There won’t be any cocktails in coach on American Airlines, at least until 2022. And you can blame the Biden administration’s transportation mask mandate for that.
American Airlines was preparing to bring alcohol sales back to coach at the start of June, but decided not to do so because of unruly passenger incidents.
Mind you these incidents weren’t happening because of alcohol sales in coach (since there weren’t any). But the airline feared things might get even worse. While alcohol isn’t available currently on Southwest, it’s sold on other airlines, and passenger incidents haven’t gotten worse on carriers not named American. In fact, United sells alcohol and reports their incidents are down 50%.
Sara Nelson of the Association of Flight Attendants – Communications Workers of America wants a legal ban on the sale of alcohol. The aviation temperance movement has a long history, dating back to Senator Strom Thurmond in the 1950s, fresh of his run for President as a Segregationist, who wanted to protect “the dignity of the fine young ladies who serve as stewardesses on these aircraft” and the ” “stigma” for flight attendants “doubling as barmaids.”
American Airlines CEO has consistently said the airline would bring back inflight alcohol sales to domestic coach when the mask mandate expired September 13. The airline’s corporate communications team would walk it back each time, saying that the airline wouldn’t bring back such sales before then. They hadn’t come to an agreement their flight attendants union and didn’t want to get ahead of matters. Now that the mask mandate has been extended through January 18, 2022 American has suspended its suspension of alcohol sales through that same date, too.
According to CEO Parker, without alcohol for sale on board, more passengers are bringing on their own. It’s a lot harder for the airline to monitor this since they’ve reduced the number of agents at boarding gates. Parker is frustrated with abusive customers and doesn’t know what to do so he’s doubling down on what hasn’t worked.
I think we can blame the unruly anti maskers – not Biden for trying to keep us safe from Covid19
If I had my way – domestically would require proof of negative Covid19 test – or proof of vaccination to get on the plane .. then the idiocy might go away too..!!!!
It’s not the fault of the Mask mandate. Saying “you can blame the Biden administration’s transportation mask mandate for that” is disingenuous.
AA could still serve if they wanted to. There is obviously nothing about the mandate the prohibits the serving of alcohol.
??? Other airlines are serving alcohol in economy, and American serves it in first class. Frankly it has nothing to do with the mask mandate.
What about in premium economy…I have an international flight next month and would like to drink responsibly!
@Louise: Do you also wear a Swastika armband while goose-stepping down the street?!?!?!
Get bent, Nazi
Blaming alcohol for in flight incidents in which there was no alcohol served makes the opposite of sense.
You forget some of the people may have been drinking in the airport or at home before the flight. Serving them more in flight would only add fuel to the fire.
@Diego: Most people are “pre-gaming” BECAUSE airlines aren’t serving. Let people drink on the plane like the want and the vast majority won’t be already drunk when they board. Simple.
Running an on-time operation with minimal cancellations will do more to reduce flyer angst than anything else including alcohol sales; since AA has some of the worst on-time and cancellation performance – alongside Southwest – it is not a surprise they have some of the worst in-flight behavior issues.
@Harry Balszak – NOT appropriate and NOT cool. The Nazis exterminated people – requiring vaccines or the wearing of a piece of cloth pales in comparison.
Fact: Masking reduces the spread of Covid 19
Fact: Vacination reduces the risk a getting or getting severally sick from Covid -19
Fact: Trump politized the disease and hunderd’s of thousands have died or been severally sicken because you thinks he know it all
Fact: Trump’s administration put the travel mask mandate in place
Fact: Trump got covid, spread covid and had emergency treatment to save his ass; also he’s been vacinated
Fact: HE LOST and tried to over throw our government (like they did in Russia in the 1918 and Germany in the 1930s)
If we want to travel, we wear mask and get vacinated to put an end to the spread and mutations of this virus. So long as the anti-vac and far right fail to view fact, this virrus will spread and mutate for years to come and millions more will die
Enough. . .Grow up America
This has nothing to do with Covid 19.
@Diego:
“You forget some of the people may have been drinking in the airport or at home before the flight. Serving them more in flight would only add fuel to the fire.”
Nonsense. People are tying on a sufficient buzz to last the entire flight prior to flight in no small part because they cannot get served inflight. No FA will ever sell a pax enough booze to add fuel to the fire inflight. I rather suspect AA has not given the law of unintended consequences due thought.
@Greg with two G’s
I’m puzzled that you think it’s inappropriate to use the term “Nazis” to refer to any group other than one who has literally attempted to commit genocide. If people use the term “Nazi” to refer to those who they feel are doing evil things in general, it’s hardly an attempt to glorify Naziism or engage in Holocaust denial.
If AA wants customers to behave better, they should focus on making flying AA more pleasant and less stressful. When your flight is late, your seat is dirty and small, and you need to deal with unhappy AA employees, it doesn’t exactly put you in the optimal state of mind to absorb later minor annoyances with grace.
@subviking82
You are making this political
In All honesty I rather have 45 than 46 right about now
Seriously alcohol service has nothing to do with COVID
It’s mainly because AA is now an ULCC
Thank you Gary for this post, and for telling it like it is.
I haven’t done any discretionary air travel since before the pandemic. And with all the mask requirement nonsense and other b.s. continuing, I guess I’ll continue to divert my 15-20k annual travel budget for other things.
It DOES have to do with the mask mandate. The unruliness wasn’t as bad before the mandate.
