How to quickly check for meal service in F if booked in coach

Mar 8, 2004, 3:37 pm

mikejos

Guest

Posts: n/a

How to quickly check for meal service in F if booked in coach

In determining whether to upgrade I usually consider if they are going to serve a meal in F. If I have a flight booked in coach but would like to quickly check to see if food is being served in F, do you have any suggestions?

Thanks,

Mike

Mar 8, 2004, 3:51 pm

howellajohnson

Guest

Posts: n/a

I'm like you, and hopefully, this links helps. I am not really sure what "traditional meal windows" means, however, as this tends to vary by region of the country.

https://www.aa.com/content/travelInf...lService.jhtml

First Class Complimentary Food Service

Complimentary food service is offered in First Class on all markets systemwide that have flying times over 2 hours and operate within traditional meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner) windows. Generally, a Snack service will be provided on flights greater than 2.5 hours outside meal windows.

Mar 8, 2004, 3:57 pm

mikejos

Guest

Posts: n/a

Quote:

Originally posted by howellajohnson:
I'm like you, and hopefully, this links helps. I am not really sure what "traditional meal windows" means, however, as this tends to vary by region of the country.

https://www.aa.com/content/travelInformation/duringFlight/dining/domesticMealService .jhtml

First Class Complimentary Food Service

Complimentary food service is offered in First Class on all markets systemwide that have flying times over 2 hours and operate within traditional meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner) windows. Generally, a Snack service will be provided on flights greater than 2.5 hours outside meal windows.

Thanks, that helps, sort of. My flights this week are DFW-MCO and vice versa twice. Flight time is about 2:30-2:55 depending on direction so I guess the flights will have food.

Thanks again.

Mike

Mar 8, 2004, 4:03 pm

howellajohnson

Guest

Posts: n/a

You might be right on the proverbial cusp of the traditional meal window so I would check with reservations by speaking with an travel agent first just to be safe!

Mar 8, 2004, 4:10 pm

mikejos

Guest

Posts: n/a

Quote:

Originally posted by howellajohnson:
You might be right on the proverbial cusp of the traditional meal window so I would check with reservations by speaking with an travel agent first just to be safe!

Yeh, not what I was hoping for. The agents have more important things to do than researching whether or not my flights have food and I was hoping to avoid a call.

Mar 8, 2004, 4:20 pm

tlglenn

Join Date: Dec 2001

Location: CP-ASEL,AMEL,G-IA in Tucson, Arizona, United States

Posts: 1,124

What I do, which I find annoying, is to go through the booking process on aa.com with the same itinerary except that I specify first class on the initial screen. I plug in a fake name and clear the AAdvantage number to prevent the system from rejecting it as a duplicate reservation. Once I get to the purchase screen I can look at the details for each flight to see if food is served.

Mar 8, 2004, 6:06 pm

LLZ

Join Date: Oct 2000

Location: FLL, over-inflated EGO due to EXP status

Posts: 4,519

The definitive, and most accurate, way to do this is to call AA and ask what's served in F.

Especially since there are changes (for the better) in store, they'll have the most up to date info.

Mar 8, 2004, 6:18 pm

LLZ

Join Date: Oct 2000

Location: FLL, over-inflated EGO due to EXP status

Posts: 4,519

dupe

[This message has been edited by LLZ (edited Mar 08, 2004).]

Mar 9, 2004, 9:25 am

howellajohnson

Guest

Posts: n/a

Mikejos, please be sure to make the call as you will surprised (I've been!) at how often meals are NOT served because the flight does not fall within the "traditional meal windows".

There must be a reason that the hours are not just simply listed (i.e. breakfast 6 a.m. to 8 a.m., lunch 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., dinner 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.), and I can't imagine that they are necessarily overly advantageous to PAXs.

When does the clock start/stop ticking to determine the traditional meal windows?

For flights that are almost every hour on the hour, how many meals would be served during the day on one specific route? Is there a minimum? maximum?

Some food for thought...

Mar 9, 2004, 10:48 am

#10

yyzflyer

Join Date: Nov 2001

Location: Toronto, ON

Programs: Marriott Lifetime Titanium, AA Plat MM

Posts: 3,582

Quote:

Originally posted by tlglenn:
What I do, which I find annoying, is to go through the booking process on aa.com with the same itinerary except that I specify first class on the initial screen. I plug in a fake name and clear the AAdvantage number to prevent the system from rejecting it as a duplicate reservation. Once I get to the purchase screen I can look at the details for each flight to see if food is served.

I do exactly the same thing. You may find the meal windows have expanded - there are a couple of recent threads discussing this. For example, I have an upcoming flight just outside the old period which has recently had a meal added. There was none when booked.

Mar 9, 2004, 11:01 am

#11

UncleDude

Join Date: Sep 2003

Location: AA Lifetime PLT , BA Silver , BD RIP , HH Gold, SPG / Marriott PLT , EF Subscriber

Posts: 6,700

Quote:

Originally posted by howellajohnson:
I'm like you, and hopefully, this links helps. I am not really sure what "traditional meal windows" means, however, as this tends to vary by region of the country.

https://www.aa.com/content/travelInformation/duringFlight/dining/domesticMealService .jhtml

First Class Complimentary Food Service

Complimentary food service is offered in First Class on all markets systemwide that have flying times over 2 hours and operate within traditional meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner) windows.

"" Generally, a Snack service will be provided on flights greater than 2.5 hours outside meal windows.""

Not for the past 6 months it was removed from over 50% of "Out of Traditional Meals Windows" - Thankfully they appear to be returning from Early April.

------------------
Bring Back First Class Food on ALL flights over 2.5 hours-Thanks AA for Listening, now we need all ERJ's removing from flights over 2 hours.

Mar 10, 2004, 9:36 am

#12

robin

Join Date: May 2001

Location: Washington, D.C.

Posts: 70

You could pretend you are booking a reward trip and specify "first" class. Under flight details you will see if a meal is offered in first.

Mar 10, 2004, 9:43 am

#13

Spyder

Suspended

Join Date: Aug 2001

Location: Chicago

Programs: AA EXP Lifetime Platinum, Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium

Posts: 9,978

Quote:

Originally posted by robin:
You could pretend you are booking a reward trip and specify "first" class. Under flight details you will see if a meal is offered in first.

Last week - FLT 395 BDL to DFW nobody knew about the food service in F. The flight is over four hours lasting from 3:44 EST to 6:58 Central time. Gate agent said she couldn't tell, PLT line checked and said no service, so I bought a sandwich and boarded. Once on board they served a snack - the three inch pizza or chicken fingers.

It's maddening how inconsistent this all is.

Reply Share

First
Prev
1 / 1
Next
Last

Forum Jump