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Predeparture Drinks / Beverage (PDB) - When, What and Why Not? (consolidated)

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Old Jan 2, 2016, 5:51 pm
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AA Predeparture Beverages: When, What and Why not?

NOTE: Due to PDB service cancellation, this thread will rest until PDB resumption.
Older posts can be read in the archived thread here.

Post by brc757rr, July 2015:
Originally Posted by AA policy regarding PDB

Pre-departure beverages are expected to be offered on all flights. On domestic flights, customers should be offered a beverage of choice. On international flights with bonded liquor, we offer a choice of orange juice, water, sparkling water, sparkling wine and mimosas and will fulfill requests for non alcoholic beverages of choice provided that supplies can be obtained without opening bonded carts and carriers. If pre-departure beverages cannot be served because of operational reasons, flight attendants are expected to apologize to customers and advise that beverages will be served as soon as possible after take off.
Originally Posted by brc757rr
I was able to receive the exact language of the company policy from American Airlines today via Twitter regarding PDB's. I was actually quite impressed they followed up with me regarding a conversation that started a few days ago. I also received a nice note from Hector Adler who I also reached out to who said that pre-departure services were discussed at great length at a meeting late last week. Let's hope things begin to improve and if not we continue to press the FA's to follow company policy.
...
So there you have it.
Originally Posted by RogerD408
Did a little searching on Twitter. A good hashtag could be just #PDBServed and the condition listed before that. So, something like:

@AmericanAir 08/18 AA123 ORG No #PDBServed
@AmericanAir 08/18 AA123 ORG Full #PDBServed
@AmericanAir 08/18 AA123 ORG Limited #PDBServed

This allows all PDB service to be posted, good, bad, and otherwise. This should show AA that we feel this is a desired service. Maybe if someone gets energetic, a summary post could be done, maybe weekly?
Thanks to RogerD408



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Predeparture Drinks / Beverage (PDB) - When, What and Why Not? (consolidated)

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Old Jan 16, 2018, 7:45 am
  #346  
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EZE-JFK 77W.....I had two refills of bubbles offered while on the ground from this great crew.
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Old Jan 16, 2018, 10:09 pm
  #347  
 
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1/14 ORD-DFW 787... Only water and OJ served. The crew was definitely in a rush, so the effort was at least appreciated after dealing with a delay.
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Old Jan 16, 2018, 10:51 pm
  #348  
 
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Originally Posted by aaflyer93
1/14 ORD-DFW 787... Only water and OJ served. The crew was definitely in a rush, so the effort was at least appreciated after dealing with a delay.
That's a really hard plane to work with a full load and 35 minutes to board it up. Odds are it came from T5 off an international and was catered last second. Sometimes, offering a limited PDB in the effort to "load and go" does happen.
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Old Jan 18, 2018, 8:48 pm
  #349  
 
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Originally Posted by AANYC1981
EZE-JFK 77W.....I had two refills of bubbles offered while on the ground from this great crew.
Nice! Congrats to AA.
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Old Jan 18, 2018, 8:52 pm
  #350  
 
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Originally Posted by TheSkyGuy
That's a really hard plane to work with a full load and 35 minutes to board it up. Odds are it came from T5 off an international and was catered last second. Sometimes, offering a limited PDB in the effort to "load and go" does happen.
There's an excuse I've never heard before.
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Old Jan 19, 2018, 1:20 pm
  #351  
 
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Originally Posted by TheSkyGuy
That's a really hard plane to work with a full load and 35 minutes to board it up. Odds are it came from T5 off an international and was catered last second. Sometimes, offering a limited PDB in the effort to "load and go" does happen.
Since December 20, I've had 22 segments with UA in F. Of those 22 segments, with one being an upgrade from Y+ when the GA boarded the plane, gave me an upgrade, and then closed the door, I was still offered a PDB, i.e. 100% PDB success rate. Admittedly, only one flight was on a wide-body aircraft (763 from ORD to IAH), but even with that flight, there was a PDB service. UA's 763 has 30 F seats. AA's 788 has 21. Let's not blame the catering folks...
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Old Jan 19, 2018, 6:27 pm
  #352  
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1/12: AA 1427 DFW-ABQ 737-800: OJ or Water
1/14: AA 1427 ABQ-DFW 737-800: No PDB
1/14: AA 1606 DFW-RDU 737-800: No PDB

Pretty disappointing trip
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Old Jan 19, 2018, 6:43 pm
  #353  
 
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PDB Conversation with FA

On Tuesday, 1/16/2018, I flew yet another Compass Airlines dba American Eagle flight into LAX, and of course, I was offered a full PDB. Since I was seated in 1A, I looked over to the cabin flight attendant and asked her why on Compass my batting average of getting a full PDB in 2017 is 100% while on American mainline it's more like 60%.

