Update 4/12/21: American now says that the machines will actually stay. They have removed supplies, but expect the espresso service to eventually return to premium cabins where the machines are offered,
[W]e are certain the machines will stay on the aircraft and this is temporary as service is modified on these flights and the expresso offering is currently not available. The removal of equipment for the machine will help prevent confusion among flight attendants and conserve fuel.
American Airlines used to have espresso machines on board Boeing 777, 787, and Airbus A321T aircraft. They don’t anymore. The airline has removed the machines from these aircraft, a spokesperson confirms to me, “to help conserve fuel and prevent confusion about what services are currently offered.”
They haven’t been catering supplies for the machines, so I suppose that was confusing. Less confusing would be bringing back use of the machines as travel begins to return, because it was a really premium cabin nice touch.
However it’s that everything that has weight on a plane burns more fuel, even the magazine in the seat back pocket.
When current American Airlines management was leading America West, and took over US Airways, they removed seat power from the Airbus narrowbodies that had it. The system for seat power added weight and burned fuel, so cost money.
When I first had a look inside the Airbus A321T which American used for its premium transcon flights between New York JFK both Los Angeles and San Francisco, the espresso machines were something they were proud of – and added to widebodies.
It’s a little touch to the American Airlines service I’m sad to see go. Coffee is, after all, an integral part of travel.
This is probably the dumbest marketing speak I have ever heard. to help conserve fuel and prevent confusion about what services are currently offered.”
To prevent confusion????? GTFO. There is no confusion. You are trying to save money. Period. Say we are being cheap. Be honest. Speak in normal sentences. Stop trying to Jedi mind trick people.
Funny enough, my first espresso on a plane was on a US A330 back in 2008 FCO-PHL
We wouldn’t want you to be confused and briefly start to think that AA’s business service was competitive.
RIP OMAT’s Cappuccinos.
Thanks Dougie. You’re getting closer and closer to our level of service.
Oh no!!! What will greedy people that exploit others so they can fly first class ever do!?!?
UA did the same a few years back to the CO widebodies that had espresso machines. Equally weak excuses were given at the time. While they were often broken, and primarily used by crew when functioning, this is a pure cost cut, nothing more.
@ Ryan — Greedy people that exploit others? Apparently you’ve never flown first class nor bothered to learn how to obtain a first class seat at a steep discount.
Agree, cost cutting to be sure. But maybe it is a step in the right direction…could result in more money to pay the employees and maybe impact toward lower more competitive fares? Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, and here’s a good point for fixing the new painted birds…but in the older days they were known as silver birds and they were left UNpainted because the weight of the paint added to more fuel consumption, isn’t that right Uncle Bob?
The machines are a big waste of fuel. Management gave a half answer. They are a waste of fuel because cabin crew are often to lazy or inept to make proper use of the machines and they are underutilized. It’s not worth maintaining them, supplying parts, and carry the weight on the plane. The cabin crew of domestic airlines aren’t going to improve so removing the machines are not big issues.
Familiar theme. “We don’t want to invest in a product that we can’t reliably sell at retail.”
Can you imagine trying to compete as a fine-dining restaurant with an exclusively seniority-based union workforce with no skin in the game?
@Gary – The 321T you mention was set up at a time when American had management had some pretensions of caring about providing a competitive product. The America West posse simply doesn’t care, as they’ve proved time and again.
@ryan that comment is just hilarious.
So you think everyone who flies ( US Domestic) first gets to do so as they’re some high level exec or CEO of a company that has a ‘pro employee extortion policy’ in place?! Slightly rhetorically I ask of you have any idea how easy it is to get upgraded to F on US airlines? I’m from the UK and only hold mid level status with BA but just by booking I automatically get upgraded from economy to Econ plus on AA and when I either check in or at the gate I’m normally bumped to F. I’d say I have about 85% hit rate for that happening when flying US Domestic with AA. So I booked economy and fly F simply by being a FF. I work for myself in security so no evil corporation with oppression policies and I 100% self fund my travel.
My wage fluctuates as do all self employed people’s people but I earn no more than about $35-55k a year ( equivalent) for which I can easily work 60 hour weeks back-to-back at times as I can never count on an income so take what I can get when it’s there.
80% of my disposable income goes on travel coz that’s my passion so my FF status comes from my own hard work and from very modest means.
Travelling First Class on international long haul ( a VERY different beast to US Dom F which I’d call J or business) is perfectly achievable if you invest some time to understand how to get the most out the system and flying US Dom F certainly doesn’t make you some rich entitled oppressor of people. YOUR own ignorance of the facts of travel doesn’t make your assumptions correct.
