You’re going to want to avoid flying American Airlines in and out of London Heathrow over the short term. Due to an issue with their London caterer – I understand they’re switching providers – they are currently double catering flights departing the U.S. and using that catering for the return flight, instead of bringing on food in London.
- Hopefully the onboard chillers are working on the plane, since by the time of the second service on Westbound flights that food has been on the aircraft for quite some time.
- It’s going to mean less food and less varied food because there’s simply not enough space in American Airlines galleys for two full flights’ worth of food.
American Airlines Catering Ex-London Heathrow
American Airlines confirmed the situation to me earlier. As I understand it, passengers can expect ‘dine and rest’ single tray service in premium cabins. Do not expect pre-ordered meals to be catered. And you will only be able to choose between a protein and a vegeterian option. There won’t be any seafood, because of the risk it could go bad. This also means, by the way, no American Airlines 100th Anniversary meals.
Aviation watchdog JonNYC offers a little color on what to expect as a result.
AA:
"Unsure why, but until further notice all AA LHR departures will be double catered from the US. Bare minimum catering, including in premium cabins. Only protein or veg option. No ice cream. Understanding is all food will be flown in from the US."Unknown duration on this,…
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) March 1, 2026
If you’re flying an Airbus A380 on a Middle Eastern carrier, you’ll see an incredible amount of galley space and the ability to load plenty of food. They’ll have more on board than they can often serve on a flight, providing different options for passengers (especially in premium cabins):
Etihad Airbus A380
In contrast, American Airlines (like U.S. airlines generally) optimizes for squeezing as many seats onto planes as possible. And that means squeezing galley space. Giving up the space for ice cream may seem minor, but actually makes a difference in the overall experience. Passengers love comforts like ice cream!
American Airlines Ice Cream Served Out Of London
In fact, in preparation for their new Airbus A321XLR which will soon fly transatlantic with very little galley space, last year the airline experimented with dropping bread and butter from coach and premium economy on some flights to London to see what they could get away with.
American Airlines Transatlantic Breakfast
Here’s the forward galley on American’s Boeing 787-9P.
American Airlines Boeing 787-9P
Tight galleys aren’t just a U.S. carrier issue. British Airways even dropped ice cream from business class on some Airbus A350 flights in 2020 because there wasn’t enough room for meals in galleys that were designed so tightly to cram in extra seats.
Hopefully the American Airlines Heathrow catering situation is short-lived. In the meantime, adjust your expectations or book elsewhere due to reduced service levels to and from London to accommodate the lack of local catering in London.
Might want to check some facts. Qatar 787-900 311 passengers. AA has 285 in the traditional configuration 244 in 787P model. so I am not sure where aa is cramming in the seats compared to Qatar?
They made use late on the Sunday LHR-ORD flight, captain and crew were pissed. Didn’t give them enough cost us 45 mins.
This must be that centennial AA 100 catering I’ve heard so much about.
I just got off one of those flights. The crew cobbled together one meal out of things left over from the jfk to LHR flight. No second meal, no business amenities. I hate to think what happened to the poor people who paid for the first class on that flight.
@john – it’s not the number of seats, it’s the density. american has a ton of premium seats (which take up more room per seat)… QR 789 is just 30 J / 281 Y
Another reason to fly United. American Airlines seems to be a hot mess these days.
I’m actually surprised they’re not using BA’s caterer on an interim basis. Not a good – or anywhere near premium – look at all on American’s part
More pivot to premium!
They are also switching caterers at DCA, which led to no meals being served on DCA-DFW recently.
There are only 2 reasons to not have a catering contract in place when you switch, either you are too f’in cheap to pay for zero gap in catering or you are incompetent and manage contracts…in this case it’s both at AA, Robert Isom needs to go, he has no idea how to empower his company to be a “Premium Airline”
No more chocolate sundaes?? Sheesh, 2026 really is the year of the nerf… Even United still pretends to care enough to bring around the ole ice cream cart… c’mon!
I hear is issuing 30% refunds to all passengers who fly
American that is
What’s this strange obsession with airline food?
If I’m buying business class, it’s for the space and the ability to sleep. “Cost cutting” or not, I would never expect to be served anything other than microwave-warmed level of cuisine on a plane.
Ridiculous. Can buy a few dozen pints of Häagen-Dazs at LHR for F and J passengers. Isom keeps talking about expanding premium revenue but operationally goes in the exact opposite direction.
Well switching caterers is a plus in the long run after the incident about 2 weeks ago coming out of LHR. No fault to American but I’d rather deal with this than if they stayed the course.
Oof. Not good optics.
Food for thought (no pun intended): AA should serve Blue Bell ice cream for flights originating or ending in DFW.
Disgusting food; crowded; uncomfortable; unhealthy; I would take an ocean liner cruise; skip the airport and rent my own fantastic car… for touring; and actually enjoy myself!
Pretty ridiculous considering this is one of their largest international stations. (Or, given their propensity to make everyone connect through LHR, is it actually their largest?) Better advance planning + money (which I know they never want to spend these days) should have helped with the transition.
How does American always manage to suck so bad?
Just another in the continuing saga of operational issues with AA. Until they can manage the basics of running a safe, clean and reliable airline, they will continue to fall behind. I was a longtime customer and Executive Platinum member finally gave up on them last year. This just further validation that I made the right decision to change to Delta
Understand American is now flying their planes to FLL to get a new bright yellow paint job. Seems Spirit has a lot of extra paint and can use the extra work.
All the while “something special in the air” is becoming the new (evil) Spirit Airlines.
Do not fly American Airlines. A simple rule that enriches my life immeasurably.
