I hear all the time that food on an airplane doesn’t matter. You’re not up in the air long enough. You won’t get a great meal like you can on the ground anyway, and “nobody decides who to fly because of the food.” That isn’t true – differentiated products win.
When US Airways took over American Airlines, the smaller carrier – whose stock ticket symbol was “LCC” for low cost carrier – didn’t serve very much food. In fact, to put expectations for the combined carrier in perspective I pointed out to the New York Times at the time that US Airways did not serve very much food. “US Airways frequent flyers are hungry” I said. It took a 3 hour 30 minute flight before they’d serve a meal.
So when ex-US Airways management synced up meal offerings at the two airlines a decade ago, the number one passenger complaint in first class was the food. Crew were embarrassed by what they were serving. And all the employee feedback at internal company meetings was about meal service. Then-CEO Doug Parker said at the time ‘I never knew anybody cared that much about food.’
United Airlines is now investing significantly in its wine program. They already have the best business class bedding among U.S. airlines. Delta, too, is upping its champagne and investing more in bedding.
It’s not that Delta and United are dumb. In fact, they’re achieving high margins while airlines that haven’t been investing as much in their product are underperforming financially.
One reader shares with me his decision to book with Delta and Air France instead of American – when he used to be willing to spend more to fly American. This is a real choice, and real revenue loss, that’s being repeated over and over.
I just booked a business class flight on DL/AF DFW to Warsaw instead of on AA. It was $2k cheaper, but…I would never have done this in years past (especially when spending [my employer’s] money).
But status on AA just isn’t worth chasing any longer. And AF business class so so much better—if only because of the wine and Armagnac.
Air France Airbus A350 Business Class
Air France has good seats, good food, and respectable wine. They’ve added mattress pads in business class on transatlantic flights. American is adding mattress pads, but only on longer flights to Asia Pacific and the Mideast.
American AAdvantage was American’s moat, and this reader used to spend more to fly American because of it. Doing so helped them earn their status. But status is no longer as valuable!
- American, like United and Delta, would rather monetize unsold first class seats to once a year coach flyers for as little as $40 rather than making those seats available as upgrades for customers spending tens of thousands of dollars a year.
- So it’s not surprising the product is not worth much more than $40!
American Airlines serves $8 wines in international first class. They dropped their wine expert, and were even just taking whatever the wholesaler sent them. On my flights out of Sydney they haven’t even had Australian wines. They stopped trying.
This was reflected in a significant net promoter score deficit to Delta and United. The good news is that nps recovers for those customers experiencing American’s best product.
Delta says they have a moat and a long enough head start that United can’t catch up. United CEO Scott Kirby said that the difference between his airline and “one other airline” is structural, and other airlines (i.e. American) can’t catch up. But that is not true. United was where American is right now a decade ago. The problem is that it takes time, commitment, and money. American is making some positive moves, but hasn’t yet demonstrated the commitment or money.
Ultimately, an airline can win on product. And it can win on loyalty alone – Northwest used to compensate top elites with bonus miles whenever they weren’t upgraded on domestic flights, making up for their inferior product with an ‘upgrade guarantee’. The best combination does both!
But ‘schedule and price’ alone is not a winning combination for a high cost airline in what’s ultimately a competitive marketplace. And reliability – while crucial – is mere tablestakes.
@Jack – Oh sure, we’re so “entitled.” Imagine the sheer audacity of expecting a halfway respectable experience after dropping several thousand dollars on a plane ticket. Maybe next time we should just invite the crew to slap us around a bit mid-flight for our own good. Wouldn’t want to seem ungrateful for the honor of being treated like garbage, much less being asked to eat and drink it.
@Tim Dunn – We usually agree, but I’ve got just over $10k of my own money invested in two AF tickets in a few weeks ($2k higher than AA on the same route) that says you’re dead wrong on this one. After a ghastly AA business class trip to Europe this spring with hideous service and even worse food, I vowed never again if I can possibly avoid it. I can’t be alone in that.
