An American Airlines passenger flags that the pretzels they received as a snack in coach were expired. And they weren’t just a little bit over the expiration date, they expired in 2020, nearly six years ago.
American Airlines is trying to be more premium, but their coach snacks still lag United. The generic pretzels lag what both United and Southwest offer. And that’s when they’re fresh!
Did I just get served 6 year expired pretzels? @AmericanAir pic.twitter.com/b3eLSKM3Oh
— Travel Summary (@TravelSummary) May 21, 2026
It’s important to be careful checking dates because Air Canada went viral with a six-month expired meal but it turned out to be an American who read the date wrong (we put month first then day then year, while much of the world uses day-month-year).
So to be clear, American Airlines has acknowledged in the past that that “/20” does mean the pretzels had a 2020 expiration date. I wrote about a similar incident of pandemic-era pretzels being served by American onboard in 2022. So this really is an expired package – only this time far more expired than the last time I wrote about it.
Was so excited to indulge in my free pretzel snack aboard @AmericanAir but was aghast by how stale they tasted.
Flipped over the package and the expiration date reads 2020.
Can’t help but to wonder if the aviation kerosene was also expired 🤔 pic.twitter.com/NhKSlunULF
— David Shida (@DoctorShida) December 7, 2022
Now, for plain packaged pretzels, being past the date usually just means worse quality, not… dangerous. However, six years is far outside any normal quality window.
Most date labels on packaged foods are quality (‘best by’) dates, not safety dates. One major exception is infant formula. That’s about flavor and quality, though always look for changed color, consistency, texture, or odor as a sign of spoilage. Packaged shelf-stable foods like cereal, pasta, cookies – and pretzels! – are generally safe past their best by date. They just become stale and taste off.
- Pretzels lose crispness, absorb or lose moisture, and become tough or cardboard-like.
- Fat in the product can oxidize, giving stale, soapy, or bitter flavor.
- But if moisture gets into the packaging that’s when contamination become more possible.
Normally pretzels are going to last 4-9 months in unopened packaging for freshness, and not more than a few weeks once they’ve been opened. I wouldn’t panic if someone took a bite of six-year-old intact-bag pretzels. But I also wouldn’t eat them.
I wrote about American serving 16-month old meals several years ago, and learned at the time that United had a six-month standard for frozen foods, Delta twelve months and American 18 months though they were ‘working with catering vendors’ to provide meals that were made within 40-60 days.
Honestly though, that’s pretty good, because easyJet may once have sold a cheese sandwich on board that had expired 10 years earlier? I still want to believe it was simply mis-labeled.
The bigger problem is they need to do better than serving those pretzels, especially on international flights. The packaging is almost as sad as the pretzels themselves, stale or fresh.
This can be expected from a company not known for handling food.
Someone looking for a freebie. Get Saul on the line.
I’m sure that’s an industry issue. Airlines buy those things in massive bulk amounts for significant discount pricing. I doubt the flight attendants are instructed on how to look for expiration dates.
Did the person die? Next atory.
@Gene, you’re right. We are wasting millions of tons of food each year, and the “expiration” dates are partly to blame. If the package isn’t opened, the pretzels will be safe to eat for a long, long time. We aren’t very good at risk assessment.