American Airlines Adds Free Tate’s Cookies And Goldfish In Coach—A Small Upgrade Most Passengers Will Actually See

American Airlines is about to improve its coach snack service better. Beginning on select flights in early October, passengers will have more choices when the beverage cart comes through:

• Morning flights: Biscoff cookies and Goldfish.
• Later flights: Goldfish, Tate’s Bake Shop chocolate chip cookies and Peterson’s savory and sweet snack mix.

American offers complimentary snacks and nonalcoholic drinks in coach on flights over 250 miles. They plan to rotate snacks and add more choices next year.

A bag of Goldfish won’t turn around an airline. Offering better basics throughout coach is how passengers notice that a turnaround has begun. And it’s going to be the 2030s before the domestic rollout of seat back entertainment screens is complete. So visible signs now matter.

Coach Snacks Matter For Building A Premium Airline

When Oscar Munoz replaced the disgraced Jeff Smisek at United Airlines, some of the first visible product changes were replacing hated Fresh Brew coffee with Illy and introducing Stroopwafels in coach. Those were small but symbolically important changes, and they weren’t about the premium end of the plane. They told passengers that management was once again paying attention to the long-neglected product.

United has gone much farther since then, but Illy and Stroopwafels were early evidence that the airline had broken from the relentless cuts of the Smisek era (which even were given the Orwellian internal moniker, “Project Quality”).

I’ve argued that American needed to follow the same playbook. It has now done the coffee half, replacing Fresh Brew with Lavazza onboard and in its lounges.

I don’t think they’ve found their Stroopwafels, which were loved and became distinctively United (even something to look forward to). But pairing better coffee with Biscoff while giving passengers recognizable sweet and savory choices continues the effort – it’s better than unbranded pretzels with hub city codes on them.

AA’s pretzel bags showcase their different hubs. This isn’t all, there are others for the missing hubs.
byu/YHDiamond inamericanairlines

American usually describes its premium push through Flagship Suites, first class seats, and lounges. Most passengers sit in coach. Many of the customers who buy international business class still fly economy on domestic trips. Someone paying for business class to London may be sitting in coach from Chicago to Austin.

Tomorrow’s premium cabin customer is also sitting in economy today. The experience there creates their brand perception that determines whether they buy up to Main Cabin Extra, to domestic first class and eventualy international business.

American Needs More Buy On Board Food In Coach

American refreshed its buy on board menu in May. The $10 Inflight Bites box now includes gochujang beef jerky, Wheat Thins, olives, a granola bar, Oreos, cashews and smoked Gouda spread. There’s also a $13 Tillamook cheese plate, $14 turkey and Havarti sandwich, Nuts on Clark mixed nuts and BoomChickaPop kettle corn.

That menu is better than what American offered before. The bigger problem remains availability. American only sells snacks on select flights over 1,100 miles, Main Cabin passengers cannot preorder (that was something offered before the pandemic), and limited quantities are loaded. A delayed 5 p.m. Charlotte–Austin flight can be blocked at around three hours, but at 1,032 miles there’s still nothing substantial to buy.

American should reduce the threshold to 900 miles, offer food consistently on long American Eagle flights and restore preorders. Alaska offers food on most flights over 775 miles and lets passengers reserve it in advance. Alaska still does the best job with domestic coach food, while United’s program is far more extensive than American’s.

American has also turned buy on board into a promised benefit. Executive Platinum and ConciergeKey members seated in coach receive a complimentary alcoholic drink and food item when available. The newly refreshed $695 Citi / AAdvantage Executive card provides up to $100 per calendar year in statement credits for inflight and Admirals Club purchases. Some other Citi cobrand cards rebate 25% of inflight food and beverage spending.

My old semi-premium Barclays Aviator Silver offered up to $25 back every day I flew American. I was almost never able to use it because American so rarely had anything to buy (and the drinks were already free in Main Cabin Extra). The card is no longer offered, it’s been converted to Citi Globe, and the daily food and beverage credit disappears October 25.