Four years ago American Airlines raised the price of beer to $8 and wine and liquor to $9. On September 1 American Airlines raised the price of liquor – but not beer or wine – by an additional dollar, as flagged by aviation watchdog JonNYC.
This is for domestic coach, and international routes where economy drinks are charged. American’s Executive Platinum and ConciergeKey members receive a complimentary beverage in coach. Main Cabin Extra customers are supposed to as well.
Here are (8) key takeaways from the move.
- It’s like movie theater popcorn, of course it’s expensive if you want to make it part of the experience. And it’s optional.
- It’s like movie theaters enforcing a ban on bringing your own popcorn under color of law. Comedian Steven Wright used to say that he got kicked out of a theater for bringing his own food. His argument was that the concession stand prices were outrageous and besides he hadn’t had a good barbecue in a long time.
You aren’t supposed to bring your own snacks to the movies. If you bring your own beverages on a plane you may go to prison.
- It’s still cheaper than a big city bar. Of course there you’re paying for the ambiance and rent, but you’re already renting your seat from American on the flight. The interiors generally aren’t as comfortable.
- We don’t want passengers drinking anyway Drinking on plane causes problems they’re just using economics to solve a problem that affects us all. Along some margin this should mean that fewer flights divert.
- Space on a plane comes at a real premium. Former American CEO Doug Parker kept reminding us how costly those two inches are that he stole from the lavatories. So the cost of alcohol needs to reflect how valuable that space is — or else they be tempted to replace beverage carts with more seats.
- Maybe American could get rid of lavatories entirely? This change may mean fewer people need to use the bathroom, with fewer people buying booze maybe they won’t even need to have lavs.
- It could be worse. At least they aren’t charging for water like they did when this management ran US Airways.
- It’s the fault of online travel agencies for not doing a better job displaying total trip cost. Customers don’t find about the higher prices until they’re already in the air.
American Airlines spent much of the pandemic lobbying against airports allowing alcohol sales ‘to go’. That made sense when they were trying to keep alcohol off of planes, as though that rather than masks were driving passenger incidents. Having worked to enforce their monopoly they’re raising price. And somehow it’s American’s deal with JetBlue that garners anti-trust scrutiny!
Sit in the right row and you’re not paying anyway
People pay for drinks?
$2 seems like a fare price difference between liquor and beer it’s just that $10 for a mini bottle of liquor seems high.
How bad do you want it?
Totally discretionary purchase. As someone that has lifetime status on AA and DL (and currently Platinum on UA) I either get upgraded or can sit in main cabin + (or the equivalent on DL/UA) so don’t pay anyway. Also, I usually hang in the Amex Centurion lounge where I can have 2-3 really nice craft cocktails that beat anything on the plane. This is only really an issue for the unwashed masses.
“…This is only really an issue for the unwashed masses.” And they don’t read this blog anyway.
The unwashed masses pack their own minis and drink it discreetly in the terminal.
And the real distinction is that no one pays for any type of alcohol on any Delta longhaul transoceanic flight and yet the number of behavior issues isn’t any worse than on any other carrier.
Maybe the issue with alcohol on aircraft isn’t about the people but the experience that people are subjected to before they ever get on the plane. Some people can successfully have a drink or two and relax. That was true with masks and is still true.
Just because there are still way too many DUI arrests doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of people that can and do use alcohol responsibly.
Good. Less drink purchases equals less chance of drunks equals less chance of disruptions on board.
Well, they can’t seem to make money selling tickets. If that’s your ideal of a role model airline, best you reconsider your intelligence.
Replace alcohol with pay bingo, lotto or scratch cards..
Or if flying delta…dance offs
It does put a new spin / raise questions with all those “you can’t bring alcohol on board” announcements at the gate. Kind of like theaters saying “for the enjoyment of other guests” you can’t bring your own snacks.
Mr. Leff always seems to leave out that Delta used the mini-lavatories before AA and that Southwest also uses the mini-lavatories. Maybe its the selection of his writing that I have read, but I do not recall him giving those other airlines any flack for the small lavatories, especially Delta, since they had them first in the US.
Wow, you’re all over the place with is article on American charging for drinks. Lavatory space and legroom, etc.
Fact: it’s a Federal law that doesn’t allow passengers to bring alcoholic drinks on board.
Food and non alcoholic drinks are allowed to be brought on board.
A dollar increase for a mini after 4 years for isn’t bad considering our current inflation rate.
You fail to mention another positive improvement: overhead bin space has been enlarged to allow more carryon suitcases to be brought on board.
My 2 cents regarding this rant of an article.
Seems like an appropriate place to post my favorite Flyertalk trip report- 8 bottles of Dom! https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1074418-8-bottles-dom-lax-bkk-sq-f.html
I still wonder if it’s true…
@George – He says he was never drunk, yet drank 42 glasses over 26 hours. Your liver can process about one glass per hour. Let’s do the actual math. Assume he weighs 200 lbs. He probably weighs less, seems to indicate he’s skinny and always hungry, but we’ll be generous. Five drinks will give a 200 lb male a blood alcohol level of .15. So .03 per drink. (That’s for 5 ounces of wine at 12%. Dom is actually 12.5%) But reduce that by .01 for every 40 minutes. (It’s a linear rate between 100 lbs and 200 lbs, so a 100 lb male gets a BAC of .06 per drink, but processes alcohol at the same rate of .01 per 40 minutes.)
So 42 drinks would give a 200 lb male a BAC of 1.26 (42 x .03). 26 hours is 1560 minutes, or 39 processing units (1560/40), or a reduction of .39. 1.26-.39 = .87 BAC. Death is possible at levels above .30. Not guaranteed, people have been recorded at levels above 1.00 and lived to tell the tale. But not drunk? No.
The story is BS. But fun. And I suspect that at some point, they weren’t giving him full drinks. And he dreamed a lot of it.