American Airlines has updated its domestic service standards, and aviation watchdog JonNYC was first to flag a significant change and cause me to dig in further. On domestic flights over 1,500 miles, the airline whose mission is not spending a dollar more than they have to will no longer have flight attendants perform a second pass through the aisle with drink service later in the flight – second drinks are on request only.
AA a new onboard service update. Domestically main cabin, now [most] flights over 1500 miles only get one beverage service. Anything else is “Beverage service on request”. That is to say the "arrival" service is eliminated and "on request"
At least I think that's the change
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) January 9, 2025
Flights under 250 miles don’t receive a pass through the cabin with drinks.
On most flights flight attendants may not even honor requests, though they are supposed to make drinks available on request. Flights 250 to 1,500 miles get a snack, like pretzels or cookies, known as Beverage Accompaniment Service.
Flights departing from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. that are 1,300 miles or more are supposed to offer buy on board items in main cabin, which is a more limited service than competitors (in terms of both availability and what’s offered, for instance American doesn’t do hot items for sale only packaged ones).
First class receives a change, too. On the Airbus A321, flight attendants are permitted to deliver meals from a cart. And the order in which meal requests are supposed to be taken has been standardized at front to back on every flight.
Meal preferences should always be taken from forward to aft, regardless of the time zone or flight direction.
Frequent flyers who are booked in first class more than 24 hours prior to flight often pre-order their meal choice, to ensure they get what they want. However, booking or changing flights at the last minute or getting an upgrade close to departure doesn’t make that an option – so folks will often choose their seat based on when they’ll be asked their meal choice, so that they aren’t stuck with whatever is left when their order is taken – so it’s worth knowing that American will always do this front to back.
The biggest change though is service flow no longer including a second pass through the cabin in back on long domestic flights. Drinks are still supposed to be available, but you’ll have to ask – either going to the galley or pushing your flight attendant call button, both of which may get mixed reactions from crew.
I might have expected flight attendants to like this change, since it means less work, but the reactions I’m seeing in cabin crew social media are largely disappointment. They want a service they can be proud of, and think it reflects poorly on the quality of the airline.
Oh, the irony: this morning’s WSJ article on American Airlines begging business travelers to return to the airline…ah, yes, this ‘you get one drink, and you’ll like it!’ policy fits perfectly.
I’m giving up EP this year for PP, and bringing more business to DL as a Diamond instead. Treat people better.
I feel for you folks that are trapped in a monopoly market like DFW or ATL. And to the inevitable ‘but, but.. you can take a connection, then get anywhere’ crowd, I pity you guys.
American Airlines has evolved into a lesser People’s Express – for those that remember.
US Air was bad… American is now worse.
And… I’m stuck in a market that is highly serviced by American. We might move based on our travel needs and preferences!
Even after Doug Parker’s retirement his legacy of penny pinching carried over from his years at HP and US live on
Always looking for the positive when in economy it means that many less times my knees will get banged with the cart. It also means less congestion in the aisle to stretch and be able to discard my trash and for the people who would not be inclined to get up and ask for a second drink it will mean less trips to the bathroom which again is less knee bumping. (I sit on the aisle)
Compare this to DL’s service standards in Y on transcons- two full drink services; a coffee run right after the first drink service; and a water run mid flight. I jumped ship from AA to DL last year and don’t miss it at all.
It was alarming my PHX – LIH 7 hour flight on AA was served only once of light snack and beverage. I had not been so hungry for ages. I’d like to say AAdios to AA.
A lot of it is the turbulence so bad it’s very hard to do a second service or even a first service and if people come back and ask for a drink we’re happy to get it for them
@1990, I read that article as well and find this quite Ironic. Also, have been EP for over a decade and made the decision to drop to PP. In my case, United has gotten a far bigger share of my wallet as has Frontier for the short domestic flights.
Just yesterday, flew Frontier instead of American. Flight departure and arrival times were supposed to be the same. But guess what, American’s flight left 14 minutes late and arrived 5 minutes late while Frontier left on-time and we arrived 30 minutes early. Also, service and flight attendants were far more friendly on Frontier and having the blocked middle seat was much appreciated in row 1.
If American wants to win back more of my business they need to start sending their employees to fly competitors including Spirit, Frontier, and all of the other majors because American Airlines offers by far the worst product in my opinion.
Why does this turbulence only seem to impact certain airlines like AA?
How can Spirit do multiple rounds in it’s “First” product and offer buy on board to the whole coach cabin on a 220 seat A321 from FLL to MCO?
And yet these are the same people who will sit in an airport bar and spend 150$ on food and drinks before their flight, where’s your complaints about that, face it, people want everything for free, if air travel was free, you’d all still complain, take Amtrak, it’s only Three days from coast to coast, If the Wright bros were alive today they’d be disgusted how ungrateful you all are for the privilege of air travel, this attitude by lefty and his minions is why everyone wants to Nuke us
Is this new? Fly from PHX to PHL a LOT in the past few years and we only had a beverage service after take off. I don’t think this is new, but maybe just in writing. PHX to Hawaii service always had a second service and water/juice but that was a few years ago.
