SFO777

Absolutely

LOL. No US airline serves "fine wines" on any route.

FWAAA

The bolded part is completely wrong. Clipper110A said it very well.

The crappy meals they've been serving since Sept 1 are completely within the control of management, including one Hector Adler. It's pretty clear that he's already risen above his level of incompetence. He must have some amazing dirt on Parker and Kirby.

Funny how Gate Gourmet and Sky Chefs cater the meals for EK, SQ, LH and other world-class airlines, yet somehow it's "impossible" to expect quality meals on AA or any other domestic legacy.

Exactly. Caterers prepare any food the customer is willing to buy.

A substantial portion of the cost of airline meals is the preparation, handling and delivery of the meals, not the raw food prices.

Clipper110A

Thank you. LSG or GG stir fries lobster if you want or procures and stages garnish for caviar, etc.....Possibly they may not even prepare the AA stuff but might just procure it from industrial food vendor specified by AA and plate and load to AA equipment.

Familiar with Hector from corporate at 2 major US premium intl carriers. IMO Hector is capable of setting up the food and beverage program for Singapore Airlines or Etihad. My thought is the real issue is he is NOW not in a premium airline environment so has to operate within multiple constraints. USAir post HP low cost carrier. Large portion of the budget was probably spent just putting food in F on USAirways flights that should have had meals all along. It is not Hector...my thought is the issue goes higher.

DCdeacon

<redacted>

You're ignoring the issue - legacy airline aside, I'm arguing that those here who are loudly calling the current food "inedible" are being massively hyperbolic in their complaining. Is the food going to get a Michelin star? No. But is it "inedible?" Not even close.

Just because I've primarily flown US doesn't somehow make my overall taste in food worse than someone who flew AA - I love and appreciate a fantastic meal just as much as the next person (had a fantastic meal just last night in the North End in Boston - fra diavolo sauce to die for!). As someone who loves and appreciates food, and who has had a bunch of food on US over the past few years, I do in fact argue that the food is fine. The salads are always fresh, the appetizers are decent (Just in the past few weeks, I've had nice rare roast beef, good shrimp, fresh hummus, etc), the deserts are good (tasty cheesecake, nice moist carrot cake), and the mains are "fine." No, the beef isn't a Morton's filet - but it's perfectly edible.

All I'm asking for is a rational analysis of the food that you're eating - because if you're honest with yourself, I think you'd say that maybe it's marginally less appealing than AA's was, or that your chicken was a bit dry, or whatever - but I just can't buy the "this is worse than prison food, Doug Parker is out to personally screw me over" line of thinking.


I guess I disagree (although I respect your position on this). If airlines tomorrow said "we're keeping First, but we're stopping food service entirely," I wouldn't blink an eye. If they said, "we're keeping First, but turning it into a Euro-style offering with a blocked middle seat and economy pitch, but we're going to serve a true 5-star meal," I'd stop trying for elite status immediately.

I'm not sure about any of the strange stuff you say in your first paragraph, so I'm going to ignore that (although I'd love to be omniscient, because I wouldn't have lost my college football pick'em league last weekend). Although if you are talking omniscience, what I find interesting is how you, and many others here, seem to be on a first name basis with the CEO, and know his heart and soul. I've never had a chance to meet the man, so can't claim to know what most of you guys "know" to be true.

I too spend my weeks working and making $$$ for myself and my company, so I guess we have that in common. Also, don't diminish Asian street vendors by comparing them to airline food (any airline!) - there are some vendors there who I would choose over lots of restaurants here in the US.

I might've been on that flight you reference - I was the guy in 2F who purchased the A-fare.

JDiver

Here's the deal: FlyerTalk allows, nay encourages, diverse opinion when given civilly and respectfully.

When difference of opinions is expressed with disrespect, ad hominem or "crAApping" on members because they appear to you to belong to a lower caste due to flying another airline, your posts will be deleted; persistence will earn a suspension of membership privileges. Not a threat, a promise.

/Moderator

LSUTigerWes

Look, can we please keep this thread on topic? I understand catering is important. I was one who complained loudly about US meal times, but we now have several pages here on a completely unrelated topic.

You shouldn't be worried about the catering anyway, because part of the announcement indicated a reduction of F seats on A319s. No one noticed because people were too busy yelling about the same thing they have been for two months or more! You won't have to worry about what they serve up front if you're jammed in the back of an A319.

There's at least two current threads dedicated to discussing meals. Please focus the discussion there.

