There’s a strange reason that American Airlines serves meals in first class between Chicago O’Hare and Denver.
- American’s standard policy is to serve meals in first class at meal times on 900 mile flights or longer.
Snack basket on flights 500-899 miles during meal times
Meal service on flights over 900 miles during meal times - Before the pandemic there were ‘exception markets’ that were shorter, like Chicago O’Hare to Washington National airport and New York LaGuardia, that got meals up front. These were considered premium business routes, with greater revenue potential and were highly competitive.
- However, there are officially no more ‘exception markets’.
- Yet Chicago O’Hare – Denver is 888 miles but still gets a meal!
How is it possible to square the circle of (1) no meals on flights under 900 miles, (2) no exceptions, (3) one flight under 900 miles receives a meal?
I had heard that the reason was American Airlines still treats Denver as being located at the old Stapleton airport, which is 901 miles from Chicago O’Hare. Stapleton International Airport in Denver closed on February 27, 1995.
An American spokesperson confirms this,
ORD-DEN isn’t an exception market as the mileage is over 900 miles. This is based off the mileage to the original DEN airport, as you mentioned.
I suspect that, in fact, since Chicago O’Hare and Denver are United hubs (this is a ‘hub to hub’ route) it’s as much about competition as it is an artifact of a highly outdated route calculation. American is ‘choosing’ not to fix this anomaly.
At a minimum, if in some sense this is a convenient fiction, it allows American to provide meals on another route without opening the floodgates of more exception markets and case-by-case distinctions, and that may benefit customers.
I fly DCA-FLL pretty regularly. It’s precisely 899 miles, which is annoying. Not annoying enough to fly to MIA, though.
Final exemption disappearing in 3, 2, 1 …
It’s called customer service …I fly first class now because I can. Plus I don’t get hassled for bags, I get treated well in first class. I get treated like I want to be treated and the same way I treat others. Plus the cost of a first class ticket these is not that much more. I always flew coach, the cheap seats, etc when I was jumping through hoops to make a living, pay for my kids, their schooling… etc.. now I just have my wife and me and we can do what we want. It pays to work every day of your life since the age of 16 and now in my 60’s I am enjoying what I can… plus body aches I can deal with in first class!
I’d suggest that AA change the cut off for meals to 800 miles. This would likely make first class more attractive on several key routes.
Back about 2010, I had a fantastic Business Class meal and service from Chicago to Denver. A but rushed, but wonderful nevertheless.
@Craig Jones
I had a fantastic business class lunch on Austrian, from VIE to FRA last June. Not close to one hour. On a 787 that they were using to train FA’s on full service for long distance Austrian routes. Didn’t even have time to lay flat.
Salad, schnitzel, dessert. Best airline coffee in the world. And a cart with six of the best Austrian wines.
Normally the route is served with A320. Biz on 787 was 48. Only ten of us.
But, for nostalgias sake, I remember flying in and out of Stapleton in 66/67. I was at AI school at Lowrey AFB. Even flew out the air base there as well. At Lowery, it was two turning. At Stapleton, it was three burning.
Next question: Does the flyer get 888 or 901 Million Miler miles?
Meanwhile, Alaska gives you meals up front for flights over 650 miles.
Should move it back to 700 miles.
Demon airline staffed by demons.
News at 11.
If they’re serious about growing revenue and playing with the big boys, they’ll move the # to 800 miles and be happy to be of service to their customers.
The Parkerization and now Isomization of what once was an exceptional airline.
I had a lovely snack on Delta from SEA to SFO
Even if they lowered the threshold to 800 miles as some have suggested, then flights at 799 miles will complain about no meals. No matter the threshold, there will always be flights that barely fall under the threshold.
Ppl just want to be lied to and just want to lie to themselves.
“Surprise and delight!”
On in-flight meals, it can also come down to which aircraft type. There are plenty of CRJ and ERJ routes that are around 2.5-3 hours, ~1,000 miles, and the best any operator does in the USA is a snack box or cold sandwich. By contrast, if you fly Airlink in southern Africa, they offer a full meal service to all passengers, Business and Economy, on their E175/190s, even for a mere 1.5-2 hour flight, say from Johannesburg to Windhoek.
Yeah, so it’s not about ability–it’s about whether the airline wants to actually provide excellent service to its passengers, who should be ‘the customer’ but at least in the USA, to the C-suite that gets their bonuses based on stock buybacks, it’s really only the majority shareholders that matter, no one else. Obligatory: ‘follow the money’ statement.
Honestly,I believe it should be that each route is considered separately and passengers would then see when booking what to expect. How many passengers say ” I wonder how many miles this trip is? ” But if they see…meal provided, snack only, no service etc then they can prepare accordingly.
Isn’t it about the customer? And building up loyalty? Making the difference?
Customer service died a long time ago. Mainly because people aren’t willing to pay for it.
When AA removes the first class meals on ORD-DEN, we’ll know who to thank.
But the new airport is farther west than old Stapleton? By like 30 miles.
Stapleton International Airport was about 15 miles from DIA, in a WSW direction. 30 miles due west of Stapleton would put you in the mountains.
In highly competitive markets, enhanced in-flight meal service is a common strategy to improve customer experience and route attractiveness. While both United and American Airlines have ORD hubs, United’s significant Denver hub necessitates enhanced service from American Airlines to maintain competitiveness. This is a straightforward business strategy.
If the people in steerage can buy a sandwich, I should be able get one in 1st for “free”.
@David427 — Well said, sire. If the peasants in Economy can eat, we must have a feast in First!
I’ve flown AA first class almost exclusively since i retired 3 yrs ago. Probably 3 times each year. It’s all pleasure travel , and I really only do it for the bigger seat, never tried a meal , nor a drink, but the seat and free bag is nice. I’m thinking of trying another airline for Europe next yr I need to do some research. Any suggestions??