Passengers are calling the American Airlines $11 cheese plate a “bad financial decision” after photos showed just three grapes and two tiny cheese triangles. The “$3 grape” explains the outrage.
American Airlines has offered less food in coach on domestic flights than Delta or United. And what they’ve offered has been overpriced and not very good. They’re getting better, though!
- They went from offering nothing for sale in coach on flights 1,300 miles or less to offering food for sale when the flight exceeds 1,100 miles. That’s an improvement, even if I still can’t get anything on Austin – Charlotte, Phoenix or Chicago.
- They’ve diversified the food offerings. Their first stab at new food was quite bad, but their more recent efforts have improved. It’s not as good as what Alaska and United do in back, but it’s better!
Executive Platinum and ConciergeKey passengers receive a free food for sale item when seaed in coach. Everyone else pays, and the pricing is absurd for what you get. As one passenger put it taking to Twitter to show what an $11 cheese plate is like, “It tastes like a bad financial decision.”
Hey @americanair !!
I wanted to buy a cheese tray, not an airplane.
Respectfully,
A peasant in Coach pic.twitter.com/7IPWuUmgMB— John Lovell | the Warrior Poet (@johnlovell275) November 12, 2025
“So you’re telling me you paid $11 for the cheese tray.
“Yes Dave.”
“And on this cheese tray you got three grapes and two triangles of cheese.”
“That’s right Dave.” pic.twitter.com/htKZfhBZJO
— Ryan G. Frederick (@ryanfred) November 12, 2025
Here’s the American Airlines cheese plate. The cheese is not very good. It’s what I’d expect shrink wrapped from a 7-11. Still, many Executive Platinum customers get excited for it since it’s free to them. And that’s their complimentary upgrade most days. You should not pay $11 for it, though.
Fortunately, at least American has replaced the horrible $16 steak sandwich with a Southwest turkey wrap that’s actually not bad. Of course, it’s $13 and for that price they only give you half the wrap.
The first airline to do buy on board was America West. Their management took over US Airways and then American Airlines, so American has a legacy here that should be able to do this right. Food for sale was cheaper than providing coach meals to everyone – you board less food, since not everyone buys it, and there’s a revenue component.
Still, space on a plane comes at a premium and airline catering is more expensive due to security, transportation and storage reasons than comparable food off of an aircraft.
Nonetheless, Alaska (especially) and United seem to do a decent job here. And though discussions around premium usually center on premium cabins, most passengers fly coach. There isn’t as much margin to play with in economy, but attention to detail and thoughtful investment goes a long way towards making the experience feel more personal and human.
Decent buy on board options would make American’s coach product much more attractive. You don’t always have time to stop in the terminal for food when running between flights. Having food on offer helps make you feel taken care of. The flight no longer has the sense of a post-apocalyptic society where shortages prevail, into one where there’s abundance – even if you don’t buy, you don’t have to worry about getting hungry and having nowhere to turn.
Ah, so Gary’s starting an anti-cheese-plate movement on here… because the grapes are ‘weak’ and ‘too expensive.’ What shall we call your associates, The Grape-rs? Oof. Yikes.
It’s sort of like first class. Every other airline figured out that if you charge reasonable prices, you can make a lot of money from people actually paying for it. AA took a very long time to realize what Delta had been making money on for a while. Now, they have buy-on-board “food” that no one would ever pay money on except the most desperate traveler, it it’s become the elite status upgrade since upgrades never actually clear any more.
AA just boggles the mind. They have this bizarre “act like a ulcc” mentality that they’ve never been able to execute even while occasionally trying to pretend that they could (simultaneously) pull off premium service.
“Tastes like a bad financial decision” Haha I chuckled, clever.
@1990 — Just three grapes? “How wonderfully (not) decadent”
I’m AA Exec Platinum and when I asked the FA about a snack- she said I wasn’t entitled to it- on both segments of my trip this week!! When I contacted AA they just apologized and I thought that was a bit lame to be honest- if you offer the perk, should all the FAs know about it? wasn’t interested in the alcohol just a snack- another perk that really doesn’t exist?
I mean it’s not a $3 dollar grape. There are 6 grapes and the plate was $11. It’s not mathing. If we allocate £1.50 to the crackers and say $3.50 to that cheese you’re talking about $1 per grape. Even weight proportioned the grape would be $1.30 max.