And yet JetBlue still has them on their Mint planes
Meanwhile in JetBlue Mint, you can get both ice and hot Americano!
MYSELF: Congratulations for having no life! While you may wish to live your sad existence to maybe be upgraded once in a while, most of the people looking down their nose at you when you do are exactly what I described.
To prevent confusion – LMAO !!!!!!!
So glad I won’t need to be confused on my next AA first class flight.
Our customers are too stupid to know the difference between an espresso and whatever else we serve. Same corporate speak when an airline devalues miles. They are always doing it to give you more choices and to serve you better. Kind of insulting.
Whatever. If you can’t live for a few hours without a certain type of coffee, you are pretty pathetic. Can you imagine former generations that crossed oceans in tiny wooden boats, fought for freedom in awful wars, etc whining about the time they couldn’t get expresso?
(jeff) Sounds like a new airline campaign – Enjoy experiencing life just as your ancestors did!
Many elite status AAdvantage frequent fliers covet an American Airlines in-flight crappuccino.
AWA maintenance management can’t keep them working, so first they placard them, then they remove them.
Ryan Waldron. Why are you even on this site. You obviously aren’t here to learn anything so why don’t you go back to row 31 and leave us all alone. We can do without your stupid comments.
God bless you Jeff Milo. You said it all.
One more less-friendly customer decision to diminish the level of AA travel; already near the dumps! When will Doug Parker’s disastrous tenure end along with his sycophants?
Meeehhhh…..I personally preferred cappuccinos to espressos anyways
RYAN: I have 92 countries under my belt. I assure i’ve experienced plenty of life and of the world. Having status as a FF i’ve also never felt looked down upon and am perfectly capable of holding my own in any cabin. Where contrary to your own jaded beliefs the other pax aren’t full of evil people cackling and rubbing their hands together.
CMorgan: Agree but I think there will be no changing his already made up mind. Maybe if I ever meet him on a flight i’ll waft a glass of bubbles in front of him and look down my nose at him just to help him in his unfounded beliefs lol
May as well take out all the ovens too. Just offer an “express box” with a ham and cheese sandwich or some sort of shelf stable salad during boarding which IIRC they used to do. While I have met some darn nice FA’s on AA I believe many of them would rather do nothing.
@Lastmate – actually American did take the ovens out of Boeing 737s in economy
@Lastmate While I try to avoid mass generalizations I would have to agree to a point. My first AA flight was quite a culture shock. Normally flying European J for SH ( our equivalent to your US Dom F) where we’re used to boarding and having 3 course meals, admittedly far from fine dining, served and as many drinks as we like ( whilst not becoming drunken idiots of course) we definitely found the lack of service and desire to serve customers somewhat different. At first we put it down to that flight but going on to take 5 US Dom F flights on that trip we realised that the ‘service’ element is very far removed from UK/ European business class. It does seem, at least from our experience, that CC seem to be much more “there to supervise than to serve” compared to the other side of the pond.
That’s not to say we didn’t meet some great CC along the way and one memorable lady who’d done International LH for several years even joked about how different we must be finding it & promised us that while not standard then as long as promised to behave then to feel free to hit the bell and she’d discreetly bring us anything we wanted.
Should make clear before I go giving the wrong impression to people that as purely self funded leisure travellers we like to enjoy a tipple and as FF have learnt our limits at 30k feet as compared to on the ground ( which we all know are very different beasts) and both coming from an aviation security background at different point in our lives getting drunk on a flight is something we would never dream of doing but to us being up the pointy end means we like to take, reasonable, advantage of the F&B
Cmorgan: Just doing the good work of trying to get ignorant sheeple like yourself to wake up and learn some truth, rather than the complete BS that is spewed at you 24/7 from the usual outlets. Try thinking for yourself for a change rather than blindly accepting everything as truth, all it takes is a bit of common sense to sort through the BS. From how upset my comments make you….I think that may be more effort than you are willing to make though.
MYSELF: What a grand little fantasy land you live in where you claim that someone who barely makes more than minimum wage can travel the world in luxury first class, all with the power of your imagination and ignorance! Maybe you should put down your crack pipe and turn off the re-runs of Robin Leach.
I work hard to make $150,000 a year, and I could fly first class if I wanted to be a greedy worthless POS. Instead I choose to work even harder and use my money to help my community, to better my world by supporting innocent kids who’s parent’s can’t be bothered. To try and give them a decent home so they can grow up to be upright productive citizens and lead good lives….rather than repeat their parent’s mistakes.
