American Airlines used to serve baked on board cookies in domestic first class. The smell wafted through the cabin — sublime.
When US Airways and American merged, and then they moved to a joint catering standard in September 2014, American introduced a truly terrible heated onboard cookie. They decided to ditch bake on board because legacy US Airways aircraft only had a single over in the galley. There was talk about retrofitting the galleys, but three and a half years into the merger they haven’t even added Main Cabin Extra seating to most legacy US Airways planes. They haven’t invested in better galleys.
Customer reaction to those cookies was swift, and American responded with a new and much better (still heated) cookie in January 2015.
That’s what we’ve had for the past two and a half years. It’s not as good as the cookie used to be pre-merger, but much better than what they gave us shortly after the two airlines merged. In some sense the cookie is a perfect allegory for post-merger American Airlines.
And American Airlines frequent flyers were passionate about the cookie.
So we’ll have to keep watch what happens because today they’ve launched a new first class cookie for domestic first class mainline flights.
It’s Christie Cookie Co chocolate chunk and snickerdoodle cookies. I haven’t tried them. Please report back any experiences with the new cookie, and especially how it compares to past versions.
Credit: American Airlines
Today they also start selling Voodoo Ranger IPA onboard for $7 on all mainline domestic and international flights (they plan to roll out this out to regional flights later in the year).
Credit: American Airlines
Good on American for offering a legitimate craft beer. Beer Advocate describes it as “[b]ursting with tropical aromas and juicy fruit flavors from Mosaic and Amarillo hops” and “perfectly bitter with a refreshing, sublime finish.”
It won’t be everyone’s favorite craft beer, but I applaud the effort. Still I’d have liked to see American go with a Texas beer.
Finally (on the beer)…would actually pay for this if in coach
This actually matters for me. United domestic F has Goose Island IPA which tastes quite good in the sky. I usually go for a Woodford and Ginger on AA over Sam Adams but I’d rather be drinking beer. Better cookie, better lounge coffee, better onboard beer, and more departures out of DCA give AA enough of an edge for me as a DC-based 100k/yr flyer unless there is a sizable price difference. Crazy that that’s what does it but I guess this is what 2017 looks like in airline loyalty.
Oh but however I refuse to earn a single AA mile with credit card spend so there is that.
@Scott D – United has unfortunately axed the Goose IPA in favor of the Lagunitas 12th of Never Ale. It’s OK but not particularly flavorful or interesting (and I’m a fan of Lagunitas generally). Still serving the Goose 312.
It is interesting that AA picked a brewery that doesn’t have any connection to one of their hubs…
Good on them to use a beer with a bit of bite in it. Beer that tastes perfectly fine on the ground with subtle flavors tastes very different at altitude. Great selection here.
A new cookie…THANK GOD! It’s only positive attribute is the aroma when being “baked” IMA. The “thing” currently served on legacy AA is a chronically under-cooked, greasy wet blob that’s messy and difficult to eat. It falls apart when you try to pick it up, and leaves a wet spot on the napkin on which it’s served Not sure whether that’s because the FAs want to rush the heating process or it’s just a failed product. Want further proof? Look at the number of””no thanks” the flight attendants receive when they’re passing them out. Good riddance. Maybe third time’s the charm?
Huh, I don’t think I realized AA didn’t have any craft beer on board before, I thought everyone had introduced those a few years ago. Good to see it changing (even though I don’t love IPAs), although it is weird that it’s a beer with no connection to their hubs, and one that isn’t the flagship beer for the brewery it’s coming from.
+1 on a Texas beer. There are so many great ones to choose from. I’m sure Ranger IPA is great, but New Belgium Brewery isn’t all that special any more.
Its funny, I just picked up the Voodoo Ranger at the supermarket for $1.89 and they want $7 bucks! I’ll wait till I get home for one.
Minor point, but the beer description (“Bursting with tropical aromas and juicy fruit flavors from Mosaic and Amarillo hops, this golden IPA is perfectly bitter with a refreshing, sublime finish.”) is a description provided by the brewer (New Belgium) rather than BeerAdvocate. BeerAdvocate shows info about a beer at the top, including that “Commercial Description” from the brewer; the original content is in the user reviews below.
For the record, the Christie Cookie is best known as the DoubleTree cookie. Fairly universally-loved as far as I’m aware. An excellent choice!