flyldavid

AA 941
MIA - SAP (San Pedro Sula, Honduras)
January 13, 2012
Dep: 12:15pm - Arr: 1:35pm
737-800
Lunch

Pre-meal beverage and warm mixed nuts:


Lunch, choice of chicken*:


or fish.

*I was on seat 5F. I figured I would have a meal choice being on the second row to last. The FA started the service from front to back, not following FEBO. When she got to my seat, she had the tray with the chicken option and said that was all that was left for the entire last two rows.

The salad plate is much larger than the entree plate, and it looks kind of funny when it's served side by side. I haven't flown AA on these routes before. Are supposed to serve the salad and come later with the entree? or is typical for them to serve everything on one drop?

FlightNurse

The FA's serve everything all at once, which in my book is just pure lazy. A flight that long there is no reason why the FA can not serve the salad first then the entree.

Science Goy

That flight is barely long enough to even qualify for meal service

With maybe 1-1.5 hours at cruise, I'd much rather get the meal over with quickly and move on to reading/working.

flyldavid

The flight is pretty quick. It was 1 hour 40 minutes at cruise 2 hours and 15 mins total.

I did chat a bit with the flight attendant working J, since I was curious to know if maybe they didn't follow FEBO on international flights. She explained that they were all a Chicago based crew, and this was the first time any of them were working a flight to Latin America. They were called out to work this flight because of irregular ops.

They had no idea where San Pedro was! She said they looked it up online before getting on the plane. In any case she said their day had been too crazy to even remember following FEBO and she apologized. When we were approaching SAP, a couple of them came and approached the window seats to look out the window and started asking the passengers around them, "what's this?" "what's that?" "are those banana trees?" "are those islands?" lol

It was nice to see them excited about their job, and flying somewhere out of the norm.

Science Goy

Sounds like a fun flight and crew!

For future reference, I've seen a few stories on here where the FA begins the meal service not following FEBO, a pax reminds him/her of the flight number, and the FA apologizes and does it correctly.

ESpen36

YES! I always bring it up if the FA starts doing it incorrectly. Getting my FEBO choice is important to me, so I keep a sharp watch when it is time for meal selections. In fact, it happened just this past Saturday on DFW-FRA. The Purser thought it was flight 71 instead of 70, so he started at the back. I stood up, approached him, and said "excuse me, sorry to bother you....could I please reserve a chicken entree? I picked my seat near the front because I thought you start at the front on even-numbered flights." The poor guy was mortified and apologized profusely for his error, then went up to the front and started fresh. 99% of the time the response is exactly the same.


The only time it has backfired was once flying SJU-JFK, when the FAs usually worked Europe and didn't know FEBO, only that eastbound meant order from front and westbound meant from back. (SJU is north/south, so they didn't know how to proceed.) It was a turnaround on the aircraft JFK-SJU-JFK. She said "well my colleague and I discussed it this morning and we just decided to start at the front on the outbound, and back on the return, like we do for Europe." I tried to explain about FEBO, but she wouldn't hear any of it. And I was stuck with the mushroom cream pasta. Yuck.

FlightNurse

Ok so its a 2 hr flight, still long enough not to cram everything on one tray. I guess I'm use to 4 hr AA flights.

FlightNurse

Is SAP concidered an international route with access to Lounge if not elite traveling in J? I know this isn't a food question.

magic111

On my MIA-SAP flight dinner service had the salad served first with the plate removed prior to the entre being served.

ESpen36

Yes! Central America is the ultimate "sweet spot," in that it is "domestic" for upgrades (e-upgrades valid) but "international" for lounge access purposes. So traveling in J would give you access to all OW Business Class lounges (such as Admirals Clubs) that you might encounter on the day of travel.

Enjoy!

flyldavid

I just flew TGU - MIA today and they did serve the salad first and then the entree. The crew today were excellent. So I guess my MIA-SAP crew a few days ago were either lazy (and playing dumb) or truly clueless on how service is performed on these flights. TGU-MIA is on a 757 and it was the same length of flight.

flyldavid

AA 954
TGU (Tegucigalpa) - MIA
January 17, 2012
Dep: 2:20pm - Arr: 5:35pm
757-200
Lunch

Pre-meal beverage and warm nuts:


Appetizer Salad:


Entree Chicken (It was really spicy!):


or Pasta.

FlightNurse

Nice to see proper meal service, I mean, if asian carriers can do it on a two hour flight there is no reason why it can't be on a 2 hr and 20 minute flight to central america.

BlissWorld

LAX-DFW is sometimes 2 hr 30, and they have no problem doing it course by course sometimes, with a proper appetizer.

Lazy crew = needs to be written up.

FlyerBeek

AA136 LAX-LHR J January 2012

Dinner

To Start
Warm Mixed Nuts

Appetizer
Grilled citrus scallops
served with marinated cucumber salad

Salad
Fresh seasonal greens and an assortment of fresh vegetables offered with sour cream and herb dressing or premium extra virgin olive soil and balsamic vinegar

Bread Basket
Assorted gourmet breads

Main Course

Beef Fillet with Foyot Sauce
Grilled beef fillet served with a bearnaise-style glce de viande, roasted root vegetables, and sauteed broccolini

Chicken Tikka Masala
Tendoori marinated chicken breast in a rich fenugreek tomato sauce served with lemon rice and dahi elaichi rajma (red kindey beans simmered in a green cardamom yogurt base)
A signature Maneet Chauhan item

Seared Tilapia with Herb Sauce
Seared tilapia fillet with a delicate herb sauce, served with artichoke barigoule and saffron risotto

Stuffed Shells Pomodoro
Cheese filled pasta shells topped with a roasted tomato sauce

Dessert

Ben & Jerry's sweet cream and cookies ice cream topped with chocolate shavings

Fruit and Cheese
A selection of gourmet cheeses offered with fresh seasonal fruit and assorted crackers


Breakfast

Select From

Huevos Rancheros Breakfast Skillet
Fried corn tortillas topped with scrambled eggs
with cream cheese, pico de gallo, cheddar cheese, and tortilla strips
A signature Richard Sandoval item

Yogurt
Creamy fruit yogurt

Cereal
Kellogg's cereal with milk

All options are offered with fresh seasonal fruit and chilled orange juice

Breakfast Breads
A selection of breakfast Breads

Pre-Arrival Beverage
Chilled sparkling or still water with a fresh citrus garnish


Wine List

Champagne
Champagne Demilly de Baere Carte d'Or (really nice to see something other than Pommery - and a small house Champagne at that! ^)

White Wines
Il Falchetto Langhe Arneis
Nobilo Icon Sauvignon Blanc

Red Wines
Domaine Modat Comme Avant
Lamadrid Malbec Reserva

Sherry
Emilio Lustau Sherry

Dessert Wine
Graham's Vintage Port


1/12
3Cls, Business, US-UK, Dinner - Hot Breakfast