Don’t praise DL too much. . .you don’t get the can (like AA does) and have had dozens of flights “without service due to blue sky and no turbulence”. If I get a full can 40 minutes into a 3 or 4 hour flight, good enough for me, but maybe a water service would be a nice. . prelanding touch on the trans or semi-transcon flights.
Longtime EP member on AA. What I still can’t understand is the completely arbitrary way pre-flight beverages are handled. It is completely hit or miss. Yes, I understand that if the flight is delayed and has a tight turn around, they might want to skip. But what I don’t understand is that when we are on time, or have a mechanical issue, it’s still not offered. Or what also happens now, especially in the morning, is that they will come out with a tray of prefilled water and orange juice cups. Depending if I am on vacation or not, I just want a diet coke (can is fine, no ice, easy peasy) or Truly’s (again, can only, and it’s *ALWAYS* Pineapple flavored, lol).
About half of the time, when I ask, I also add, “It’s just the can, I will finish it quickly” and they smile and nod, but the other half I get this look like I’m asking to live in their house for a week and it’s a stern, “No.”
Worse, most of these flights are on Airbus 319’s with only 8 First class seats, and I’ve also found that about 40%-50 of customers don’t even ask for a preflight beverage, especially in the morning.
What gives? And I know these are first world problems, but I wish there were consistent and clear guidelines so it doesn’t depend on what mood the FA’s are on that particular day/flight.
(And I’ve had FA’s acknowledge that they have heard of some of their colleagues skipping the service on purpose… I give those FA’s who confide in me the TY/Awesome service slips.)
Not just domestic flights either. Just flew from Philly to Amsterdam in premium economy and they only came through once for dinner service and I had to ask specifically for a drink… and that was about 1hr into the flight. No one even looked at us when we were on the ground. Flying Business back, we’ll see what happens there.
Oh well, this likely will be the way of the future(Delta included)
Lufthansa has gotten away with it and so will many Europeans airlines. It’s only a matter of time before it comes to The US.
I’ve been with the airlines for over 50 years. I have seen so many changes & not for the good. The thing about not going through twice is now the passengers ring the call light constantly for a beverage. But besides that, the bottom line is the company came up with this plan so they wouldn’t have to pay another F/A on the flights. One was removed during covid with a promise to return when the loads got full. Another broken promise
I flew PHL-SFO in mid-December and this policy was either already in place or was being tested. It was really weird for a 6+ hour flight. I was able to get a second drink on request but it didn’t seem like many others asked.
@John Biederman – sometimes there are reasons you might not be aware of to skip a predeparture svc. For example if there’s a mechanical we might be expecting to deplane imminently or to close up in a hurry so a to not miss a departure slot. That uncertainty discourages predepartures. Also sometimes we are missing things like cups or we’re in a station that requires carts to stay locked until after pushback (technically it’s supposed to be after takeoff). And sometimes FAs just don’t want to which I just don’t understand but I’m loathe to start a fight with my coworker.
Look, you have to understand, FAs primary job is safety. They are very busy during the second half of their flight. It might seem like they are just staring at their phones and ignoring you, but actually they are reviewing safety videos on their phones. These are highly trained professionals, and certainly not unskilled labor that went through 2 weeks of training.
I would rather have them do it this way. It keeps the cart out of the aisle so all of the idiots that keep getting up and down from clogging the aisle. Not a big deal to me and if you need another drink, just ring the bell. If it’s that big of a deal, the FA’s will complain enough to management and they will go back to normal service. Either way, they aren’t cutting you off from another drink.
This policy isn’t new. It has been in place since 2022 when the company was still trying to limit touchpoints. At that point it was just supposed to be a temporary adjustment. It has just been placed into the Service Manual and make permanent.
Wow just not to long ago Everyone was losing their minds that Southwest went to Water or Coffee only on flights blocked at and Hour basically and no service on flights blocked 45 or less. But recently just flew them to LAS-HNL they did 2 full services with basically unlimited refills and a Treat and water and coffee before landing.
AA has had a History of penny pinching back to the famous Bob Cradle Removal of one olive in their Salads save them Hundreds of Thousands of dollars in cost. So basically Fly AA get one and done or Fly Southwest where they will give you the entire Farm is you want it within reason. Hahaha
lAAzy
If you don’t have a second drink service then I have no problem getting up every hour and walking to the back and asking for another can of diet Coke or ginger ale.
I buy an overpriced bottle of water in the airport and drink most of it during the flight. It’s not a big deal to me. People could be more civilized on planes and leave the seat area clean so crews could spend more time actually cleaning and less time picking up after you. Walking thru 1st class you realize that people are just inconsiderate
The main reason airlines exist is to provide transportation, not to be a flying bar. Who cares if the plane crashes, as long as I’m drunk when it does?
