Jan 1, 2018, 1:30 pm
Last edit by: JDiver
AA/US Domestic Dining (including Canada, Mexico, & the Caribbean)
See here for the 2019 domestic meal thread.
Note: this thread is about meals served on domestic AA flights.
Link to Combined 2018 AA International Meal / Meals - menu / photos / etc. (master thread)
There is another thread for the contingent that wishes to debate and discuss linens as a primary subject, including related presentation issues: Linens / presentation debate for meal service on AA, US / both.
PLEASE: DO NOT POST OVERSIZED IMAGES; PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE AND REPEAT IMAGES IN YOUR QUOTED POST. /Moderators
Welcome to the 2018 Domestic Dining thread and the resulting discussion/trip reports/photos/shared experiences. Here, in this wiki post, I'll strive to explain what you should expect on AA flights in First and Business, meals-wise. Keep in mind that there are many domestic flights, so there are quite a few parameters to keep track of.
Basically, in its best condensed form, you should expect to receive a meal between 4:59am - 8pm on flights longer than 900 miles, which equals about two hours in the air. From that point, there are exceptions, and specific timing parameters.
What to Expect - Mainline:
Keep in mind that this list is not entirely inclusive, and there may be certain exceptions and/or abnormalities.
- Up to 699 miles: Light snacks such as a fig bar, cookies, and/or pretzels
- 700-899 miles: Warmed nuts, a snack plate (fruit/cheese, pita/hummus, or spinach dip/pita), and a cookie
- 900-1298 miles: A meal (fruit/breakfast entree; salad/entree) followed by a cookie; no meals between 1:30-4pm
- 1298-2199 miles: A full meal including an appetizer, with cake for lunch desserts and premade ice-cream for dinner desserts
- 2200 miles and above: Same as 1298-2199 miles, but consists of made-to-order sundaes or a cheese plate for both lunch and dinner desserts
What to Expect - Regional:
Keep in mind that this list is not entirely inclusive, and there may be certain exceptions and/or abnormalities.
- Up to 175 miles: A light snack mix along with beverage service
- 176-899 miles: Sweet and savory, organic/healthy snack choices (snack basket)
- 900-2199 miles: Warm mixed nuts, two meal options, and dessert. (For flights over 2200 miles, you will receive the same selection of snacks from 176-899 miles as a pre-arrival snack. All regional meal flights leaving after 8:00pm will also receive sweet and savory snacks as the only option. Editor's note: A regional jet for 2000+ miles? Hope that never happens!)
All of the meal flights that fall under the above timing parameters will receive two choices; normally, one meat and one vegetarian.
Longer westbound flights leaving from the east coast (transcontinental; non-premium) are not officially exceptions, but some flights after 8pm receive a full dinner service (such as the 8:05pm MIA-SAN flight, or the 8:30pm PHL-LAS flight). Additionally, non-premium transcontinental red-eye flights will receive snack basket service upon departure, then a continental breakfast box prior to arrival.
Official Exceptions:
The following flights all fall under 900 miles, but will receive a full meal service, with the exception of flights leaving between 1:31-4pm. Despite some of the listed flights being over 900 miles, they are remaining listed here, based on the AA website for documentation purposes.
- Chicago (ORD) - AUS/BDL/BOS/DCA/EWR/JFK/LGA/MSY/RDU
- Dallas (DFW) - BJX/ORD/MEX/QRO/SLP
- Fort Lauderdale (FLL) - PAP
- Los Angeles (LAX) - DEN
- Miami (MIA) - DCA/IAD/PAP
- New York (LGA) - ATL
- Phoenix (PHX) - MZT
Additional Information:
- JFK-LAX/SFO; MIA-LAX are considered premium transcontinental flights, and as such, receives a more refined service with three meal choices, per-course service, printed menus, and tray/tablecloth linens in both F/J. Those flights now are the only domestic flights in the system to offer special meals as another option (which can be reserved by either preordering online, or calling). Red-eye flights will receive a full "supper/snack" meal service, which is basically a condensed dinner service.
- Hawaiian meal service is very similar to what you'd expect on 2200+ mile flights, but there also will be Hawaiian rolls served, along with a pre-arrival continental breakfast/snack (dependent on the length of the route). Tropical warmed nuts are also currently served.
- All flights over 700 miles, regardless of a meal being served or not, will receive warm mixed nuts and a cookie.
Disclaimer: The editor of this Wiki does not guarantee the information presented above will always be accurate or properly followed by AA, given catering mishaps, irregular operations, rogue crews, or mismanagement. For the best up-to-date information, it would be prudent to check AA's website constantly for any updates, or call AA. The editors of this Wiki will keep this Wiki updated as often as possible.
ARCHIVE: 2018 AA Domestic Meal / Meals - menu / photos / etc. (master thread)
Dec 26, 2018, 5:46 pm
#1096
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 877
What are life bites these days? Planning on MCO-DFW at 9:50pm. I don’t usually take evening flights.
