I love most AA FAs. I am actually concerned about fellow travelers. What if I change my mind from say pasta to beef and then there is not enough beef for others that pre-ordered beef just because I had better FEBO seating? I think if one pre-orders, they made their bed and now need to lie in it.

Out of my last 10 or so flights that I have pre-ordered, my flight tonight was the first one that the FA had my pre-order acknowledged. She appeared to have it on a print out on her tray. I will still book FEBO until I see some consistency,

I've preordered 12 times since the program started and each time the flight attendant has acknowledged it. Once it was noted after I told her I had previously reserved my choice; she apologized and said she saw that. If the f/a has the print out with the first class seat diagram that is designed to record drink and meal orders (the one that has boxes for each seat with the pax name at the top of the box), the entree reservation appears at the bottom of each box. I really like the system. As another poster noted, the online descriptions of the choices are much more detailed.

Ah, I see your point. I would think that, if giving you the choice, they would not poach into the other pre-ordered items...just into the non-pre-ordered. Anyone who pre-ordered should have their choice available, even if switches are offered to some.

Cheers.

So it sounds like I should keep my FEBO seating just in case. I'll be interested to see how this works out in the future as more FAs are trained and the Ipads are out system wide.

I'd be careful with doing that just yet. I have yet to have the pre-order meal service "work".

She was misinformed. No special training or device is necessary to implement the new program. The Pre-ordered entrees are listed on the printed passenger manifest that the FAs have been receiving from the GAs since the beginning of time. All the FAs have to do is look at the correct section of the manifest for the entree selections. I have seen these manifests many times and they are easy to read and understand.

Does AA really change the mix of entrées by flight based on pre-orders? Would certainly be impressive logistics if they did.
Or does AA simply load the same mix of say 8 pastas and 8 chickens, and the pre-orders just reduce the available count for the non-pre-order pax? So theoretically if 8 pax pre-ordered chicken, the non-pre-order pax would have a choice of pasta or nothing?

As others have, until there is more consistency in the service, I still select seats for FEBO as well as pre-order.

That is a great question. I think that is why they cut off the Pre-ordering at T-24 hours... so that the catering contractors have time to adjust the loads for each flight.

I'm assuming that if 10 pax pre-order the chicken by 24 hours in advance, then they will have to load more chicken entrees in order to accommodate these pax and also provide a mixture for the rest of the pax.

Preorder a Huge Bonus For Folks With Food Allergies
 

I am "six for six" in receiving my pre-ordered meal.

FEBO is only effective when the seats you need for FEBO priority are available, but pre-ordering lets me avoid entrees my cheese allergy won't let me eat even when I am the last one served. Until pre-order became available, my only option when the only entree left had cheese was to ask if one of the "for sale" sandwiches from coach was available that I could peel the cheese off.

I am hoping that the next step will be better descriptions, as my last flight MCO-ORD the entree simply described as "chicken" had been bombed with feta cheese that had disintegrated into tough-to-work-around granules throughout.

I hope you are right but am not convinced it works that way. I'll continue to stick with my pre-order in defense of others!!:p

haven't had a single issue with pre-ordering so far, I use it often and it's always worked out perfectly, most times with the FA acknowledging the pre-order. I think it's a great system.

I'm 0 for 3 in FA's being aware that I pre-ordered my meal online.

If meal choice matters, I'd stick with FEBO for a while.

OT: How does US do meal choices-- front to back? Status? FEBO?

Meals? What meals?

I'm 0 for 6 on my preorders. When I mentioned it to the FAs I generally got a vacant look and sometimes an "umm... we didn't get that list this time." Maybe it works on some routes better than others. All my flights were between NYC and MIA or FLL.