Back in February I wrote that American Airlines would trial sliders as a first class pre-order meal out of Chicago, accompanied by French fries. This proved popular, and last month they announced a nationwide rollout.

Credit: American Airlines

I still haven’t tried the sliders, though I’ve been looking forward to it. I have a couple of upcoming American Airlines domestic first class flights. I pre-ordered the sliders out of Chicago for next week. But my flight after that, between two hubs, didn’t offer it as an option.

Instead here’s what I was presented with:

I asked American what was going on? A noon departure from a hub should offer the sliders, but they were conspicously absent. It turns out that “the sliders will be cycled out on May 14.” No more sliders!

Prior to the pandemic burgers were a first class meal choice at lunch. First introduced in November 2018, here’s my spring 2019 report. They did not include fries, which are notoriously tough to manage inflight.

Two years ago United started serving a burger and fries and I found it to be genuinely awful. The fries were undercooked, limp, and not even served warm.

In the fall, Delta launched Shake Shack burgers as a domestic first class pre-order option.

Shake Shack
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On the ground I’ve always given American a lot of credit for doing a nice burger in Flagship First Dining. It’s much better than the Polaris burger. But inflight poses far greater challenges.

A great burger starts with quality beef and you need to cook it properly, ideally grilling it. You should get a nice char on the outside, while leaving the meat rare-to-medium rare on the inside.

It should have processed cheese that melts well. And it should be inside of a potato bun. Brioche and ciabatta are not well-matched to a burger. The bun is the delivery vehicle for the burger, big enough to contain it but not so large that it overwhelms the contents. Everything you put on the burger needs to fit inside so it doesn’t fall apart when you eat it. You want to balance the flavors inside, getting a combination of everything with each bite.

United first served a cheeseburger in first class back in 2001, shortly before 9/11. It was controversial then, even though it was genuinely a gourmet burger with high quality meat. It was still such a downgrade from the standard of first class fare at the time. Now it’s exciting compared to what the airlines serve. But it’s hard to do a good burger, reheated in an airplane galley. Still, it’s offered as a pre-order item and no one has to preorder it!