I flew AA for the first time since the early 2000s, and for the first time in F on AA.

On the outbound, I saw that there was an option for a meal preference. However, I didn't see the button until after OLCI, and by that time, it was too late to select a meal. The meal options for breakfast were either a veggie strata with sausage and potatoes, OR, cheese blintzes with sausage.

I was hoping to be able to select the strata as it just seemed more appealing to me. Since I was in seat 6A (last row of F on a 737), I didn't worry as I heard that AA practices FEBO. I was correct. I was the first person to be asked for meal preference on board. The other thing I noticed was that the second option offered on board was not cheese blintzes, but a simple cheese plate sans sausage. Is it common for the meal options to change? Or is it simply based on catering? Also, I noticed that everyone else in F selected the strata. Do they load more of a particular meal if people select in advance? Or do they load both meals for every F seat?

On the return, I had seat 6F. It wasn't a meal flight since it was scheduled to depart at 8:05PM (probably purposefully scheduled after the cutoff) I knew that the menu was "lite bites" which was the name of the snack basket on US Airways. When they came around with the basket, I was delightfully surprised to see that the choices were either a turkey and cheese finger sandwich, or a banana. Is this the normal "menu" for flights outside of the meal windows? . The warm nuts were a nice touch too. I liked how it was heavy on the almonds (which were delicious) unlike UA's which are heavy on the cashew crumbs.

I was not offered a PDB on either flight. Is this the norm? I've never been in an F cabin on any airline where a PDB wasn't offered.

As someone who usually flies United or JetBlue, I have to say, American has definitely earned my business!