For those of us who have been around for a minute have adjusted to the carriers consistent degradation of service standards. Yes, it is beyond disappointing, but my expectations have adjusted and I expect very little, unless I’m flying on EK/EY/QR. US carriers are Greyhound buses with wings. Just get me there safe and timely, and I’ll bring my own food & drinks on the flight.
This is so true. I flew Xmas day on AA from Miami to Seattle which is American’s longest domestic flight and they only came by once for snacks and once for garbage. That was it. Horrible!!
We then sat on the tarmac in Seattle for over an hour due to gate issue. On the plane for 8 hours and only saw the FA once. I live in Miami so I’m stuck with them if I want to fly non stop anywhere!!
Rushing to get caught up with bottom feeders like Spirit. Boondoggle for the F/A’s who do as little as possible and now can sit on their jump seats for even longer.
Alaska and Delta do much better at this. I’m LT Plat with AA, and it’s stuff like this that makes me continue to avoid them when I have a choice.
I started flying American recently after not using them at all since 1986. Even though it’s been a short time, I’ve worked my way up to Gold status. But I haven’t forgotten why I stopped using them when I did. It was the beverage service.
Back then, planes rarely flew full. Losing a customer meant one more empty seat. American had a policy of pouring a cup and not leaving the can. They might have saved 50 cents per passenger if even that, which was negligible compared to losing a customer traveling on business, who probably paid a good amount for any seat.
That was in the suit and tie era, and I was flying in and out of Dallas weekly in the summer. Once, a flight attendant offered me a beverage after not realizing that I had just gotten one. When she realized it, she looked at me as if I should have been ashamed of myself. That was the last straw.
So I switched to United, and they had no issues with giving me a cancellation of something.
Honestly we prefer Spirit to AA in Y. At least Spirit will sell me a cup of noodles for $5 of I’m hungry. I’ve spent days with travel delays that led to tight connections where I haven’t been able to eat for 10 hours with no buy on board. That never happens with Spirit. When your product is below that of a ULCC you may be headed for trouble. I flew DL on my normal route last year and couldn’t believe the difference in service. DL is making more money than AA and these kinds of decisions may have something to do with it.
Due to increased flight turbulence resulting from climate change, the frequency of beverage service has been reduced to enhance passenger safety.
Also the safety of those providing that service to you. Not that passengers care because most of them are too greedy to see beyond themselves. I’ve witness passengers who have eaten at the airport, at the lounge and still ask for a meal just to not eat it and prevent someone else from getting a better meal option
With technology these days, why can’t we clone another Robert Crandall to run American Airlines again?
I will honor my Union‘s request to follow these new standards of service of over 1500 miles domestically and internationally to a request service due to the fact that we’re understaffed!!! Look, once we are staffed properly or on our flights, then we’ll be more than happy to do a second service – we are being overworked and still quite underpaid ( in my opinion for the payment part, ) but the under staffing has been an issue for years. A letter that the union printed out to the membership in 2022 is now very valid! Ok, so when the new contract came out and did not include more flight attendants on our flights that we desperately need since as I say again, we are understaffed. We are honoring that letter 99.9% of the time due to the fact, we are unionized and we are fed up of how we’re being treated by the company and we need to have proper staffing on our flights. We’ve been worked to the bone especially international flights!
I worked for US/AA for 40 years. I was resident of the union local in Charlotte. I have never seen a great airline USAirways go from Great to horrible. I am ashamed that they do not feel a second beverage service is not needed. That is a HORRIBLE view of what we used to give CUSTOMER SERVICE. AA needs to grow up and decide what it wants to be. A low-class carrier as they seem to now being happy to be or become a GREAT airline again and CHOOSE customer service. PS Crandel was not really the CEO of an airline, he was a figure head.
Greyhound is better.
This makes the decision to retire as an American Airlines Flight Attendant after 38 years easier. Most of our planes look worn, WIFI often doesn’t work, and we are starting to resemble low cost airlines with our service level.
I am an executive platinum passenger which shows I choose to fly on American, and since I have a choice, I will be choosing the carrier that can deliver quality customer service.
I have been self employed for 34 years and cannot even understand American’s willingness or reason to deliver substandard service and products We are upgrading our business class, and on certain routes and planes will be cutting back on the number of flight attendants. AS continues to step over dollars to save a nickel, how short sighted.
I have kept flying a minimum schedule because I Love my Job and it Shows.
I’ve kept flying because I was proud of being an American Flight Attendant.
I’m not a huge burden on AA’s budget, so my retirement will not make a difference. I’m a proud Texan, American Airlines is Texan (or are we?).
Not a proud future here.
@Heather Suzanne – understaffing is a plausible argument regarding widebodies but this is for domestic flights that are predominantly narrowbodies