Tag Archives for inflight service.
According to American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, in a meeting with flight attendants (a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing), alcohol will be back in economy cabins starting September 13th. Parker tied bringing booze back in economy to the end of the federal mask mandate.
American Airlines brings back snacks and beverage service in coach on Tuesday, June 1. Alcohol was supposed to return, too, but the airline decided economy passengers are too unruly for that.
The coach snacks are Biscoff cookies, pretzels, and Love Corn. You get presented a choice of two. And you have to pick just one.
It’s all fun and games until someone pokes their eye out. Southwest has decided to indefinitely delay the return of alcohol service to its flights in light of a recent spate of Spirit Airlines passengers fanning out across other airlines.
Beverages and snacks are returning to coach on June 1 but that’s not the only change to inflight service on American Airlines starting June 1.
American will be bringing back first class snack baskets at that time, too – as well as pre-order special meals for New York JFK – Los Angeles and San Francisco flights in business and first class.
What American has been doing in economy is providing a bag with small bottle of water, cookie, and sanitizer wipe. Instead beginning June 1 you’ll be able to have water, juice, or canned soft drinks plus pretzels or Biscoff cookies. And starting this summer they will bring back sale of alcohol and buy on board food in coach.
One flight attendant asked American Airlines Senior Vice President of Flight Service Jill Surdek about the return of inflight service for premium customers after the American Airlines earnings call on Thursday. She said on board service would come back ‘slowly’.
Etihad will eliminate first class chefs and business class food and beverage managers. It’s expected that the former may be laid off “by the end of October” while the latter face elimination “by the end of this year.”
Etihad’s first class chefs are flight attendants with restaurant cooking experience. Food and beverage managers are specially trained.
American Airlines, like other major carriers, cut first class meal service early in the pandemic and largely eliminated drink service from coach. American brought back coach buy on board as first class food, and has always offered at least drinks on request up front. However on most domestic flights there’s still not a formal drink service.
That appears to be about to change, though apparently some flight attendants aren’t happy about it.
As airlines move away from inflight alcohol to save money, soft drink selection takes on greater importance.
For domestic flights and for international flights departing the U.S. there appear to be ‘supply chain issues’. Flight attendants have been told that while “[o]n June 1, we began transitioning from Sierra Mist to Sprite” individual flights now may have either one but not both. And Sprite Zero may be replaced with Sprite.
American Airlines has said that they believe their path to profitability is doubling down on their current approach which hasn’t worked so far. They should be changing their approach to invest in better service and a better product, especially domestically and in economy, and to build up their route network in key business centers, because that’s how they’ll grow the key profit center of their business – co-brand credit cards.
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 »
