Moderator2

The $100 voucher was granted to me today for essentially an hour flight. Thanks GG AA .

obscure2k

Happy for you. A voucher for my 10 hour flight to LHR in J next week would not be quite as thrilling.

Herb687

To AA's detailed specs?

I doubt that a reputable private aviation caterer like Air Culinaire, Rudy's, etc. would want to source the 2 ounce portions of leathery USDA Utility grade beef in order to meet AA's spec.

But yes, in general, in greater LA there is sufficient catering capacity to cover long-haul international premium cabin passengers if AA thinks outside the box and looks beyond airline caterers based at KLAX.

Again, business models exist to provide quality aircraft catering on extremely short notice. And I guarantee it will look and taste a lot better than that bag meal picnic AA managed to scrounge up!


Suit yourself. What's your aviation experience, Chief?



Being a high volume operation, LSG might not have the supply chain or staffing to ramp up production like a low-volume specialty caterer could, but driving meals to KLAX from a GG or LSG kitchen at a different SoCal airport is another possibile solution.


Any private aviation caterer would be able to provide high quality plastic plating and servingware.

The substitute catering readily available to AA if they would think outside the box and be prepared to spend money would put standard AA premium cabin meals to shame.

DCP2016

Couldn't have said it better myself. This pathetic excuse of an airline can't just do something like this without having a backup plan. No food/drinks on LAX-PHX or LAX-DEN are one thing, not providing adequete service on routes like LAX-HKG and LAX-SYD is BEYOND pathetic. To top it off, they are insulting their customers by offering $50-$100 vouchers when they should be offering those vouchers and FULL refunds.

I am usually against this type of thing but all AA passengers out of LAX during this past week should file a class action lawsuit. Really pathetic. AS, B6, DL, UA, along with all the international carriers must be dying laughing at this joke of an airline. Doug Parker needs to be gone ASAP.

rjw242

Has anybody actually tried requesting a refund? Seems like the type of circumstances where they might allow it (especially for long-haul flights).

gilam

I'm on a J ticket LAX-NRT-SIN this Friday and I tried to get rerouted because of this goat rodeo. At first they tried to charge me the fare difference between my current routing and DFW-HKG-SIN or LAX-NRT on JAL. I reminded them that this wasn't my fault and it was there own decisions that got us here. They put me on a long hold and came back and told me that they called LAX and that "everything is fine and international flights are catered" and they wouldn't budge. I guess that depends on your definition of "catered".

So I guess it's going to be a crapshoot come friday and if I lose I get a $200 voucher on a $6k ticket for sitting in a plane with no or crap food for 13 hours.

Ironically this is the only one of my multiple SIN trips this year that I didn't book on Cathay so I could burn a SWU and bump up to F one way. I guess I should be glad my F flight is HKG-LAX.

I turned my corporate travel department loose on them today so we'll see what happens. One thing I know will happen is I'm going to stay on Cathay going forward no matter what.

NoLaGent

Bolding mine. Certainly not that one.

They usually don't race to the front with anything, but UA did with the listeria catering problem.

DEN first class catering issues

thecurtisw

I think it’s worth keeping in mind the grass is not always greener...people in a Delta Diamonds group are complaining over Delta being careless with their safety because DL didn’t cancel their agreement. Sure, it’s unfortunate for food to be [extremely] subpar for however many days it ends up being and that sucks for the experience we all expect, but we’d all be well off to keep things in perspective. And being offered $100...sure, we’d like more, but the meals provided are hardly even worth spending $25 for on the ground. Getting $100 voucher to eat different (maybe less) food onboard or eat in a lounge or in the terminal beforehand...not a bad value, in my opinion.

ECKOA6

I'm right along with you in J on 169 LAX-NRT Friday. Not very happy about this at the moment, and I'm debating to call in and see about a reroute. I'm not going to be a happy camper if the flight is not fully catered and then get a $200 voucher. Will update if I have any success on a reroute.

T308

I’m on AA 169 LAX/NRT as I write. I asked in the AC if they’d have proper catering and they said yes. Once aboard they told us it was a limited menu service. Our choices in Business class were grilled chicken and veg or Couscous and veg. Appetizer was a bag of pretzels. My chicken was cold and inedible. The best part was the hummus and pita. There was a small green salad, wrapped bread and a slice of cake. It looked like a standard international coach plate. The cabin crew has been invisible since the service was complete. When they unwrapped the food in the galley one of them said “look at this sh*t, oh God”. I guess they get to suffer too. I suggest if your flying in any class out of LA BYOF.

brodielayne

U need a hug dude. My wife and I were impacted by this break in service, and frankly am happy with how AA handled it. We both received a $200 voucher for our LAX-JFK business class flight. What else should one expect? $200 to compensate us for likely a $10 meal. Big ups to AA.

rasheed

It is fascinating because I really can't think of any other service issue where AA premium passengers are more vocal. During the early food service changes, we saw AA move rather quickly to restore meals and change side salads due to feedback (removing the meat topping).

I have no doubt AA F&B are working around the clock trying to flip flights to other caterers. It seems the strategy, rightfully is to get the overseas flight figured out. That is likely a bigger learning curve. I think domestic flights are already figured out as LSG already has domestic tray experience. I guess it is possible LSG is sending meals from the SNA kitchen to LAX, but I don't think that really matters.

I think there is some decent damage being done to area flyers by AA's decisions. I'd like to see AA do some sort of promotion plan to rebuild its flyer relationships. Or, maybe there will be some flyers who try other carriers. I have been flying my fair share of other carriers which has reduced my ability to get AA status renewal, but I don't know if others really do so. If AA sees a threat to its LAX business, anything is possible, but if people take their vouchers and move on, maybe AA handled this issue well.

Rasheed

drewbles

Nice to see you were on my flight!

Agreed the Hummus was pretty good actually. The poor sandwich 'snack' at the end, was not so much!

Score8

I'm pretty certain that you can't compare the hardship of a 5-hour transcon to a 14 hour international flight. Most of us can eat before we board LAX-JFK and then eat when we land. One of the things that doesn't make any sense is the amount of $ they are providing, regardless of distance. Shoot, i would take $100 every time and have no catering on my transcons. I can pack a PB and J.

formeraa

Exactly! If AA hadn't suspended this caterer, we would be criticizing AA for putting us at risk of illness.

To the posters who are criticizing AA for "not having a backup plan", I assure you that airline catering is a complex issue. It's not something that you replace in a day. You would be surprised at the effort that goes into planning menus, coordinating with caterers, following up on problems, making sure that the caterers have adequate supplies of carts, dishes, and other supplies.