CHART: What Alcoholic Drinks Are Free On American Airlines?

Will you get free drinks on your American Airlines flight – or will you be charged? It depends on the route you’re flying and your class of service. Here’s a simple chart that tells you what to expect.

Dallas and Chicago – Hawaii routes offer complimentary beer and wine, while West Coast – Hawaii routes do not.

The Sydney, Auckland, Tokyo, and Hong Kong flights actually offer complimentary spirits and not just beer and wine. This is driven by the airline’s joint ventures with Qantas and Japan Airlines, which offer complimentary spirits to their own customers.

Of course complimentary standard alcoholic beverages are complimentary regardless of seating to Executive Platinum and Concierge Key members.

When charged, American’s pricing is as follows:

  • Spirits, Sparkling Wine, and Wine: $9
  • Beer: $8

These new higher prices went into effect in October 2018. At these prices maybe you just want to bring your own?

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. We recently flew Aeromexico, SFO-GDL, and were served a small lunch with all beverages, alcohol included. Main cabin, $83/non-stop one way, plenty of leg room and attractive, polite attendants.

  2. @TheMaskedPoster – I am glad the flight attendants were attractive. Sounds like it would have been a miserable flight otherwise.

  3. Recently on an old US 321 the only MCE seats are the Exit Rows where the arm rests dont go up and the padding is the worst. So I took a reg seat and the FA wanted to charge me for the drink, so I handed it back to her and said its not fault the only MCE seats where its free are by far the worst seats on the plane

    She took it moved on and then came back and said she’ll work it out and gave it to me. I guess someone in the MCE seats didnt ask for a drink so she probably attached it to their seat

  4. @isaac we understand that the LUS planes suck, but taking the frustration out on the flight attendants only makes the situation worse.

  5. The thing is, I actually agree with isaac… he did a good job in telling the airline’s employees what is wrong with their product. If more people dod this thrn maybe word would actually make its way to mgmt and something will be done. To just sit and not at least say anything is the lazy way out amd will never makes things better, in fact prpbably only makes it worse as the airline assumes nobody cared.

  6. When you need a chart to explain all the different services onboard then you know you have one very screwed up operation

  7. Re: beer guy in the photo…I believe that is a Chef Geoff’s supermug, so he probably took a hike out to the C gates to burn his Priority Pass credit and then made his way back to a flight out of A/B. It’s a solid move when the BA / AF / VS lounge PP hours have ended and TK is closed or at capacity.

    Smart fellow.

  8. Gary,

    If this is a “real” AA chart it isn’t followed. I can assure you on flights in coach to Europe all drinks, including liquor, are free.

Comments are closed.