This FA said through job training with Compass they are expected to serve a full PDB. She said if a passenger contacts AA customer relations about not receiving a PDB and the passenger is able to identify adequate specifics regarding the flight number, time of day, weather, and the FA's name.....that FA will receive a telephone call as to why the PDB was not provided. New uniforms are coming out wherein the FA's name is sewn into the fabric so removing or obscuring a name-tag won't work to hide one's identity.

This FA said she flies both American Eagle and American mainline flights, and she said it's usually "protected class" FA's that fail to provide the PDB (protected class meaning they have 20 years in and are of a certain age wherein they cannot be fired). The responsibility to see that a PDB is served per company policy falls on the flight attendant assigned to that particular cabin.

Finally, the FA told me that if you are sitting in F and you have not been served a PDB, hit that call button and ask for one.

Okay! ^
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Old Jan 19, 2018, 8:45 pm
  #354  
 
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I will say my PDB % has been 100% this year, which is much higher that previously and all on PMAA flights, yes its still Jan but small victories. My flights last week I had an amazing crew for the short hop, PDB of choice and were also just great the whole short flight. The next leg which was 4.5 hours we had FAs doing the "lets chat about whatever in the galley" during boarding and seemed very disinterested in doing anything else. Towards the end of boarding she brought out a tray of water, which was disappointing for a 6PM departure and on an A319 so a really small F cabin, I scowled and took a water and while I thought about asking for a G&T the vibe I got from the FA made me think it wouldn't go well and I didn't want to make a scene. To my utter surprise she came back around after the water and offered us all PDB of choice which was appreciated, service was meh on the flight in that I had to use the call button several times as they were in the galley on their phones right after meal service but they did respond and weren't overtly hostile about it. I am cautiously optimistic that the FAs are starting to get the message that PDBs are something they should be doing and this thread won't be needed much longer or at least get fewer posts
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Old Jan 20, 2018, 7:45 am
  #355  
 
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Removed

Last edited by tfizzle; Jan 20, 2018 at 12:01 pm
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Old Jan 20, 2018, 8:21 am
  #356  
 
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Originally Posted by tfizzle
I'm flying through LAX f one American Eagle which arrives and departs at the satellite terminal accessible by bus from the the main AA terminal. I have a 2 hour layover, will I have time to get from the satelite terminal to TBIT to access the Quantas lounge? I am ExP.
........and the connection to this thread regarding PDB is?
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Old Jan 20, 2018, 11:11 am
  #357  
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JFK-LAX
LAA
A321T
7am and standard transcon PDB of bubbles, water, OJ.

I've seen crews try and get away without offering bubbles both in First and Business in the morning on this route.

Great crew but the food was revolting....more on that in another thread.
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Old Jan 20, 2018, 3:22 pm
  #358  
 
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AA 1228 TUS-DFW 1/20/18--PDB full service w/DFW based crew. Lead FA was awesome
AA 2753 DFW-MKE 1/20/18--NO PDB, Departed 9 minutes early w/ORD based crew. When I asked for a drink as we were sitting prior to departure, FA said that serving drinks is only as time permits.
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Old Jan 22, 2018, 10:52 am
  #359  
 
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Originally Posted by jcatman
This FA said she flies both American Eagle and American mainline flights...
Yeah, that's not possible. The FA is either an American Eagle (Compass Employee) FA or they're a mainline AA FA (American employee).
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Old Jan 22, 2018, 1:21 pm
  #360  
 
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Originally Posted by weirdlyndon
Yeah, that's not possible. The FA is either an American Eagle (Compass Employee) FA or they're a mainline AA FA (American employee).
Really? You can fly a Compass flight as an employee and pay to fly an American flight as a passenger.
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