A month ago I wrote that American Airlines would be introducing a new coffee partnership.
This is something they desperately need, both because their current coffee is quite bad and because coffee is symbolically important as a marker of change. It was the first move United Airlines made (alongside stroopwafels in economy) when Oscar Munoz took over as CEO and signaled the end of the product-destroying Jeff Smisek era.
Starting next year, American Airlines will offer Lavazza coffee onboard and in lounges.
Beginning in early 2026, American Airlines travelers will be able to enjoy Lavazza’s premium coffee blends across all cabins in flight and at American’s Flagship® and Admirals Club® lounges across the system. This exclusive rollout marks a significant step in American’s continued evolution of the premium travel experience.
Coffee remains tough to do at altitude. And the water used matters, too. We’ll have to see what the specific brews American is using work out to taste like in practice. But shifting away from Fresh Brew onboard is a great move.
United serves Illy (the best amongst U.S. airlines so far). Delta offers Starbucks. Even Southwest Airlines announced new coffee – Peet’s – late summer. And investing in better coffee just makes good business sense!
- A major legacy airline might spend ~ $10+ million a year on coffee.
- Improving it might even double the price!
However the value created for an airline far outstrips that price.
- Improved operational efficiency and reduced delays, by eliminating pilots stopping at Starbucks in the terminal on the way to the aircraft.
- Improved employee morale, which in turn affects customer service. Better coffee is a product flight attendants can be proud of and reduces complaints they receive from customers.
- This matters especially to high yield business travelers, exactly the customers American is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to win back.
American has instituted a number of quick wins as it strives to become more premium, while continuing the longer arc of new cabin products and lounges where investments began years ago. Hopefully coffee is more than just a quick win, but a real signal of shift at the airline to deliver quality to customers.
Good. Higher quality coffee makes for a better airline (impressed, specifically what jetBlue has done, offering espresso-based drinks in Mint). And, for the love of… please stop putting the use coffee bags in the lavatories to ‘spruce’ them up.
All lipstick on a pig until they start firing flight attendants who are incapable of providing premium customer service.
@George — For the most part, American Airlines has excellent crew members, as do nearly all US carriers and most foreign carriers. It’s unfortunate that you and others denigrate these hard-working professionals on here. It saddens me to think that some of my fellow frequent flyers are so antagonistic to towards the people that literally keep you safe and comfortable, while often over-worked and under-paid. I suppose, if nothing will ever be good enough, try flying private, start your own airline, or become a crew member yourself. Be the change you want to see!
@1990 I’m going to go with @George on this one. We both saw the earlier post about AA calling the police on passengers for no good reason. Until they can get consistency in employee behavior the rest is irrelevant. Good coffee will never make up for hateful employees. They may be all the employees, but the hateful ones exist in large enough quantities to keep many of us from going near AA. Hell, I’m flying Spirit next month just to avoid AA. Unless, of course, the money at Spirit runs out.