Originally Posted by
metallo
It depends on the route. Last month, I was surprised to find that my scheduled 9:10p departure from JFK to SAN had a full dinner. That flight ended up being delayed, so dinner was served well after 10pm.
I appreciated having food on this ~6 hr flight, because, while it
was a late departure, I never seem to have time for dinner before my flights when I'm in NYC -- too many other things to do, and getting to JFK is always a mess, especially from Manhattan.
You'll find that some transcon flights like this will have late dinners. However, for most domestic flights, AA will stick to the pre-8pm rule.
Of course when I get on a transatlantic flight in the mid afternoon and they rush out a dinner meal its hard to believe they care about the actual timing of meals. Who eats dinner at 3-4 pm?
While my FA smartly said "I can get you a sandwich from coach", nuts and a cookie are less than I get in coach. Makes zero sense.
If they want to save more money maybe they should start hedging on meals and put one less on the flight since I'd bet they don't get 100% participation.