American Airlines abruptly stopped taking local catering at London Heathrow and began flying in minimal meals from the U.S., leaving premium cabins with a stripped-down service both directions because the galleys can’t hold two flights worth of food. The airline hasn’t explained the reason, but a photo that’s circulating showing mice nested in bread on an American Airlines 777 offers a clue for why Heathrow catering was shut off overnight.
- The airline has halted all local catering at London Heathrow airport.
- Meals are being flown across the Atlantic to London to be served on the way back.
- And since there’s not enough space in the galleys to store food for both the flight over and for the flight back, meal service is limited both ways.
They aren’t honoring reserved pre-order meals. Passengers can only choose between a protein and a vegeterian option. There won’t be any seafood, because of the risk it could go bad. There are no American Airlines 100th Anniversary meals, and there’s no ice cream.
Here’s a Flagship First Class, single tray service meal from London Heathrow to Los Angeles right now.
Flagship First Dinner LHR to LAX
by
u/SpecialistOne9509 in
americanairlines
Passengers report “No second meal, no business amenities” and complain that someone could easily “buy a few dozen pints of Häagen-Dazs at” the airport for premium cabin passengers. Some report receiving miles as compensation.
American has been surprisingly tight-lipped about the issue. Aviation watchdog JonNYC tweets out a photo of catering issues indicative of what’s believed to have been happening at the catering facility – it shows mice nestled in bread on an American Airlines Boeing 777.
The belief is that a mice infestation at Dnata’s London Heathrow catering kitchen prompted American to immediately halt local catering and fly in minimal meals from the US for their London departures.
This photo has been circulating, and I had seen it (which made me question reports of ‘rats’ rather than mice), but I hadn’t managed to validate that it was real and from Heathrow. Jon confirmed the photo’s legitimacy.
Update: dnata responds,
dnata firmly rejects recent claims regarding alleged hygiene issues within our catering operations at London Heathrow. These allegations are entirely false.
Independent audits confirm that our facility meets all food hygiene and safety requirements, with robust processes in place to ensure full compliance at all times.
One of our airline customers has temporarily adjusted its catering arrangements as part of its own internal review, and dnata is fully supporting them throughout this period.
dnata continues to operate normally for all other airline customers, with no changes to service delivery, safety protocols, or quality standards.
Our teams remain committed to delivering safe, high‑quality catering services and supporting our partners with transparency, reliability, and operational excellence.
There is some fakery going on here.
Bread is catered in a. Clear plastic bag for heating in the oven , then it is opened and put into the basket for serving. A crew member would/ should have seen it long before it made it to the bread serving basket. And I assume before it even made it to the plane.
Nothing would surprise me about how far standards in the UK have declined. I last flew out of LHR earlier this week and now consider that I was indeed fortunate not to fall ill.
@Doug
Plastic bags in an oven???
@MGHOW: I sincerely hope you aren’t an American passing judgement on other countries standards. I believe we all need to look inside ourselves before we pass judgement on others.
@Doug: I was thinking the same.
@MGHOW Oven-safe plastic bags (similar to the ones you can roast poultry in).
He’s absolutely correct. This has to be fake/staged.
@Ray
Good idea. I looked inside myself, no mice. Am I permitted to pass judgement now? People who talk like a cheap therapist in blog comments are pathetic.
@Mantis — That’s rich coming from you… “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
Gosh Americans being critical of The UK. Perhaps have a little at your own warmongering country first.
In London, bread is sourced from a third party vendor and sealed in an oven safe plastic bag and transported to the kitchen so Ratatouille’s little photo was most likely staged. I get that Gary needs click bait but c’mon…..
@Retard
Huh? Stick to tired leftist tropes about workers and evil corporations, you’re out of your element.
Did the mouse ensconced in the American Airlines in-flight bread die from food poisoning after nibbling?
Totally fake….everyone knows the mouse was downgraded from business class to make room for a spoiled pilot.
An additional protein option
@Tim. Noted, thanks.
So the mouse pic is either faked up or possibly the mouse was already in the bag with the bread before it was put in the oven, but not spotted by any crew member as they were not looking for it (and indeed why would they look inside a sealed bag)?
@Ray No, not passing judgement on others, and very, very painfully aware of how much the UK has declined, and continues to decline.
Ugh. Baked mouse. No sauce? Yep that caterer should be fired.
Rats in the.Catering
Rats in the corporate office
At least there is consistency
@MGHOW — No, it’s not what you’re alluding. That wealth inequity is what you get after a decade of ‘conservatives’… In the 80s, Thatcher. More recently, Brexit. (And yet, like in the US, you and Farage will whine about ‘the left,’ appeal to nostalgia, and scapegoat immigrants… solves nothing.)
I’m confused. Dnata provides catering for a lot of airlines at LHR. I would think that this would be all over the news for several airlines, but it seems to be confined to AA. Is Dnata operating a kitchen ownd by AA at LHR?
AA is very much in bed with BA; why couldn’t AA use DO & Co. catering for awhile ?
Typical AA cheapness
@1990 Once again, you’ve been caught lying through your teeth. Reagan’s economic policies were so successful that he won re-election by winning 49 of 50 states. Let me repeat that for emphasis: Reagan’s policies were so successful that he won 49 of 50 states (and barely lost Minnesota to Mondale). Massive bi-partisan landslide victory because of the prosperity Reagan delivered for the American people. Same for Thatcher in the UK. She won 3 terms as Prime Minister and was re-elected in 1983 by a 15 percentage point margin with a 144 seat majority in Parliament for the Conservative Party. Facts matter.
Fly out next Sunday to LHR do you think this will all be resolved by then?
@c mice will be eliminated from the bread baskets
Flying Saturday and already received 10,000 miles . Hopefully the food is better at the flagship lounge Miami than it was 3 weeks ago .
This is not fake. The catering facility involved has already had multiple reported issues regarding mice and rats on their premises. What happened here is real.
Yes, the bread is usually packed in a clear oven-proof plastic bag for reheating. However, the crew does not open or inspect these bags before heating. They simply take the bread from the trolley and place the sealed bag directly into the oven. Once heated, the bag is opened, the bread is flipped out into the serving basket, and the packaging is discarded.
Only at that stage would something like this be discovered. In this particular case, there were reportedly three mice found.
As of tomorrow, fresh food will be loaded from LHR. AA have moved to another DO & CO catering unit to have their meals prepared. At this stage, there is no confirmation whether this change is permanent; however, moving forward DO & CO will be catering their flights.
I am Working In Danata nd I Am Sure This Is Not Truth,I can’t Believe that Mice in bread,First Time I heard this