American Airlines Delayed A Flight Because The Pilot Was Stuck In Line At Starbucks — Lavazza Can’t Come Soon Enough

Reader Mark shares their experience at the gate for a flight from Charlotte to Liberia, Costa Rica. The flight was delayed because a pilot was stuck in line at the nearby Starbucks.

[W]e hear them paging Captain DeWalt. Then 5 or 10 minutes later, we again hear them paging Captain DeWalt. We grumble about how that is typical American that they don’t even have their pilot to leave. Another few minutes go by.

I go use the restroom and when walking back to the gate, it turns out that I’m walking next to Captain DeWalt. He was late from being in the Starbucks line. When he got to the gate, he and the gate agent chuckled, but I thought to myself what kind of respect do you have for the customer when you make an entire plane of passengers late, so you can get a Starbucks cup of coffee. Or maybe that also tells you what pilots think of AA coffee.

I don’t blame the pilot. I blame American Airlines. Mark actually hints at what’s going on, this “tells you what pilots think of AA coffee.” And I’ve been writing for over a decade that American’s poor coffee was hurting their operational reliability because they forced pilots to go get coffee on their own. That means the cost savings on coffee turned out to be penny wise, pound foolish – even before you get to the customer experience.

Fortunately, that’s changing this quarter! It’s the hidden reason why airline coffee matters, and why American Airlines made such a mistake for so long shaving cost on its coffee quality.

• Better coffee improves operational efficiency and reduced delays, because it eliminates pilots stopping at Starbucks in the terminal on the way to the aircraft.

• And it improves employee morale, which in turn affects customer service. Better coffee is a product flight attendants can be proud of and reduces complaints they receive from customers.

Better coffee was the first singal of the turnaround at United Airlines, dropping Fresh Brew for Illy. A year ago I wrote that American absolutely needed to follow suit if they were going to ‘pivot to premium’. And they did, announcing Lavazza in the fall. And we started seeing Lavazza coffee rolling out in American Airlines lounges in February.

Ultimately, coffee is a tiny spend relative to airline revenue, but it matters for premium signaling, crew pride, and operational reliability because pilots and crew are less likely to make terminal coffee stops.

In 2015, I estimated a $5–10 million a year coffee expense for American Airlines and last fall suggested probably $10 million-plus. I’ve heard nothing to suggest that’s off by orders of magnitude. The shift to Lavazza won’t reduce that number, but probably doesn’t move the needle materially, either. If American is spending more, it might be low single digit millions a year.

• United said its illy program involved 72 million inflight cups a year
  
• Delta said moving from Seattle’s Best to Starbucks cost them more, but did not reveal a figure.
  
• Lavazza is in premium coffee territory compared to commodity coffee pricing they’d have been getting before
  
• But Lavazza said the American deal helps it consolidate its presence in the U.S. market, so it meets a brand objective – the tie-in is going to mean much better economics for the airline.

Lavazza is likely cheap relative to the brand value American gets from it. They’re not just buying coffee, they’re buying a more premium feel for a few extra cents per cup. And the surprise benefit is likely to be better operational performance.