Originally Posted by AAFA
The way for AA to get it's 'premium' customers what they want is to ask them prior to boarding, either at check-in or earlier. How hard can this be? If I paid to sit in J or F and got offered 'whatever was left' I'd be mighty upset. LGW-DFW last week they loaded 3 pastas for a full BC cabin of 35 (at least that's better than the 1 that andrzej reported on a previous flight). I ended up with the 'vegetable plate' - some wild rice, three slices of way-overcooked carrot and something swimming in a sort of cream sauce, which I accept was leeks, based on what the menu said..... a menu that the FA had to borrow from me as they didn't have enough for the people at the back of the cabin.
AA tried the premium preference plan a few years ago and it was a resounding failure. There were many problems involved. One of them was that the sheer numbers of AAdvantage premium passsengers many times means that ALL of the passengers in the cabin are top tier AAdvantage members. Other problems were that you had full fare first class passengers who were not receiving their choice. Try explaining that to someone who pays thousands for their flight that they get the last choice.
AA has decided, and I agree, that the fairest way is through FEBO.
You obviously misunderstood me - by "premium", I meant anyone in FC or BC - I don't care how you got there and whether or not you have any AAdvantage status - once you're in that cabin, you're a 'premium' customer and should be treated as such.
As for "Try explaining that to someone who pays thousands for their flight that they get the last choice." ..... that was my point....
In my experience, the choices are invariably beef, fish, chicken, pasta or a vegetable plate (and if it's Japan, the Japanese meal). How hard is it to ask people when they check in (or earlier) what they want?