Herb687

You don't get that you are wrong. They can do it quickly. There are specialty aviation caterers in business to do just that. But bring lots of dimes!

All of which are achievable. At a price.

And with one exception I suspect that those people have never worked in aviation.

DataPlumber

PremiumSeat

I have a lunch flight from LAX to JFK early next MONTH in F, and there are no meal offerings listed for pre-order online. I'm going to be beyond disappointed if the issue is not resolved by then and I'm stuck sipping on a $5 bottle of regular domestic F Chardonnay (I know, I'm sure it costs marginally more than $5) instead of Champagne.

baxieboy

So my LAX to SYD was reasonably well catered in Biz - a bit better then Prem Econo but certainly not biz standard. They had reasonable hot food and wine/basic spirits mixers. Looks like they’re getting back in shape.

doro

My wife sent a complaint via aa.com noting that the voucher was not very useful to us because the voucher was restricted to flights originating in the US (and noting a baggage issue that we remedied on our own). AA offered 7,500 points or “a voucher via postal service to use toward a future flight.” She took the points given that we have no use for an additional voucher.

gosha83

I flew LAX-AUS yesterday in F. They had airside snack items and beverages available for everyone. In-flight, we were given a plate of berries with some weird yogurt and granola, as well as a very weird toast and guac thing, that I frankly wish they just threw away (the guac looked like it was just a goop of listeria).

I was upgraded to F. Also, have not received any emails re. comp but was given a $12 voucher to use for food in the terminal.

77W_12A

I'm not here to defend AA but for those that say AA can find a caterer overnight, it's not easy even if they had money to throw as some have mentioned. There might be hundreds of small caterers out there, but are these places capable of handling specials meals? Kosher meal for example. You don't just slap a K on there and call it Kosher. For a kitchen to be considered Kosher, there's a special section that handles ONLY Kosher meals. Some places might even have a Rabbi to oversea things.
Can a kitchen handle Halal, Hindu, Vegetarian, etc, etc. There are so many factors that come into play when choosing a caterer.
That's why commercial airlines use the big players like LSG, Sodexo, Gate Gourmet, Flying Food Group, etc, etc.

Cannonball Run

October 30 - LAX-JFK - J. Normal food service-meaning the chicken dish was gross and inedible - neither of us could eat this.

November 2. JFK-LAX - J. No deserts loaded - cookies. (ok, so what)

November 7. LAX-JFK. - J. Booked 2 days ago. Could not pre-reserve a meal. Call to the EXP desk, had no reasons - agent did some checking and said there was a catering issue at LAX. Nov 6 early evening a $200 certificate for future travels lands in mail box with NO explanation to why. (lot of money for no desert on Nov 2 flight :-) ).

AC agent said AA changed catering due to a bad rating (Los Angeles inspects food outlets with letter grades - A-B-C.....

Today at gate - chaos. Ground staff loading waters, soft drinks, pretzels (and other healthy snacks - down the jetway). Told to get something to bring on board, but they should have something in J.

A week into this and AA a multi billion dollar profitable company is treating this issue like AC club construction months and months delays at LAX - no rush - don't give a darn for the paying customers (how have you enjoyed no seats in the T-4 admirals club and a 'flagship" lounge straight out of a 3rd world country. This is truly a shining moment for AA's wall of how little they care.

SFO777

This...

+100

MGW2000

Not able to pre-select meals for AA32 LAX-JFK in J next Wednesday 11/15...wonder if it will all be sorted by then.

Reetmafreen

If you are traveling LAX-HND in J, you will have access to the AC. Although the club at T4 is closed for renovations, just a little bit further down the concourse, there is an AC service center. They have some fridges set up with water/sodas, sandwiches, cookies, chips etc. Not perfect, but it beats having to nibble on the seat in front of you!

RJ1

So, are these items also available for a J passenger traveling LAX-MIA? With all the confusion about what flights will be catered, can you pick up something "just in case"?

Cannonball Run

You will know when it's sorted out and operational when it's live on the web site. New catering - very complex process - many approvals, decisions and operational requirements needed to start the flow of food to actually load on a flight. My guess is few operators at any airport have enough surplus capacity in staff (think security clearance needed for many - which filters through background checks, police checks and for some DOJ approval. Equipment from food prep needs and storage to delivery to aircraft need to be acquired.
A bag of pretzels is not the issue. My wife just texted me upon landing at JFK -
Meal was disgusting in a paper bag. Glad I had my own. I handed it back after I opened i

ECKOA6

Ok I have to say something as I'm very amused at continually seeing these statments. Not to go into my whole background, but in a former life I worked in hub operations for American and had day to day experience with vendors and contacts. I can tell you right now any issue of importance will get fixed asap. I will site one specific instance as an anecdote, where a union work groups breakroom satellite TV was losing signal. Within 24 hours we had to coordinate repair of this which involved a team of technicians without SIDA clearance. We had to arrange for SIDA escorts which meant pulling admin and management staff from multiple departments with escort privileges to babysit these techs for three days as they roamed from apron to the terminal. This was not cheap but as it was part of a union contract it was a must. Now I'm not going to say this is a similar situation but I can tell you every on caterer on airport property has SIDA approved staff already and if American needed to arrange for additional non cleared staff to be in secure areas they could arrange for escorts.

steve64

Are you referring the caterers that supply charter & business jets at FBOs ?
Those aircraft don't operate under FAR121 and also not subject to TSA security standards. Completely different operation. Even with the airline willing to pay the price, those caterers can not receive proper certification at the snap of a finger. Catering other aircraft does not mean they can cater scheduled airlines.