Those who choose to take 100, 200, 300 times what the people who do all the real work at their companies and fly first class are greedy worthless individuals. To have that kind of money and squander it on selfish embellishments to their already lazy and worthless lives is a shame and should be shuned and discouraged. If they weren’t already taking far more than they deserve from their companies, there would be far more to go around for those who do work hard for a living. There would be far less disparity and apathy in the world….but no, they are entitled and people like you who idolize them are just as much part of the problem.
@Ryan – As I said, your own ignorance doesn’t make things facts. I have airline credit cards and regularly earn two free 2-4-1 trips anywhere in the world any class on any itinerary if there’s redemptions availability that only costs FF miles and taxes so flying F is easily achievable.
What it costs you to live or to fly is massively different to someone in the UK. I can fly to the otherside of Europe for £80 / $110 return if I choose to fly coach which is equivalent to a US Dom Transcon flight and you’re unlikely to ever fly that far, even one way for that amount. All my flying earns me miles which I can use to fly and I tend to book 6-12 months out keeping the costs low.
As I said, your ignorance doesn’t make you right but my travel is a simple fact and result of putting in the effort.
Nice to see your uniformed assumptions give you such a feeling of superiority. I spent 8 months working at a UNHCR funded orphanage in Romania a few years back which i’m reasonably confident at least equals your effort and carry out regular charity work however I don’t do that to b able to use it as some humble brag and to try make out im superior in some way. I do it quietly and without consideration for how I can use that to try and make myself look good. Little reality check before I go. Whilst i’m not one of those people at the top of the corporate food chain those people also give tens, hundreds, thousands the ability to have a job and earn a wage. If it wasn’t for those people then the unemployment count would be a lot higher.
Obviously you wont change your uniformed assumptions so we’ll call it a day there
Ryan you know nothing about me or my family yet u make a lot of assumptions. I work hard for my money and I am by no means rich. If I choose to spoil my wife and daughter by having them fly first class that is my perogative. My wife grew up poor in a third world country and I will spoil her at any chance I get. We regularly send money to her family and help with medical and other bills. Stop judging other people whom you have never met and whose lives you know nothing about. Save your sermons for church!
@ Ryan — You sound awfully angry about helping people.
Espresso machines. Back screen tvs all require specialist to maintain which the company doesn’t have. Every time these machines stop working or something is wrong a specialist is called to fix it. We all know how expensive a specialist can be
CMorgan: I never said a word about your family, I simply responded to your ignorance displayed in your comment….and I don’t attend a church, I stopped believing in fairy tails when I was 5 or 6. To bad the rest of the world can’t do the same. :/
MYSELF: If you think that people at the top of a cooperation taking 7, 8 , and 9 figure salaries create the jobs for those who do all the work and make a pittance…..you are a bigger idiot than I thought. The market for the goods and services that they provide create their jobs……not the fat cats at the top taking all the profits. As I have said before…..you can live in your little fantasy land all you wish, just please stop trying to involve the rest of us in your delusions.
Gene: I am not angry at all, just tired of seeing the general level of common sense and intelligence in the human population dropping at an alarming rate, just look at the comments of those mentioned above. I want to see the world a better place for future generations, not taken over by a fraction of a percent that take everything they are not entitled to made possible by the rest of the 99.999% because they have chosen to turn off their brains as it is just too hard for them to be bothered. If people would wake up and make an effort to think, we could easily eliminate all the ills in our world…..but unfortunately that requires effort and a bit of sacrifice from the masses of idiots that we find out selves living amongst.
Okay whose gonna draw the short straw and have to tell ‘Utopian Ryan’ that Empress Greta isn’t right and the world won’t be ending ( or irrecoverably ‘destroyed’) in, now, ten years? Just as it wasn’t in 2019, 2012,1994, 1992, 1986. Kids heads gonna bloody explode! That’s NOT to be confused with me saying the climate isn’t an issue and of course we could do better looking after our planet. It’s just not gonna tip over if X isn’t done by Y and the proof of that is that it didn’t in all the years mentioned above where we were told it would do if we didn’t do X by Y back then.
Ryan, baby, bubbala, darling. You can have all the market demand you want. Guess what. If someone didn’t get off their ass and build a company big enough to produce product to meet that demand in the 1st place then it will go un met. If John and Mary sit on their ass complaining they can’t find a job and Bill gets off his and invests his time, money and effort in an idea then says “Hey John and Mary I can help you out and give you a job now” guess what. Bill deserves a bigger slice of the pie coz he created the damn pie that John & Mary, who sat on their asses while Bill toiled away remember, are eating from in the first place. THAT is reality. Of course we could go the alternative, ‘fairer’ route and instill collectives. I mean they nearly worked in the Soviet Union so long as you ignore the 10s, neigh 100’s, of millions who died of mass starvation & forced / slave labour condition on numerous occasions under the guise of it being “for the greater good”. All whilst those at the top exploited the workers, ate like pigs, and lined their own pockets off the, literal, backs of those they worked to death all in the name of “fairness, equity, and socio-economic harmony”.
