American Airlines is having problems feeding passengers, at least at two of its large hubs. Aviation watchdog JonNYC shared some of the details on Twitter of American’s difficulties getting catering out to planes in Charlotte and Philadelphia. While passengers aren’t necessarily being warned in advance to buy food and drinks inside the terminal before they board, they’re in for a surprise that their flight might not have anything for them once they’re in the air.
Flight told to take off with bare basics catering if needed
PHL: flights under 900 miles told to do same for now— unclear end date.
“Stress” on catering both places (and for I know, maybe others)
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) June 28, 2024
Through June 30, American’s hub in Charlotte is expected to have challenges with catering. Crew are being told that they shouldn’t request catering when they’ve been underprovisioned. Unless crew meals are missing, they should just depart. Other ‘no go’ items they can delay for are delay kits (emergency snacks for long delays), water and ice.
Similarly, Philadelphia is having catering issues, too. As a result they’re letting many flights under 900 miles go without receiving snacks and beverages. The Philadelphia hub’s focus is on flights of 900 miles or longer that cater meals up front. Similar to Charlotte, employees are being told not to take a delay to request catering – unless they’re missing scheduled crew meals, water, or ice.
American is going to make sure that their employees get fed, on those flights where crew meals are called for. But they’re going to take off without food or drink for passengers in hopes of staying on-time.
I am sure the crews are rejoicing at AA. They get to sit behind their seatbelt barricaded galleys and do nothing. Because, you know, supply issues. The entire system is a mess. And the consumer is, as always, the benefactor of mismanagement and the result in lazy bitter employees.
@N1120A. I don’t know of anyone arguing crew meals and the concept. But the directive that planes can depart without passenger meals, but not crew meals, is telling.
What does it tell? the hierarchy is: Shareholders, those in the C-Suite, management, employees and lastly, paying passengers. That’s a recipe for disaster if you ask me.
Isom is gonna need a bigger PowerPoint…
I flew for a regional, I brought food from home. I flew for USAiways Express, United Connection, and American. American was the worst contract. Even the owner of our airline was fed up by the deal after a while. Crew meals? I saw that in the USAF. I’d be dipping Fritos in potted meat on my flights. We did quick turns it was quick, 30 minutes.
That said, I used to have issues with ordering catering at LGA, but they were so swamped, I could understand. Before my wife clipped my wings, I transferred to St Louis and started operating with American. Even back in 2006, it sucked. They wanted to charge people for a bottle of water on a flight. Oh, and charge for blankets and pillows. No pun, but that shit didn’t fly. I miss being a flight attendant some days, but the way it’s going now, my old lady did the right thing of making me get a “normal” job again.
@Stuart shareholders are not first: have you looked at returns? It’s all about C-Suite. Shareholders come after them, in random order.
Hello?! To you ignorant, selfish a- holes who can only think of yourselves, there are those of us to whom a drink, snack may well be VERY necessary. I’m talking about diabetics and hypoglycemics, possibly others!!! DUH!! Wake up and stop being so fugging worried about calling people fat, inappropriate, pigs, etc. Next, you’re going to tell me to bring my own. Good luck getting anything past security. Buy it in an airport shop…sorry, my bank loan was denied or maybe I could afford to. Pull your head out n think of someone besides yourself, for once!! I have rather unstable sugars so even if I eat at the airport, I may STILL have a medical emergency in the air!!!! Which do you want: give me a soda n a tiny snack or a medical emergency in the sky…you pick??!!! I’ll wait.
Please clarify .
Flight Attendants DO NOT get crew meals.
ONLY THE PILOTS
Let’s be honest. They do this in PHL or CLT because they’re both really shitty hubs and they can. People don’t have a choice.
You would never see this in ORD or JFK or LAX. Places where it really matters. It’s a business decision and someone made the calculation they won’t lose customers in these PHL and CLT markets.
Hmmmm, PHL and CLT, both USAirways holdovers. It’s called garbage in/garbage out. All the hubs which were formerly USAirways are crappy, as is the service on former USAirways routes. The mindset of USAirways employees has not really changed to include an emphasis on excellent customer service.
As I understand, AA FA’s don’t get crew meals. Pilots do and they’re contractual, hence don’t leave without them.
Meals for passengers aren’t contractual as such, you only pay for travel from A to B per the contract of carriage, so I guess that’s why they’ll leave without customer meals and not crew (Pilot) meals. Is it ideal? Absolutely not, but I guess they’re prioritizing on-time performance vs customer amenities.
At least Delta and United generally won’t leave with missing First Class meals.
On the plus side, think how much more value they can return to the C-suite, whilst not having a viable FA contract. Amazing!!
Remember the days, whenmeals were on just about every flight? Remember the days when everyone on a red eye everyone got a pillow and blanket? Remember when passengers didn’t yell, scream or beat one another up. For you too young to remember routes like PHL to PIT or PIT to CLT had full hot meals omelets, soup, etc. And airlines still made millions in profits. Ahhh the good old days of air travel, it’ll never be the same.
This s. I’m trying fine another too travel. I been a loyal customer to AMERICAN AIRLINES
@Stuart “But the directive that planes can depart without passenger meals.” The directive refers to “flights under 900 miles.” On domestic flights, other than transcon flights (none from PHL or CLT), AA does not offer a meal service in Y. F gets a meal if it is >900 miles. Thus, all of the affected flights might go without soda or snacks for any passengers, but no meals are missing.