Dec 27, 2018, 6:07 am
#1097
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: MIA
Programs: AA EXP (AC), DL G (SC), Bonvoy LTP, & IHG AMB
Posts: 1,798
Agreed, but for others be warned that the special meals are prone to misfires just like the regular options:
AA 1251 ORD -> BOS 25DEC18 B738
I typically really enjoy the Hindu Veg option and it certainly looked better than the Veg lasagna the seat mate had, but the crew had no experience with this one. The rice was hard and dry and the curries were cold and too soupy. Even so, the Hindu veg is much better offering than the standards options and I put the Hindu Veg near the top of that list. Fortunately, this picture was largely for the photo op: didn't want to fill up when there was lobstah' and tenderloins at home
AA 1251 ORD -> BOS 25DEC18 B738
I typically really enjoy the Hindu Veg option and it certainly looked better than the Veg lasagna the seat mate had, but the crew had no experience with this one. The rice was hard and dry and the curries were cold and too soupy. Even so, the Hindu veg is much better offering than the standards options and I put the Hindu Veg near the top of that list. Fortunately, this picture was largely for the photo op: didn't want to fill up when there was lobstah' and tenderloins at home
Dec 27, 2018, 12:43 pm
#1098
Suspended
Join Date: May 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: DL Diamond, AAdvantage EXP, Hyatt Explorist, HHonors Diamond, Avis First
Posts: 7,344
Anyone else see TPG’s recent meal post on IG? The comments are hilarious and quite on point given the appearance of his domestic AA meal lol.
Dec 27, 2018, 2:20 pm
#1099
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: PHL
Programs: AA ExP, Marriott Amb, National EAE, Hilton Diamond, SPG Plat (RIP), US CP (RIP)
Posts: 2,379
I’m glad that American’s caterer scraped all of the dregs of cheese out of the deli case and carefully placed each shred on my “new and improved” sandwich. Or perhaps that’s a generous assessment of what happened. Anyway, here’s to quality control.
Marketing.
Dec 29, 2018, 8:23 am
#1100
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: PHX & AGP
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Gold
Posts: 11,453
HAving eaten at Zoes here in Phoenix, the photo of the sammy is more like what you get at the restaurant then what was served on the plane.
Dec 29, 2018, 12:01 pm
#1101
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Central Mass
Programs: Independent
Posts: 4,829
12/28 BOS-ORD, got the dreaded Burger. In fairness, we were delayed a good two hours. I have to say I have never before experienced a bread role that was both hard as a rock and mushy at the same time! It was just plain low quality meat, cheap cheese, and ill prepared. The stewardess seemed to spend most of her time chatting with the two guys in the row cross the aisle, so it was sitting around for some time. I think it could be well done, but they would need to really up the quality AND pay more attention to on-board prep.
Dec 29, 2018, 12:10 pm
#1102
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 8
Breakfast and lunch.
My brother and I are flying DTW-MIA-BON in January and I am struggling with meal choices as I can find little on these options so would appreciate any input.
For breakfast there is the continental fruit plate with granola and yogurt, vs the ancient grain flatbread breakfast sandwich.
For lunch there are chopped salad (with romaine and chicken), or ricotta and spinach ravioli, or a fruit and cheese plate.
Which of these are worthwhile? Or should we order special meals?
thanks in advance
For breakfast there is the continental fruit plate with granola and yogurt, vs the ancient grain flatbread breakfast sandwich.
For lunch there are chopped salad (with romaine and chicken), or ricotta and spinach ravioli, or a fruit and cheese plate.
Which of these are worthwhile? Or should we order special meals?
thanks in advance
Dec 29, 2018, 10:14 pm
#1103
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: BOS
Programs: AAdvantage (Exec. Plat.)
Posts: 81
BOS-MIA (Boeing 737 Max8), diabetic meal pre-ordered.
This was an interesting service as there were some pretty clear departures from the AA flight service standard; some good, some not.
No attempt at PDBs (LAA…sigh), even though catering was done before boarding started and we were finished boarding a full 15 minutes prior to scheduled departure. Dinner/drink selections acknowledged and/or taken prior to takeoff.
Once in the air, one of the coach FAs stayed up in the galley to help out with the initial beverage service, which consisted of serving the cabin nuts, and then chatting in the galley for 10 minutes while the entire FC drink service was prepared in a blue plastic galley cart insert. Drinks were then run <from> the blue plastic galley cart insert, which was trashy and awkward at best; at worst, the FA clearly had a hard time grabbing the full drinks out the holes and almost dropped a few. Probably why AA doesn’t want FA’s serving drinks from them?
After that, the coach FA went to the back and we were down to just one. All 15 dinners were prepared and put back into the meal cart, and eventually hand-run to the cabin all at once including the chocolate chip cookie, which had been completely burned. Bread basket came through afterward, followed by a tray of waters and refills of wine from the bottles.