I flew a reasonable amount of AA first because I was a longstanding AA customer. Its a dreadful product. And DFW admirals club gave me horrible food poisoning.
Switched to Delta. Certainly not perfect, but better than United, and far far better than American. I
This article is correct, American is a garbage product now. I’m sorry it took me so long to switch
When the vodka they serve is Tito’s, you shouldn’t expect more than $8 wines. Obviously Premium is not their target level.
Was this article written by AI? References are crossed and therefore confusing. You intermingle and misrepresent the airlines your speaking about in the same sentence, repeatedly! This makes this article not trustworthy and confusing.
Also, sounds extremely entitled anyways.
American doesn’t value their customers. On one of the longest domestic routes, MIA/LAX, first class seats are horrible as is food service, the absence of screens, the rot gut liquor and low end wines. Supposedly they have a Chief Customer Officer but she’s missing in action! Fly any carrier but American!
I do quite a bit of international travel. I generally try to avoid American — QR & CX are definitely superior. Although I prefer AA to BA or IB. And I cancelled my Citi Executive card 2 years ago. I’m not that interested in LP’s anymore — what’s the point? Too much hassle with little return.
Taste testing has proven that wine experts can’t tell cheap wines from expensive wines. The belief that the distinction can be detected is superstition. It appeals to the the foolhardy and conspicuous consumers.
@Nicholas – You’re either trolling or you’ve taken a crowbar to the tiny corner of your brain where critical thinking once rented a studio apartment. What peer-reviewed taste-testing fever dream are you citing here? I can personally assure you that even a homeless teenager with zero wine knowledge, two brain cells fighting a custody battle, and a nose stuffed with cocaine and drywall dust could tell the difference between Two Buck Chuck and a 2016 Le Clos Du Caillou Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Hell, blindfold them, spin them in circles, feed them ghost peppers like communion wafers in between sips and they’d STILL be able to tell the difference.
These days the travel mantra is cruise more – fly less.
Mike,
given that you included bad service as well as bad food, I think you reinforce my point that food and beverage alone is not the primary purchase driver.
Air France does have some of the best food across the Atlantic but they also generally have fairly decent service.
the combination of food AND service will cause people to switch but AA has undoubtedly lost more business traffic because of their service levels.
Gary’s own trip report highlights the lack of uniformity even among FAs in their business class cabin.
DL’s service is not necessarily world-beating but you rarely find variations in service as large as you find with AA or UA.
DL service is predictably above average for US carriers and individual poor performance is addressed.
There are lots of reasons but it is much more of a crapshoot about what you will get w/ AA and UA than with DL but AA tends to rate below average at least among the big 3 with some shining stars while UA tends not to swing as far below the line.
All things being equal, sure AA will be at a disadvantage just because of food but rarely are all things equal
AA is an embarrassment all round. I would be happy to see it collapse and something new emerge. Airline of last resort. In the meantime, wines on UA are rather good.
I fired AA 10 years ago, when I was 1st on the first class domestic flight, and the put me in coach and had employee kids/mom in First Class. I am about 40K short of Platium for Life (2 Million Lifetime Miles), but have no desire to ever fly AA again.
As I read these responses some sound bot/AI generated. Others sound valid but the one about downgraded from first for no revs is ridiculous. That didn’t happen. That would be flagged so fast…..
With AA you can count on them getting consistently worse. I’m old enough to remember being served, in coach, mind you, a full lunch (club sandwich, potato chips, and a can of soda pop) on flights between SAT and DFW, if you were flying during mealtime. Nowadays, good luck getting served a sip of water.
Flying tourism in Alitalia the morning EXPRESSO before landing in Rome made all the difference against all American carriers.
So many of the comments are “spot on”!! I’ve been flying with United and Alaska more than AA, and their First Class has been good, no complaints; great flight attendants and service! Seriously considering closing my AAdvantage credit card, especially after they lowered my limit by thousands!! THAT p***ssed me off big time.