AA-Flyer-SAN

Just one last catering tidbit. That 2billion better include the return of fresh baked cookies. Seriously.

hillrider

Both concepts picked up and expanded by bloggers:

• American Airlines: How to Get Your Two Workforces to Resent Each Other
• American's $2b committment to catch up

The first blogger expands on this quite nicely, pointing out that:
He points out that Parker ripped power ports from US aircraft and viscerally hated IFE, yet he's now putting them in both fleets.

Parker also thought that premium cabin investments were ludicrous, and yet he's announcing new premium cabin improvements. And let's not even talk about what he thought was the "folly" of 3-class F on transcons, yet it's still there (at least for now) -- heck, the team is even getting kudos for it at investors conferences (I am sure Horton and Vahidi don't appreciate the irony).

Same skepticism with Asia flying, yet Parker is expanding it -- from AA hubs.

And the food cuts -- he's rolling them back on the plane, and adding more food to the lounges to match DL/UA.

At least he seems to be a fast learner. ^

ubernostrum

So, Parker gave a quote about stuff like improving on-time performance and fixing broken on-board equipment. And I've yet to see even the most die-hard AA partisan suggest that those aren't problems AA needs to address; all I've seen is endless "what's the deal with airline food" derails that rage for pages at a time.

And this thread, and other threads, have seen pmUS people pointing out the utter lack of customer-service culture at AA compared to US, which is a pretty big deal. But it either gets ignored or talked over with yet another food derail.

So... anybody want to talk about that? Or about improving the AA fleet by giving an S80 (free to a good home) to those nostalgiphiles who just can't imagine life without 1970s-era aircraft flying them everywhere? Or about anything at all other than another endless thread bickering about the food?

I ask because when the program merge announced last month, there were AA folk telling us to hurry up and get through the stages of grief within a couple days of having the pmUS program gutted. And, um, yeah. About that whole moving-on thing. The food. It is time. To. Get. Over. It. For. The. Love. Of. All. That. Is. Holy.

Seriously, I will stop complaining about the loss of an entire tier of the program, if y'all will either learn to live with the food or keep it in the dedicated thread, so we can talk about other things that are important and need to be addressed.

dylanks

I think most of the people on the BA forum at this point would rave about this email, one that actually lists real improvements, rather than the steady stream of "enhancements" we've become accustomed to (even though many of the ones listed in the email were already known).

As far as the food is concerned, I've flown AA and US for many years in F, and over that time, US food has generally improved, and the meals I had on AA late last year and early this year were nothing special. Hopefully they've recovered from the early Septmeber disasters... Most of my meals in October and November were at least edible though nothing I would pay for in a restaurant. In general US seems much better at breakfast than lunch/dinner.

cmd320

Catering is in a way on topic because if they can afford to spend $2 billion on 'fixing' AA they could have certainly spent the extra $20 million to retain an acceptable level of meal quality and service.

Back on topic though, very little of what has been announced in this press release is of any substantial value that could not have been assumed before it was put out. All it is is the new 'AA' marketing department blowing smoke up our rear ends in an effort to continue to justify what was a stupid merger in the first place, and also to keep pace with the announcement from Delta (in the eyes of the almighty shareholders of course).

There really isn't much to see here, especially when the email comes straight from the marketing department itself. That means it is pure garbage created to shut people up.

satman40

Basically they're upgrading their fleet that's far more important than upgrading their food

Most people would rather be safe than fat

cmd320

Upgrading the interior of an aircraft to cram more people in makes it safer? Ryanair must have mastered safety then...

SFO777

Seriously? Most good airlines have figured out how to do both.

saltytheseagull

LOL, that's exactly what I thought when I saw that post.

On a further note, you'd be fine with paying $5-10k+ for J or F on SQ, CX, or JL just for the seat? No meal and just some "fine" wine?

Why not get the Asian street vendors to cater for AA? The food would be better and more than likely cheaper than LSG or GG.

I saw there was speculation on the 319 F shrinkage, but is it confirmed?

I'll talk about that and put on my AApologist hat for a minute. I agree the AA fleet is ancient, but what about the US fleet? They're only slightly ahead since they retired the 737-400, which was a pure joy to fly. Aren't there still 767-200s in service as well? Are you excited to go from 2-3 on the MD to 3-3 on the 737? I agree IFE and power are long over due at every seat on AA. What were pmUS plans regarding updating their fleet?

How will the tier elimination affect you? What have you lost? I'm not too familiar with the PM US program. What comes to mind is free upgrade and special dividends. At least you get 100% mileage bonus now.

Are your main concerns the tier elemination and upgrading of aircraft?

I can't speak to your customer service comment, as I have not really interacted with any US CS.