Why Your American Airlines Flight May Not Have Ice This Week

The American Airlines caterer at Dallas – Fort Worth, LSG Sky Chefs, is short on ice and blaming supply chain for the problem. Flights are getting notes, instead of ice, in their catering drawers.

The note to flight attendants suggests not only is supply chain limiting the caterer’s ability to provide ice, but also their ability to attract employees with proper grammar and spelling ability.

Due to Supply and Legestics Issues Will Not Be Able to Provid Ice For This Position. We Apologice For Any Inconvenience This May Cause.

Now, it’s surprising cold in Texas night now, though that’s going to turn around. Friday through Sunday are projected to have highs in the 80s for the Christmas holiday. In Dallas overnight lows are quite cold. Just not quite cold enough to stick ice cube trays out on the ramp overnight and then stick them in catering drawers in the morning.

Last year it was toilet paper. That made sense as – hoarding aside – consumer demand for home use skyrocketed while office demand went down to almost zero. And now cream cheese I follow, though my local craft purveyor still has plenty (along with the only decent bagels in Austin). But I didn’t have ice on my bingo card.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Gary, thank you for the news regarding no ice on American Airlines flights due to an LSG Sky Chefs supply problem. Fortunately, passengers can bring their own inflight ice. According to the TSA website, “frozen liquid items are allowed through the checkpoint as long as they are frozen solid when presented for screening. If frozen liquid items are partially melted, slushy, or have any liquid at the bottom of the container, they must meet 3-1-1 liquids requirements.” It is good to know that passengers can bring a 22-pound bag of ice aboard to share with other thirsty passengers during the holiday season.

  2. I thought all large inflight kitchens had their own ice machines. Maybe it is mechanical/maintenance issue and can’t find a outside vendor to supply large quantities of ice. Things happen.

  3. Normally don’t think the grammar should have any issue here in the bigger problem. But “ApologICE” is pretty funny in this case you must admit.

  4. You hit LSG for their grammar and spelling, but have a grammatical error in your very next line – and in almost all of your blog posts.

  5. “good to know that passengers can bring a 22-pound bag of ice aboard to share”

    Arbitrage opportunity for those that missed the Simply Miles promo?

  6. Everyone knows ice is what causes Covid. Haha. Seriously, we (humans, not just Americans) have not considered all that’s involved in some of the things we take for granted.

  7. I would bet on running out of bags to put ice in than the ice itself. Or maybe twist ties or those plastic closers. And, their contract price with American won’t allow them to visit nearby gas stations to by bags at retail.

  8. “It is good to know that passengers can bring a 22-pound bag of ice aboard to share with other thirsty passengers during the holiday season.”

    Peak pandemic holiday happiness

  9. I retired from American Airlines after 44 years. I’m embarrassed to admit I ever worked for them. They have become worse than a third world airline.

    I do not travel on them any longer. I shop the fare sales and buy tickets on other carriers. AA’s lack of planning is legendary.

  10. I heard the happened once in a small Italian village. Turns out, the lady with the recipe had died…

  11. Just experienced this ice shortage on my flight DFW-SEA yesterday. The announcement was “due to a catering issue, the limited ice we have been provided is limited for use by first class passengers only.” No joke. In summary, the story Gary shared a couple days ago about the return of “real” meals to AA FC may be fake news. AA will instead provide ice in FC only. Fortunately, FC passengers will still get the delectable pimento cheese offering.

    @ Ken A – despite flying 3-6x/month for years, I somehow JUST learned that factoid about TSA allowing ice but not liquids a few days ago. Thanks for sharing here for others who may also not have realized this is permissible.

  12. Ice is really unnecessary. Do people really trust the quality of water in the ice, how it was produced, and how sterile the vessel it was transported in?

    Do you really trust flight attendants putting dirty frozen water in your drink? It’s the same with airplane water tanks. Why would anyone trust it to drink coffee or tea. Stick to bottled water and other beverages without dirty ice.

  13. Gary,

    When was the last time you went to eat out or got engaged in some sort of activities? Have you seen the labor market out there? Have you seen the job reports, or are you busy scrutinizing the spelling errors hourly employees that actually come to work make? You should praise those individuals that come to work and make catering happen, or the airline for that matter.
    Instead of making fun of trivial spelling, why don’t you write a piece of literature to raise awareness amongst the work force so they can apply for jobs instead of benefiting from social welfare?
    And you are not so holy yourself – look at the spelling on your blog. Even the “almighty” makes an error . . .

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