The only one deluded here is yourself Ryan. You sound like some dreamy wistful teenager whose seen none of the world & learnt nothing other than what he was told to think but still believes he’s the one who knows the magical key to right all the worlds wrongs and everyone who doesn’t agree with him is some evil idiot who doesn’t know what’s best for them coz they don’t adopt ‘The Ryan Principle’. Tbh at this point your simply trolling yourself.
I feel sorry for you Ryan. Must be an awfully bleak afterlife to look forward to you when you believe in nothing. I would suggest redirecting your anger toward more worthwhile endeavors. Calling other people ignorant simply because they don’t share your viewpoint won’t get you any supporters.
Wow…it is amazing how the simple minded just can’t help themselves and just continue to prove the point oh so well with their incoherent rambling. Sad they are willing to make so much of an effort to stroke their own egos, but can’t make the smallest attempt to think for themselves or find a modicum of common sense.
@Ryan At last, we have found some common ground and something we clearly agree on! 😀
“Wow…it is amazing how the simple minded just can’t help themselves and just continue to prove the point oh so well with their incoherent rambling. Sad they are willing to make so much of an effort to stroke their own egos, but can’t make the smallest attempt to think for themselves or find a modicum of common sense.”
Whilst I wouldn’t be so mean as too refer to you as “simple minded” I 100% agree with this self assessment of yourself. Perhaps you don’t need to be so harsh on yourself but I think it’s only right that the rest of us recognise and acknowledge you taking steps to identify and personally address you own ‘shortcomings’.
Slow clap awarded to you chap. Bravo.
MYSELF: Keep clinging to those dellusions buddy….maybe you can imagine yourself up some kind of a reward for your efforts in futility.
Ryan – no imagination needed. I’ll think of your poor oppressed and hollier-than-though self whilst sipping champagne. I might even raise a glass to you, then poor it in a bin so it reaches your level.
http://www.imagebam.com/image/c6a2d21374620394
MYSELF: Is it being ruled by a dried up little hag of a monarch who’s ancestors once bombed your country into submission until we came along and bailed you out that has you in such a tizzy or is it something else? You know that just because they let you sit up front on an EasyJet or RyanAir flight…. it’s not really first class right? Maybe it is having your entire aerospace industry run by the French that makes you so angry. Just curious….no, actually I don’t really care. You are a sad little excuse for a human being irregardless.
That’s the best you’ve got? I mean your not even trying. Why not “you’ve got terrible teeth” or “all your women look like fish wives”? Sorry to break it to you but i’m a little past cliched, over simplified, generalised collections of nasty words getting to me. FYI as I wasn’t alive or British during the second world war “bailed out” would be irrelevant but whilst serving for 9.5 years I did happen to bail a couple of your own countrymen out which had it of mattered would probably mean we could cancel it each one out eh.
“An idiot will oft resort to insults as they lack the intellect to hold an argument”
I’ll assume you qualify as an idiot based on the fact the image clearly shows it’s from my BA account and you don’t know that both Easyjet & Ryanair are short haul operators and don’t fly to SIN. I guess your, again, demonstrated total lack of knowledge about aviation and/or travel is where your initial assumption of ‘only the big bad bogeyman oppressors of the world fly up the front” came from.
At this point i’m just in this for the giggles so preach/ insult away. You’re only making yourself look a bigger fool as far as i’m concerned and I just know that it’s killing you that you haven’t gotten to have the final word which in your mind makes you feel you totally won.
There is no win or loose here, just your continued dellusions for our entertainment 🙂
What’s next….you saved mother Theresa’s kitten from a tree when you were a wee lad? Amazing that you can’t be bothered to use your real name when posting your fictions online. What else do you have to hide?
“Delusion’s” like the one you asserted before which got proven to be fact? Also coming from you any talk about delusion is deeply amusing.
Like I said, just knowing you not ‘winning’ in your own head by being the one to have the final word is killing you this is purely for my own amusement.
Say HI to the many folks lives you feel are enriched simply by having the privilege of being allowed to know you. No doubt you’ll let us know about your “worlds bestest ever super guy achievements” soon which we’re all excited to have you preach to us about as you let everyone know why your the greatest and everyone else is evil simply because they aren’t you.
As for me deciding who gets to know my name well you exemplify the reason why someone wouldn’t 😉
What’s your next rant going to be about? We are on the edge of our seats….wait, no. Nobody cares.