Again, no accountability or consequences at AA DFW HQ. They continue to hire incompetent (unemployable anywhere else) management who cannot create a Plan A-B-C; Switching catering companies? That is the oldest excuse in the book. Sounds like they are bickering over billing and payments. Who suffers? Everyone. So unfair to all concerned. This falls on the CEO who is in lots of hot water as it is. Nothing gets done. He does not care and never will care. You would think that they would make backup plans with an upscale hotel group to prepare high quality, boxed lunches for Business and Economy. A cold, picnic style lunch would be better than the roundtrip catering from the USA. Even the USAF has adequate boxed lunches for their pilots and passengers. Isom needs to go and so does his entire Senior management and Inflight Department. Their excuses are getting old. P.S. The London/Heathrow Station Manager needs to come up with solutions.
@1990 continues to swipe at United every chance he gets. It’s old and tired just like you.
Blah blah blah You love Delta. We get it. We All get it.
Give it a rest for God’s sake.
Please American, just save us the bother and be upfront that you’re introducing pay toilets in Business and First.
American: misses the mark when they don’t disappoint
Apparently, I’m under the mistaken impression that the main function of an airline is to provide transportation, not ice cream.
@DesertGhost – you’ll spend $10,000 – $15,000 roundtrip for a business class ticket between LA and London on American this month. American Airlines themselves believe they need to provide a more premium product to consistently attract revenue like this. Do you think their leadership consists of idiots for partnering with Bollinger on champagne? How has ‘just providing transportation’ worked out for American previously? For Spirit?
America West masquerading as AA, which is dead and has been buried fir a while.
@Desertghost
Prat tell me then why does America West charge different prices in various cabins? Wait why do they even have those different cabins?
Old, tired argument of yours doesn’t fly (definitely doesn’t “fly” with America West, aka AA.
@Desertghost I’m sure you’re not AA leadership, but you might as well be. Because that’s the kind of forward thinking that has led high-paying customers to by and large flee AA
I’m on aa 735 lhr-clt this Friday March 6 in first. Any way to find out before my flight if the situation has been resolved? Or just eat up at the Cathay lounge beforehand?
@David Read — You’ve mistaken me for Tim Dunn. I love/hate each of the big 3. Believe it or not, these days I’m still a Premier Platinum, Platinum Pro, and Platinum Medallion. Apparently, only United and Delta will serve sundaes anymore in J. Kind of a deal-maker/breaker for me… /s
Is there an official or unofficial labor action by the catering company’s workforce because of Trump’s war on Iran?
I have travel with american for many years on their credit card point system. Always been happy with the personnel and any lost baggage was handled well.. my complaint is the food. I am NOT hard to please and the main course choice us close to inedible. I hate to waste food but a cracker, salad, or desert is about all I can get down I now carry crackers or candy to hold me through a long overseas flight. Sure wish they could get a better caterer
Wah wah wah. My heart bleeds for the poor mistreated people in business and first class. However will they survive?
If done *correctly*, double catered flights can work out well. Alaska Airlines has mastered this – they have kits that either have space in the galley or go in the pits for the next day’s flights. Think of a fish box but reusable with a bit more sturdy construction, and there’s spots for dry ice packs on the sides. They’ll also have a handful of atlas carts (handheld), also in a similarly built box that goes in the bulk pit of the plane, and will be loaded by agents in the morning along with fresh ice and whatnot. The customers don’t even notice it. This is how they cater our morning flights out of the main airport I use, since we don’t have a kitchen at our airport. Other airlines have learned about this method and its now a common occurence at smaller stations, except for AA apparently.
The menu is *slightly* different, but they still do a good job of it. Odd that a lil airline like Alaska has this figured out, but American doesn’t.
If passengers started bringing their own food, some of which would have interesting aromas and/or make others who hadn’t thought of it jealous, American would get the message and rectify the situation pretty quickly.
This is a bummer. There is nothing like the AA Sundae Cart going down the aisles with the nuts, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, whipped cream, berries and whatever else they have which is quite good.
I remember the first time- when I was in my late 20’s- and was surprised and thought, “Damn, this is the life”*. The funny thing is that they must use dry ice because the ice cream takes about 15 minutes to thaw out, lol.
-Jon
*If you believe as I do, nostalgic experiences like this build brand loyalty because 20+ years later, I still go back to that first experience where I couldn’t believe I was served this, which is one the reasons I still will book AA when I have a choice of international flights from PHL.
Gary. What is the root of the problem? Billing dispute?
One airline caters their kosher meals out of London with a caterer from Europe even a top airline caterer (Hermolis) is just a few miles away from Heathrow and is used by many airlines including Virgin Atlantic. To me, flying a meal in from another country that the aircraft hasn’t even been too makes even less sense than flying the meals in on the same plane.
FACT. LHR health department closed the kitchen for ten days because of RATS. The kitchen and LHR ground handling company that AA uses is dnata. Owned by no other than Emirates.
Be grateful that the outbound flights were catered by a USA based kitchen.
William. Thanks for the information.
We are committed to sucking. If you don’t like it, please feel free to take your business elsewhere
Issues like these should never see the light of day if Isom would delegate the proper authority to people. That is good leadership which is non existent at AA currently.
@George at least Spirit owns who they are and you know what you’re getting. AA acts like they are premium, but definitely are not.
Gary, You never miss a chance to knock American Airlines.
No. 2. It might help you to cut down on your meals. Looks like you never met a meal that you did not LOVE
@ Charlotte — Clearly, you have not seen Gary’s picture in the last 2 or 3 years.
I answered my own question about my flight this Friday March 6, from LHR-CLT, in first class.
Online, it states under Inflight meals:
“A set meal will be served during your flight”
And fwiw, based reddit threads, aa is proactively giving 7,500, 10,000 or 15,000 points as compensation for the lack of catering.