@Nrvfly Slow down, I don’t see anyone here dismissing the legitimate medical needs of passengers. I don’t know the details of your condition, but I’d recommend you explore TSA rules more. I suspect there are a lot of things that you might need that will be allowed through screening. I’m rather surprised someone with these concerns doesn’t always travel with “backup.” And, there are medical exceptions available for items through TSA. I sure wouldn’t let my health depend on airline catering not fouling up. Best of luck with your challenges.
I stopped caring about status.
I stopped caring about miles.
I stopped caring about bonus.
I am now a free agent, AAirmiles, they have a place but Alaska is my preferred, but not at a premium. Price of business class is my first priority.
This frees you up.
If there complaints about the product then change to another.
The problem is that the destination on rivals might not be convenient. One would a prior be forced to fly on AA.
My inquiring mind wants to know how much the food caterers in Charlotte and Philadelphia charge American Airlines for NOT delivering food and beverages to the aircraft.
Ken,
Gary can confirm but I believe the delivery of beverages to AA short domestic flights in PHL and CLT is done by AA employees, a legacy of USAirways labor contracts that remain UNFIXED a decade after the merger. other hubs have catering including beverages done by a caterer
Who knew it was so difficult to find a can of Coke or Sprite? Seriously, these are basic commodity products you can literally get anywhere. I am baffled how a caterer – whose main job is to procure stuff- can fail so completely at its primary and simple basic function.
Hmm. I see the AA employee comment above. My basis point stands, and if that is true AA needs to fix that contract.
Since it seems that the US Airways culture became predominant at American Airlines. ( We’re looking at you Doug Parker.) Why didn’t they just keep the name US Airways?
On 6/24, I was on a flight from IND to ORD and the lavatories were both out of service They knew this before they left.
Stuff like this is going on even with flights outside of PHL. Last night I took the 1230 am red eye from Georgetown, Guyana to Miami, a full five hour flight. I was booked in business class. Now maybe too much to ask for even a snack at that that hour but what did I get on the whole flight ? Half a glass of warm water without ice served to me a minute before roll back and then taken from me less than 2 minutes later. Nothing offered for the full 5 hours of the flight! Flight attendants hid frim business class for the full flight. I would have thought that at a minimum before landing coffee would be offered which was important to me as I had a 2 hour drive across Alligator Alley (at the early hour of 0530). And there was never anyone to ask. Only time you saw a flight attendant during the flight was when one blocked off access to the forward restroom with a cart so the pilot could go potty in peace! The same pilot who at the beginning of the flight reminded all the passengers that if you offended a flight attendant you were offending him personally and you would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And yet after 20 minutes of delay nothing was heard from him otherwise! But he made sure you knew he was the boss.
My point here is on a 5 hour flight not one soft drink or cup of coffee could be had. And yet on a recent 45 minute flight from Amman to Beirut I was given a 3 course lunch (either Western or Mid-East cuisine) with a wine list to boot!
Gene, sounds like terrible service. I assume the “so the pilot could go potty in peace” line is in jest as you realize they block access for security reasons.
So here is the deal at CLT and PHL. SkyChefs prepares the meals. The Commissary (staffed by AA Ramp Union Workers) works at a separate building and responsible for packing all beverages and other catering goods. At the appropriate time, the Commissary leaves their facility and drives to SkyChefs to pick up the meal carts. Trucks then depart for the airport and all items are loaded on the airplane by the Commissary. There is clearly a staffing problem at the commissary that is causing these problems which are negatively impacting the onboard service passengers expect and deserve. All other AA locations have food, beverage and other items prepared and packed by the designated caterer. Given the size of CLT and PHL, both of these cities should disband their Commissary operations but then you have union issues. The customer is on the short end of the stick at CLT and PHL.
@johhny What is a $31mm?
Another example of why PHL is the red headed step child of AA hubs
AA has been trying to take away catering from the union ramp emoyees at these 2 hubs (the only AA ststions that do their own catering) for years. By intentionally providing poor catering service out of these locations and getting co aunts, they can justify subbing it out.
One has to think about the length of a 900 mile flight and the time it takes to depart, land and taxi. I have taken 100’s of these flights in the past and don’t expect any service on a flight this short. This issue is being blown out of proportion. Buy a bottle of water, while expensive on the other side of TSA, $7.50 is better than having a crisis for goodness sakes. If a short haul flight w/o snacks is too expensive, take a long haul bus and see what service you get?
Christopher,
and this is why AA is failing. They use their customers as leverage in a process of negotiating w/ labor.
and Gene wonders why DL charges so much for its services including premium cabin mileage awards.
Same thing happened to us on a flight from Washington to Key West on June 24. What is it with American that they can’t seem to manage the basics of the business they’re in?
This just happened to us leaving Philly for Phoenix on Sunday. Plane coming in was late so we were late boarding and most of the plane (from the hands that went up upon landing to let them off first) had connections that were getting tight. On the tarmac ready to go and pilot says we have to wait for catering and it will be another 20 mins! Im sure given the choice, most would gladly forego their cookie and soft drink to get there on time but we had to wait and I’m sure many missed their connection.