American Airlines: Meals included or additional?

[ganggreen4jc]

Haven't flown AA in many years. Flying with them in July to MCO from LAX.
Are the inflight meals included or are they an additional "inflight" cost?

Anybody know?

 

[rickdeni]

I believe I read somewhere that American was moving their seats so you wouldn't have the extra leg room and they were discontinuing the free meals. We flew American from LAX to ORD last October and were served a bistro meal.

 

[cdntourguide]

I just booked American Airlines today to Orlando. Meals are not included, but on the longer flights they will have sandwiches which you can purchase.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Anybody know?

On American Airlines, complimentary meals in coach on U.S. domestic flights are now history. Even on 9-hour Chicago-to-Hawaii flights, there are no longer free meals in coach.

On selected flights, American sells meals. For pictures and prices, see http://www.aa.com/content/travelInformation/duringFlight/dining/domesticMealService.jhtml

American still serves meals in coach on flights to Europe and Asia.

 

[Tinseltown Trauma]

Per a conversation I had w/AA the other day, meals are still provided in some cases--it depends on the TIME OF DAY you fly, as well as distance/destination. For instance, no meal if you fly a red-eye. Beverage service still provided on all flights. Call them to be sure about meals on your specific flight.

TT

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

For instance, no meal if you fly a red-eye.

That's not quite true. On redeyes across the Atlantic to Europe, American Airlines still serves a complimentary dinner and a complimentary breakfast snack in coach ("Main Cabin").

But in coach within the U.S. and Canada on American Airlines, there is no complimentary meal on any flight -- it doesn't matter if it's a redeye, daytime flight, short flight, long flight, transcontinental flight, or even a flight to Hawaii.

See the link in my previous post in this thread. It explains exactly which flights offer complimentary meals, $3 snack boxes, $5 sandwiches, or nothing at all (except for beverages and pretzels).

 

[Tinseltown Trauma]

I was referring only to domestic red-eye. In any case, I'm sure you are correct--after I posted I thought about the fact that the person I'd been talking to was an Aadvantage csr, not a reservationist; I believe what she was saying was accurate--for 6 months ago! When I flew AA to D.C. last Oct., had nothing on the red-eye on outbound, but had evening meal on the return to L.A. Have no doubt that things have changed in the short time since then, and the csr probably wasn't completely up to speed.....I personally don't care about meal service anymore. Lotsa people quibbling about meal or no meal (you should see the thread from a couple of days ago). Is the rubber food really so important? I'm flying Song to MCO, and will take the personal television over the meal any day. And since I've pretty much had it with American's declining caliber of customer service, both on the ground and in the air, it won't be my first--or even second--choice carrier anymore!

TT

 

[CarolA]

Just bring food. The food they served when they did was horrid and they tend to run out of the stuff people want on the sales. Leaving you with the "least popular option" (And AA has customer service? A CSR there once called me a "witch". Great customer service LOL!)

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

I believe what she was saying was accurate--for 6 months ago!

Yep!

The new meal policy for American Airlines began February 1, 2005. For more information about this news, see http://www.airlinequality.com/news/201204-American.htm

The good news is that airport food has improved greatly in over the past ten years. I normally arrive at the airport two hours before my scheduled flight time, and have a meal at a table service restaurant.

At Chicago-O'Hare, there are two table service restaurants right in the American terminal -- a Chili's and a Wolfgang Puck. Both are quite good. There's also a large food court with a wide selection of choices. Unfortunately, not all airports are as good as Chicago-O'Hare.

It's worth figuring our ahead of time on which side of security the restaurants are located. At Chicago-O'Hare, they're all after security, but at many airports, the choices are extremely llimited (and often awful) after security.

 

[CarolA]

The other thing is that lots of resturants at the airport will pack to go. If you fly via Cincinatti, the Wolfgang Pucks has good salads. In Atlanta I like the sandwiches at Plane Delicious. Orlando has an Outback on the Delta terminal (You can easily go over there if you are flying SW same security checkpoint)

 

[rickdeni]

I booked my flights to Orland on AA this morning and for years there has been no food from Chicago since it is only a 2 1/2 hour flight. However, I was looking at flights to San Juan in June and some of the flights had free meals and on some flights you had to purchase meals. I personnally always liked American's Bistro meals. What can you do to a sandwich or a breakfast of bagel, bananas, muffin and juice?

 

[klh999]

I just fly AA to Hawaii from NY, with a connecting flight through Chicago. I flew during the day and at night, both times they had either a snack pack at $3 or if you prefered a turkey wrap at $5.

I have to say, both were better than any airline food. I was happy to pay the extra money and have a meal that I could actually eat.

I think if you fly earlier they have a breakfast snack pack with a breakfast bar etc., for $3

In my opinion, I prefer to pay for better food. I am very happy with AA's new food policy