A couple of weeks ago American Airlines announced improvements to their food for sale program.
- Food for sale available on flights over 1,100 miles – rather than the previous 1,300 miles. (In contrast, United offers food for sale on 500 mile flights as well as hot and cold meals on flights over 1,190 miles (e.g. bagel breakfast melt; breakfastacos; burger; chicken parm sandwich) while Delta offers food for sale on 900 mile flights.)
- New items are steak and pimento cheese sandwich, tapas (olives, dried apricots, beef jerky, pistachio, white cheddar dip, pita chips and brownie brittle) and beef jerky.
I shared a galley photo of the $16 steak sandwich which is more of a roast beef. And I finally had the chance to try it this week.
As an Executive Platinum AAdvantage member I receive a complimentary buy on board food item in economy and I gave the sandwich a try on a 1,500 mile flight where previously I’d have hoped for them to load a cheese tray.
- The shrink wrap around the sandwich was wet. The sandwich was sweating.
- The pretzel bun would have been alright if it wasn’t soaked.
- That made the whole experience gross, even aside from the wilted lettuce salad with rotten strawberries I received.
A flight attendant later asked me what I thought of the sandwich, and told me she’s gotten nothing but complaints about it – while the tapas box which catering hadn’t loaded for this flight – gets more positive comments.
American Airlines has previously dropped buy on board items due to ‘negative customer feedback’. It will be interesting to see the reaction here.
I also wonder whether sales data will accurately reflect demand. Cabin crew on my flight were not proactively offering buy on board items. You had to ask if they had any. And they weren’t sure what they had. Here they did not think they had any sandwiches, when it was the tapas box that hadn’t been loaded.
Plus, at $16 I bet there won’t be a lot of demand (or there will be a lot of disappointment after the fact). American will look at the $16 sandwich, that isn’t proactively offered, and concluded ‘customers don’t want buy on board after all!’ when in fact they don’t want bad, overpriced items but would gladly pay for better quality at a reasonable price.
That’s disappointing. Glad you didn’t have to pay for it at least! (Small consolation) It’d be interesting to see the data if they track the metric of how many repeat buyers there will be of the sandwich.
I had the sandwich GND-MIA this past week. Thought it was actually solid. A 180 from the experence here. Hopefully they will be more like mine than yours. AA needs better Econ food.
Food at the airport or fast food close to the airport is usually better than anything you can buy on board. The exception is international business class food.
I don’t know what to laugh more about, the fact that you paid $19 or that it was gross!?
The article states the price incorrectly. It is actually $16
@ Gary — Are you surprised? It’s American, what do you expect? I have had a good meal on AA in about 10 years.
“Steak and pimento cheese sandwich with side salad $16 or 1,600 miles”
The problem is with a $19 item ( or even a $16 item) most will go to elite member who don’t pay for the buy on board option. Thus, AA has no incentive to continue offering such items since they mostly go out for free offering no additional revenue
The problem is with a $19 item ( or even a $16 item) most will go to elite members who don’t pay for the buy on board option. Thus, AA has no incentive to continue offering such items since they mostly go out for free offering no additional revenue
The AA beauty shots of the sandwich, which shows it plated, are on your post from May 21. No surprise that it actually arrives in cling wrap in a box.
This was served hot? Does UA do the same thing with the cling wrap vs foil or paper?
@David P — You can say that again!
The dog’s dinner. The executive chef that decided this was an appetizing sandwich should be forced to eat it. Never mind the price.
@Maryland why would you do something so cruel to a dog. If they were flying American haven’t they suffered enough?
Meanwhile here is the 26 page menu of on discount Spanish carrier vueling with most items €4-€8
https://static.vueling.com/corporative7/media/1894/ss23-vueling-menu-dig_low.pdf
I’m glad I don’t have to try such fare. My Asian airline flights across the Pacific have food included that is tasty, not spoiled and visually appealing. My flights across the USA don’t come with meals so I eat before I go to the airport and carry food with me. On the return I will sometimes eat at the airport or an outside the airport restaurant but I also have food with me.
Good to see you getting some value out of your Ex Platinum status.
The Alaska Airlines offerings are cheaper than this and actually taste pretty good.
@Greg — And if he was a 1K in Economy on a domestic route, Gary could get a snack box for free. Takeoff? Recline? Yum yum!