Random Historical AA question that is bugging me. [Bistro Bag]
 

Hello all!

I have this historical AA question that is bugging the crap out of me. And I'm trying to figure out if it was AA related at all :D

I remember many years ago boarding at ORD for either an mainline (ORD-BOS) or Eagle (ORD-EVV) flight. It had to be before 2003. Anyway, I remember a cooler (like the one that holds ice cream at a convenience store), that held different cardboard boxes, each with a cold meal. I remember having a pb+j or something a kid would like that flight.

Did something like this exist for AA at one point? Or perhaps it is a different airline? Thanks in advance! :-:

Back in the days when there was food in coach, AA, for many flights, handed out "Bistro Bags" which usually contained a sandwich (I don't recall what else was in there).

Yes, your recollection is AA related. The bistro bags were kept in something that looked like a cooler near the entrance (I don't recall if it was actually cold). It was a transitional phase between food service and no food service.

Here's a pic from airlinemeals.net:
http://www.airlinemeals.net/img/meal...irlines276.jpg

The failed, serve yourself upon boarding Beastly - er, no "Bistro Bag". Reach in and grab your packed / paper sack lunch. It lives on in history and in ignominy. And on FlyerTalk, where using "bistro" as the keyword search will bring up a number of obsolete threads.

The nice thing the bistro bag accomplished for AA was that it was food, but was super-unappetizing, so there was little incentive for passengers to take more than one.

In that period, AA Y rapidly declined from free hot food -> free (cold) bistro bag -> no food -> cold food for sale.

At one point at least, Bistro Bags ceased to be available on flights under four hours, according to one thread.

BYO bags were always better. I do not miss the Bistro Bag!

I recall that the "entree" was frequently a cold chicken sandwich with a "Perdue" sticker prominently displayed advertising Perdue chicken. To this day, I have yet to buy anything Perdue when it is an option. #MarketingBackfire

This brings back so many memories! I was just a child traveling with my parents back then. You'd have your boarding pass scanned (or the perforated edged separated) and you'd grab one of these before you board the plane. I loved the loaves and quiches brownies, though these are occasionally offered on long haul Y meals today.

On these flights, I would special order the low-fat/low-cholesterol meal which was always better than the Bistro Bag.

Let me pull out my pictures and show you me ramp boarding a SAAB 340 ;)

I must have been barely 9 or 10 when I remember this! i was a picky eater so my parents had to look for a kids one :D

The best thing that stands out to me are the old green passes... like these...

http://i.imgur.com/7TaC1QQ.jpg

(yes that is me too :D )

Did those double as airsickness bags? I wonder how many of them got re-filled? :p

I remember more than one flight where, before you boarded, the GA made an announcement in the gate area inviting you to "take as many bistro bags as you wish" !!

Then, they loaded plenty spare ones on the flight and the FA's would offer more if you wanted any more than you carried on yourself.

Obviously, they knew that not many folks were actually going to pick them up from the cooler and someone was making at least a bit of an attempt to get them taken so that they wouldn't go to waste.

In the interest of full disclosure: I confess that I didn't seem to think they were quite as bad as many other folks did!!

Awful, especially when UA was serving full, hot meals with metal cutlery in Y on comparable routes at the time. Not to mention the Mad Dogs with the lack of IFE, which was even uncompetitive with UA, too. How I loathed flying AA back then. Now, I loathe UA and am an AA flyer...oh, how times have changed!