The cheese and salami packs at Hudson or other retail airport shops is a better option.
How much would you save systemwide if we reduce the three grapes by one?
Ahh, airline food. If we didn’t have that to complain about what we do? Complain about the weather I suppose…
Just be happy there is a cheese plate. I flew from PHL to SFO on American, and there was zero food for sale.
@L737 — ‘How (not) deliciously absurd.’
Historically, I would enjoy ordering the cheese plate.
During the last few years flying AA, I’ve typically been disappointed after being told there’s no food available for purchase.
Nowadays it seems like AA doesn’t want to be in the business of offering food onboard.
If this is the case, they should just disclose this with each ticket purchase so passengers can make their own arrangements.
In addition, I pay a $95 annual fee for the AAdvantage credit card that’s supposed to give me 25% savings on inflight food purchases. Since food purchases are rarely available, Citi should reduce the annual fee by 25%.
On most of my recent AA flights (including MCO-LAX two days ago), the flight attendants have informed me that they are out of snacks as the plane was only catered with five snacks. The answer somehow always seems to be five. I’d be happy to get the cheese plate rather than nothing at all.
@1990
I would call it sour grapes.
“Having food on offer helps make you feel taken care of.”
Sorry Gary. That’s not what I would call food. But if that’s it takes to please AA top elites, go for it.
Gary, what’s worse are the ingredients in the “cheese”. None of it is real cheese, it’s all processed cheese. Even the “gouda” has vegetable oil and flavors in it. it’s disgusting, and I stopped even accepting it as a free snack because it’s like eating a block of american cheese cut into different shapes and colors.
AA will only make improvements that cost nothing to near nothing. At heart management is still obsessed with being Frontier Airlines Plus.
@AlanZ — I like it… Sour Grapes, Assemble!
I don’t want *fruit* on a “cheese plate” – only cheese please.
So that’s an immediate failure right there.
I wonder when some entrepreneurs are going to start covert catering on the airplane. Bring $20 of food with you and convert it to $100 or more.
@1990 But tastes more delicious when served by a union FA
Gary , I can tell you haven’t done groceries in a hot minute and / or you got stuck in time . $11 dollars is not a lot of money in todays time .
@Eric – it’s still a lot of money for a few pieces of 7-11 cheese
Bring a sandwich from home or buy one in the terminal before boarding.
And once again. Bad Decisions. Bad Executives. Day after day of poor decision making that for some reason the Board doesn’t fire Isom and his little groupies. Cousin of Spirit he wanted and he got. Employees tell me when flying the executives never ask their opinion on how to improve things. Change things. One told me he has written up multiple times to replace the buy on board with a collaboration with Farmers Fridge like you see in the airports. Sure, have snacks. But have real. Good, affordable meal options that benefit AA and Farmers Fridge. The front line staff want it. But the uppers don’t. They want cheap and bad! I hope the AA executives are reading this. The flying public and your flight crew want changes and their voices, opinions heard.
Attention loyal American Airlines passengers! I have great news for you. You can now use your AAdvantage miles for in-flight purchases. For instance, you can buy the gourmet cheese plate priced at $11.00, which contains three grapes, for just 1,100 AAdvantage miles. When you do the math, this means you’re spending only 366.666 AAdvantage miles per grape. American Airlines has introduced this new policy to allow you to use your AAdvantage miles while continually enhancing the travel experience for its customers. American Airlines is excited to offer this new benefit on all flights.
@Johhny — Not literally, but figuratively, yes, for anyone with a conscience, workers who serve you food getting paid more and treated better does make the food ‘taste’ better, too.
Man you are the worst critic out there. Says 3 grapes in package but it’s overflowing in that pic you posted. Are you such a hater that you have trouble finding things to talk about? If you don’t like AA don’t fly them.
@Trenton — Wait, are you suggesting Gary is a provocateur?! No… never…
I expected NOTHING on my 8:14 am flight today from CVG-MIA on a baby plane. Instead got a pre-flight beverage and an upgraded “$11 cheese plate” [box]. Upgraded with Soppressata, dried apple slices, a seed/nut mix, olives, etc. Quite pleasant, actually, with my airplane coffee and champagne.