Air travel in America is shi*ty. Every aspect of the service has declined. There is no consistency between airline website info and the policies that may or may not be enforced from day to day, airport to airport or even gate to gate. Every interaction, even polite questions seem to carry federal law enforcement threats behind them. Why is it unsafe to eat or drink in coach but clearly safe in premium? Why did bag weight limits go from 70lbs international to 50lbs? Why did we have seat back entertainment and now we don’t? Why does the ticket agent’s inability to understand a foreign visa create an overnight delay in my travel? Why is there always someone near you that doesn’t have earphones? Why are the seats so close together that a toddlers feet can kick the back of your seat? Why do people think they are entitled to put both their carry-ons in the overhead? Why are snacks so crappy? What’s missing from this list?
Parker must be saving $$ in some shape or form by delaying alcohol sales, you can take that to the bank.
This airline is in the tank, TG I had started flying Delta in addition to AA a few years back, now have no real need for American or their bottom barreled planes and LLC service.
Just wear a damn mask. You don’t need alcohol to travel .
Also that last part of the article is dumb as hell. Whoever is writing this article needs to learn how to write and be factual. The lies you spread should be a crime. You sound like Trump appealing to the uneducated
If I want a drink I’ll have one, don’t preach on what others should or should not do, this is a problem with you people. Do your thing and stfu.
Am I allowed carry on or ore printed boarding pass, may I please have one. Be an adult or stay home.
“what do you mean you people”
@Patrick hahaha. Nice reference.
@Mike you seem to think when you utilize a private service that you can dictate to them how they run their business- alas, you cannot. You also cannot avoid the fact that interstate travel has been deemed something the federal government has oversight over since it involves the entire country, hence the legality of a federal mask mandate for flying in the US. If you erroneously think that masks are harmful to you, or infringe on your “freedom” more than you can handle to be safe around other people, then do not travel via air. That is actual personal freedom in use appropriately and I applaud anyone who stays away from others rather than wear a mask.
@Bill no one here is making anything political here- it was made political when President Trump decided to make it political (and about his re-election) instead of listening to the medical and scientific experts. Period. That started it and now it continues.
@Alan D. You really think comparing the horrors of the Nazi party to this is appropriate?? That this rises to the level of “evil” that occurred in concentration camps? I think even if one allows for hyperbole, this comparison is in bad taste.
Of course, American Airlines is solely responsible for all of the bad behavior on its flights. The fact that unruly passengers, not the airlines, have been fined over $1,000,000 belies that assertion in spite of the convoluted logic some have posted here. And just as illogically, American is the only airline that has issues with out-of-control people. Yeah! Right!
It’s truly sad when people have such hatred for a company that they go on personal vendettas against it and actively root for it to be liquidated, potentially costing hundreds and hundreds of hard-working people their jobs.
Correction to you Gary – This is American Airline’s policy, not the Biden administration’s policy. Your initial statement about where to pass blame is incorrect. This is the choice of American Airlines exclusively.
We all understand that there have been significant outbreaks of weather that are substantially different from the norm in many places across the country this summer but this isn’t the first summer that Texas has been above average in rain, long range forecasts predicted it months ago, and American is performing worse than its competitors not just in its own hubs, including DFW, but across its system.
The US DOT just released its latest Air Travel Consumer Report which covers operations for the month of June 2021 and, as I have consistently said it would be, it reflects how absolutely aweful air travel is in the United States this summer with most airlines.
As usual, Hawaiian is at the top of the list in terms of on-time and fewest cancellations but Delta has performance that is just as good despite being much, much larger and having hubs and operations across the continental US, the same cities that other airlines operate from. Delta’s system on-time performance was more than 10 percent higher than American and United and a mind-blowing 20 plus percent better than Southwest and JetBlue. Even Alaska’s on-time is 6 points worse than Delta. In cancellations, Delta cancelled just 0.1% of its flights while American and Southwest each had over 3000 cancellations for more than 3% of their system cancelled. And the statistics for other metrics including baggage and wheelchair/scooter handling, customer complaints, oversales and even civil rights complaints are far worse than they were pre-covid and what even those airlines were doing in the spring.
And this is only the report for June.
Weather is not the issue here.
Some airlines including esp. American and Southwest have pushed their systems to their limits throughout the pandemic and they are doing it with predictably poor results this summer
And to add insult to injury, American and Southwest are the two large airlines that are not serving alcohol in economy. Their passengers are acting out because of the horrible operations and their managements are blaming customers and cutting them off from alcohol rather than admitting that their covid management plans have been wrong throughout the pandemic.
The level of customer disservice in the US airline industry is not sustainable and airlines that cannot and are not delivering reliability have an opportunity to cut schedules to what is manageable and appropriately deliverable.
As far as drinking before flights: Perhaps we could have the Taliban come over here (just kidding….they’re already here) and chop off peoples hands so they don’t drink. I’ll bet Woke Dougie would aporove!
Lara: Please re-read my post. I said nothing about masks, this was about AA deciding not to serve alcohol until 2022 in COACH. Premium travelers can drink but not COACH passengers. Find that discriminatory much?
If I want a drink prior to flying that is my right and decision whether I’m in COACH, Business or First.
You are so full of yourself and your hate you ignore reading and comprehension to make your invalid point.
I stand by my comment, Parker is only about the $$ and could care less about passengers requests, service and comfort. The state of AA, fights and finances are all Parker. He’s attracting trash because that is the service AA provides.
America, the land of dopey drunks and pixie dust fairies.