is unlikely to get to the level of Delta or United, because that’s just too costly, and I’m not sure it would actually help the carrier’s bottom line. However, I think the single least premium thing about American is the current service culture.
I’ve ranted about my experience at LaGuardia yesterday, and the complete apathy shown by so many American employees, especially when things go wrong. That’s what needs to be fixed more than anything else. Irregular operations happen, but American employees either don’t seem to care, or aren’t empowered to care, and that’s what’s so frustrating.
American has agreed to all kinds of new labor contracts with huge pay raises, and executives talk about how they’re investing in people. But seriously, does the airline have anything to show for that?
I don’t really blame the frontline employees. Instead, management hasn’t given them any sort of a vision for so many years, so of course there’s nothing they can get behind. When management pivots from premium, to not premium, to premium, all while saying “the schedule is the product,” what do you really expect?
Bottom line
American is restoring a second drink service in economy on domestic flights of over 1,500 miles, after cutting it earlier this year. The airline is also bringing back a pre-dinner drink service on long haul flights departing before 9:01PM local time. These are both minor but positive changes, and a step in the right direction.
What do you make of these American economy service changes?
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