Erik McCormick

Just got my voucher for AA73 to SYD tonight. Same $200 (flying PY). For added chaos I'm on AA245 from DCA which had an unscheduled post-boarding equipment change. (Broken plane). Currently showing 9 minutes to make the connection. Looks like I might get to stack hotel, food, and flight vouchers all in one day. Yippee.

deeruck

You're absolutely right. The suggestion that businesses plan for immediate replacement of third party vendors in their business continuity plans is crazy. More likely that they contract for compensation for interruption of service.

I give AA full credit for suspending GG. Food safety is not something to be taken lightly, especially something like listeria. I fully understand that it is disappointing and very inconvenient to have a flight that isn't catered, but I think they made the right decision.

no2chem

Was this in Y?

In Y that's maybe 20% of a RT, which is good. In J, that might be a lot less, so I'd hope for quite a bit more...

tied

Appreciate the link, thanks. It's easy to overlook the potential seriousness here.

LA Times today quotes a spokesman saying that, "... the airline decided to stop taking food from the Los Angeles kitchen because of concern over progress in Gate Gourmet's plan to correct the listeria problem."

There really should be more scrutiny on why other airlines are okay with taking the risk.

wrp96

I saw a tweet that AA is trying to use other caterers but none of the others ther caterers have the capacity to handle all AA flights. They’ve contracted with multiple companies to cover as many flights as they can, but it won’t cover all flights.

golfingboy

Agreed. In other words the caterer has fully admitted that they have not neutralized the listeria problem in their kitchen yet but working on it. That is the scary part - kind of surprised the health inspector hasn't forced them to shut down the kitchen.

Listeriosis can take up to 70 days for the symptoms to hit, so there is no way of knowing right away if the food was indeed spoiled or not. No food poisoning has been reported is a weak excuse for not taking extra safety precautions.

Herb687

Technically I claimed that it should be easy to find sufficient catering for those flights where it matters most: long-haul international in premium cabins.

How many F/J seats does AA operate out of LAX on flights > 8 hours? Maybe 15 flights a day * 80 seats/flight?

So, yes, I stand by my claim that it would not be difficult to find a company in greater LA to cater 1200 meals on 24 hours notice.

Are you going to pay my consulting rate if I start calling to arrange catering? If so, I'd be glad to help (AA, are you listening?)

It's not a standby contingency anymore. There are companies that exist solely to cater business jets. I'm sure several of them would absolutely love to get a call from AA's LAX General Manager and would be able to fulfill an order on short notice. That would make the catering provider's year. But they'd be able to perform. These are businesses who exist to meet the needs of very demanding customers on short notice.

But, again, AA may not like the pricing!

None of the ones that AA claims to have contacted would take this. At a price AA was willing to pay. In case you haven't noticed, neither customer service nor creative thinking are AA's strong suits these days.

Probably never occurred to either the LAX GM or someone in food service planning at HDQ to call the GM across the field at Signature and ask him/her where he might source hundreds of great meals on short notice.

critterchick

I have AC membership, so can get in regardless of class flown. I'll report back on whether they've done anything like make up to go boxes. I think a prior poster said they were giving vouchers to go join everybody else trying to score a meal in the terminal, not giving out anything in the club itself. I don't think I'll be in the mood for a rugby scrum.

Or they have some other beef with GG and this is their way of cutting ties. I have a hard time believing that the other airlines have such lower food safety standards that they're willing to risk poisoning their customers, but I'm a long-standing member of the Ultimate Cynics Club.

ECKOA6

In hoping this issue does not take more than a week to figure out, I booked LAX-NRT in business for the 10th (caution to the wind and all), I can preorder my return meal on the 15th but the outbound on the 10th doesn't even show up. Amazing IT can move so quick to take away the ability to preorder, and shocking that at least from a high level view AA can't commit to having catering restored at the minimum in international J after a week.

Sankyo

I’m boarding a flight to Chicago soon. An announcement was made about catering and snacks are available for pick up at the gate. I’m seated in first, but no mention/offer of vouchers yet.

diver858

If it was that simple, they could call Domino's, use Uber eats.

I would expect many other factors to consider:
1. AA likely has its own group that manages catering services, performs inspections, etc. Changing service providers would require a new set of procedure, documentation, etc.
2. If I am not mistaken, each airline is responsible for its own security, would likely be necessary for AA to clear any catering staff who will have access to the tarmac, aircraft.

critterchick

I'm onboard fly 2 LAX-JFK now. When I inquired at the AC, the Aangels could only say that there would be "something" on the plane. On boarding there was a cart of sandwiches, water and soda for coach. F and J will be catered, although with what I do not know. Stay tuned.

RJ1

I am flying out of LAX on 16 Nov, and had previously selected a meal. After seeing this thread and your comment, I just checked my reservation and the meal choices for 16 Nov are gone.

HITconsultant

AA emailed me 11/1 "On Wednesday, Nov. 1, American Airlines stopped using the services of Gate Gourmet". I flew LAX-JFK last night (11/2). And this morning, I was pleased to see AA emailed me a $50 voucher. Guessing it was due to last night's flight but not sure. Did everyone else flying out of LAX also get a $50 voucher?

I was surprised to receive it because:
1. I flew in economy
2. AA warned me by email in advance
3. While the flight was missing the usual options of sandwich and fruit/cheese plate, they still had other snacks.
4. The email, subject "About your Recent Flight: A Message from American Airlines", began "Here is the voucher we promised". I'd heard no voucher promises!
5. When a September LAX-JFK flight was delayed 3.5 hours, AA didn't proactively compensate me. They did when I asked ~1 month later, but in miles, not dollars.

SNA_Flyer

Maybe there is no more risk but AA is using the opportunity to terminate their Gate Gourmet contract for cause.