Meals changes US & AA announced - international and domestic [Discussion]
 

USAirways announces their influence on AA's meal policy.

One of the first real tangible changes that we will see
will occur on April 1 on the legacy US Airways side
of the operation. On that date, we will begin the alignment of meal services based on flight time. USAirways will transition from the
current footprint of 3.5 hours for meal services in domestic first class and add meals to flights of 1000 nautical miles or greater that translates to a
flight time of approximately 2:45 minutes in duration. This change will
add 126 daily flights where meal services are offered versus the current footprint, bringing the total of US Airways flights offering meal service
to 442. We will also introduce an enhanced
snack basket to include fresh components such as breakfast pastries and fresh fruit on early morning departures
and small finger sandwiches and fresh fruit on later departures.

On the American side of the operation, domestic meal
services will remain as they are today until September. At that time, we will align the look and feel of First Class services at both carriers, including
tray elements, food components, and meal windows.

For the international operation at American, on April 1
a new expedited meal service will be introduced on
JFK to London/Manchester and Dublin as the only option available. This simpler shorter service was designed to align our offerings with our partner, British Airways. Additionally, on April 1, we will introduce a new streamlined meal presentation in business class on all eastbound markets to Europe.
Details will follow in a separate and more comprehensive communication.

Expedited, shorter, and streamlined could be either positive or negative. I'm curious about the details as they unfold.

Probably trying to give pax on overnights more uninterrupted sleep time.

This is my concern:

At that time, we will align the look and feel of First Class services at both carriers, including tray elements, food components, and meal windows.

I thought US Airways was planning to move to the current AA window of meal service by April, which means timing and length thresholds that equal AA's? A 1,000-mile threshold seems a bit too high, not equalling that of AA's current 600-ish (and is higher than UA and DL's current 800-900ish).

That said, it could be transitional - slowly transitioning US service windows to that of AA's. September is plenty of time away, which gives us a window to give feedback and make sure the new AA will mostly retain it's meal windows and service standards. This also gives crew an opportunity to give feedback and for AA to determine if they feel it is worthy to offer meal service on shorter flight windows after September (paid F revenue, etc). After all, they both are still separate carriers and have their own budgets.

The pemissit in me says this is a subtle effort to downgrade the future new AA's service by not immediately changing the windows.

Time shall tell, indeed.

It could be a matter of the catering suppliers on the US side. The US stations which currently do not have catered meals in F, might be double-catered out of the hubs in the interim period until September, when a better system can be implemented with the suppliers. However, I don't see the current AA meal flight-length remaining longterm. Aside from key business markets, I think 800-900 miles will be the minimum.

The reason BA has "expedited" meal service on their eastbound TATL flights is that they offer a full meal pre-flight in the lounge, so passengers can eat dinner before boarding. The Admirals Club does not offer this service, and I suspect still won't. So, no decent meal for passengers flying AA, and even more incentive to fly on BA metal.

It says 1000 NAUTICAL miles, which is 1150 miles. Way too high.

Why do you think the current AA meal flight-length will not stay beyond September? If AA offers meals on short hops like they do now, they would attract more business/paid F revenue, and as they have been retaining meal service on short hops for a long time now, I'd have to say their current system is successful. So, why change that?

Also, the more I think about it, the more I speculate that they will end up aligning to AA's current thresholds. If they were serious about reducing meal service on AA, they would have also changed the AA-side thresholds in April for more harmonization. September is far away, and it would make more sense to set customers' expectations properly by aligning both sides' windows in April, if changing the US side by then.

I do see the F/J service being downgraded to a one-tray presentation. Of course, pre-flight dining is highly unlikely to be offered at JFK (on the AA side).

As far as "new streamlined meal presentation in business class on all eastbound markets," I do expect a downgrade as to what CO customers experienced after UA "redesigned" BusinessFirst.

Meals changes US & AA announced - international and domestic
 

Source?

Where would those paying F passengers flock to? Both DL and UA have the higher distance threasholds. At least the enhanced snack offerings are a slightly better product than what DL has, and UA doesn't have at all. BTW, how much short-haul paid F is there on AA anyway?

I have seldom read a more negative bunch of scaremongering posts as on this page. How can an improvement in catering on US flights to bring them up to AA standards (which is pretty high for a US domestic airline) be interpreted as the start of a reduction of such catering overall? As for the eastbound flights to the UK/Ireland, particularly in business, is more a factor of the limited time on such routes and the desire of most in that cabin to get a good night's sleep than to eat and drink, particularly as more of those flights have lay flat beds (both AA and US metal). Yes, BA does have preflight dining, but it's certainly not the same as its F dining at most lounges. As for an incentive to fly BA, fine if you're actually paying for J, but most here are likely using eVIPs to sit in that cabin so there's no incentive to move to BA...and AA's 773s offer a much nicer J experience than BA's cramped pods.

"On the American side of the operation, domestic meal
services will remain as they are today until September."

This, to me, makes it clear that in September AA will change meal services and windows. So much for the promise that US would offer AA services, and not the other way around.

Of course, we can dream of the New American expanding meals to all domestic F flights (which BA manages to do in Club Europe, on all flights), adding a snack as a beverage accompaniment in the Main Cabin, etc., etc., etc.

I agree, it sounds like they just split the difference for min time for meal between US (3.5hr) and AA (2hr) to end up at 2.75hr. US flyers see an improvement and AA flyers take a hit. And in typical corporate spin, they mention how many US flights will gain meals and leave out how many AA flights will lose meals which must be a MUCH higher number given the larger footprint and all the midcons from ORD/DFW that will fall between 2-2.75hrs.

If this is true, I'd have to say this is an ominous sign that AA is going to cut services towards US standards while not getting there completely. I guess you can read that as good or bad depending on how optimistic you've been.