Tag Archives for wine.
American Airlines’ London business class is now serving wine from a box, a detail that would be unthinkable in a premium cabin when everything is running normally. It’s the latest visible symptom of the Heathrow catering breakdown that has forced this airline into bare-minimum service levels.
Airlines don’t buy wine the way you do. They buy through tenders and through vendors that manage the unglamorous parts: forecasting, bonded supply, station-by-station distribution, substitutions, and even menu language and crew training. That’s why economy wine can land around $3 a bottle, while trophy First Class pours can run hundreds—and why both can still taste disappointing if they’re chosen (or served) without any thought to the inflight environment.
United has poured real money into Polaris wine, and it shows on today’s transatlantic menus. Flyers rave about the Catena Zapata “Argentino” Malbec, respect the Domaine Serene, and even the Laurent-Perrier Champagne feels like a deliberate premium signal—though the Whispering Angel rosé drags the lineup down.
The catch: substitutions, inconsistent catering, and limited crew wine knowledge often mean the cart doesn’t match the menu, and the food still can’t keep up.
American Airlines will unveil a new champagne next week while also preparing long-overdue improvements to its notoriously bad coffee, part of its push to win back premium flyers.
Starting January 1, 2025, United will introduce Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée champagne in Polaris business class along with 3 additional new wines: Freemark Abbey cabernet, E. Guigal Chateauneuf-du-Pape, and Luca ‘G Lot’ chardonnay.
It really elevated this passenger’s business class experience when a United Airlines flight attendant create a makeshift ‘ice bucket’ to keep their champagne chilled on a transatlantic flight.
JetBlue does a really nice job with their onboard soft product. Maybe too nice of a job, considering they don’t seem to be earning a revenue premium on their transatlantic flights.
They’re promoting new meals and amenity kits. The meals seem good enough, the amenity kits interesting (especially with American Airlines handing out cardboard boxes), but what is really striking to me is the wine that they’re hardly even promoting.
Air France does a nice job generally selecting its business class wines. Their customers expect it. But budgets are still constrained in business class, both in the air and on the ground.
So I was shocked when a reader spotted a single bottle of 2011 Chateau Branaire Ducru St. Julien in their Paris Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2E Hall M business lounge. Wow. It turned out to be the last or only bottle they had, and he finished it off for them.
Printed wine lists are out in American Airlines long haul premium cabins. Instead of a menu listing options, the printed meal menu given to business class passengers now says “We invite you to engage with our flight attendants to learn more about the selection of wines available for your enjoyment.”
Flight attendants, of course, have been given no extra training on the wines being offered. You can ask, and maybe they’ll show you the bottle.
American Airlines no longer serves champagne in its long haul business class, offering only Italian sparkling wine Ferrari Brut TrentoDOC from Trentino, which is decidedly mid.
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 »
