Hi all,
Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere -- I couldn't find a thread.

I was on a 1.5 hr flight from LGA-DTW the other day. I was sitting about halfway back on the plane and the FA was coming through with a full beverage cart. He gave me some pretzels and I asked politely for "water with no ice and ginger ale please." He replied "You can only have one beverage sir".

I was a bit taken aback since I have probably flown AA about 200 times int'l and domestic in the past 5 years and this flight at least a few dozen times and never heard of this. I said "is that a new policy?" and he said "Nope. It's been the policy for years. If anyone else gave you 2 drinks they were breaking the rules. You can choose one beverage sir, do you want the water or the ginger ale." I was sort of shocked and not terribly thirsty and just said "Ok, I've never heard that before, I'll take the water."

I don't want to get an underpaid FA in trouble but I have literally never heard this on any airline. Sure, if someone is ordering multiple alcoholic drinks, I get it that they should refuse--but water and ginger ale (and there was plenty of both on that cart)--that seems ridiculous.

I was going to write to AA customer service but wanted to check on FT first to see if this is the sad reality of US domestic travel these days?

I voluntarily let my ExPlat status lapse last year because I was starting to feel AA wasn't worth the effort. I am Plat now and will be next year too but this is the sort of thing that just makes customers not want to bother showing any loyalty.

thanks
spsdc