I thought the dinner tray service was actually a more efficient way of doing things rather than the two-rows-at-a-time standard, except for the cookie on the tray and the initial drink service, which were both lazy and on par with the standard LAA disregard of PDBs. FA demeanor was good, with smiles all around and happy to take special requests when the meal service was done. Not much post-dinner drink attention.
Once again the diabetic meal was quite pleasing, with a piece of pan-seared salmon over rice with vegetables. A somewhat mediocre salad on the side, which was a first for my diabetic meal experiences, though it included real balsamic vinaigrette. I asked for real butter instead of using the whipped vegetable oil “Promise” included on the tray.
No pre-landing mints. This is about the tenth flight I haven’t seen these on. Are they not catered anymore?
***
Notes on the Max8: In one word, TIGHT. In two words: tight; cheap.
AA really went for pack-em, stack-em, and rack-em here. Even in first class there wasn’t much room, and it was amusing watching people squeeze and climb to get to the aisle to use the bathroom. I can’t even imagine what it must be like in back.
Virtually no under-seat storage, and non-articulating seats made me scared for my laptop screen when my front neighbor reclined. It’s difficult to imagine why AA didn’t spring for IFE; streaming AVOD worked extremely well for the first part of the fight and then took a complete dump by New York City. At least there were plugs.
Viasat Wifi, which at $7 for the flight was a bargain, is unfortunately part of an overall confusing and non-linear AA Wifi experience.
I guess I’ll forever be nostalgic on the BOS-MIA route from days gone by: big, roomy 757 Eisenhower seats in a “private” cabin, shrimp appetizers, and ice cream desserts. Hell, even FLL-BOS in a MD80 included an Ice cream sundae service from a three-tier cart in the aisle.
BOS-ORD/ORD-CDG on Tuesday.
This was an interesting service as there were some pretty clear departures from the AA flight service standard; some good, some not.
No attempt at PDBs (LAA…sigh), even though catering was done before boarding started and we were finished boarding a full 15 minutes prior to scheduled departure. Dinner/drink selections acknowledged and/or taken prior to takeoff.
Once in the air, one of the coach FAs stayed up in the galley to help out with the initial beverage service, which consisted of serving the cabin nuts, and then chatting in the galley for 10 minutes while the entire FC drink service was prepared in a blue plastic galley cart insert. Drinks were then run <from> the blue plastic galley cart insert, which was trashy and awkward at best; at worst, the FA clearly had a hard time grabbing the full drinks out the holes and almost dropped a few. Probably why AA doesn’t want FA’s serving drinks from them?
After that, the coach FA went to the back and we were down to just one. All 15 dinners were prepared and put back into the meal cart, and eventually hand-run to the cabin all at once including the chocolate chip cookie, which had been completely burned. Bread basket came through afterward, followed by a tray of waters and refills of wine from the bottles.
I thought the dinner tray service was actually a more efficient way of doing things rather than the two-rows-at-a-time standard, except for the cookie on the tray and the initial drink service, which were both lazy and on par with the standard LAA disregard of PDBs. FA demeanor was good, with smiles all around and happy to take special requests when the meal service was done. Not much post-dinner drink attention.
Once again the diabetic meal was quite pleasing, with a piece of pan-seared salmon over rice with vegetables. A somewhat mediocre salad on the side, which was a first for my diabetic meal experiences, though it included real balsamic vinaigrette. I asked for real butter instead of using the whipped vegetable oil “Promise” included on the tray.
No pre-landing mints. This is about the tenth flight I haven’t seen these on. Are they not catered anymore?
***
Notes on the Max8: In one word, TIGHT. In two words: tight; cheap.
AA really went for pack-em, stack-em, and rack-em here. Even in first class there wasn’t much room, and it was amusing watching people squeeze and climb to get to the aisle to use the bathroom. I can’t even imagine what it must be like in back.
Virtually no under-seat storage, and non-articulating seats made me scared for my laptop screen when my front neighbor reclined. It’s difficult to imagine why AA didn’t spring for IFE; streaming AVOD worked extremely well for the first part of the fight and then took a complete dump by New York City. At least there were plugs.
Viasat Wifi, which at $7 for the flight was a bargain, is unfortunately part of an overall confusing and non-linear AA Wifi experience.
I guess I’ll forever be nostalgic on the BOS-MIA route from days gone by: big, roomy 757 Eisenhower seats in a “private” cabin, shrimp appetizers, and ice cream desserts. Hell, even FLL-BOS in a MD80 included an Ice cream sundae service from a three-tier cart in the aisle.
BOS-ORD/ORD-CDG on Tuesday.
Last edited by kszary; Dec 30, 2018 at 6:20 am
Dec 29, 2018, 11:02 pm
#1104
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Tucson, AZ
Programs: Hilton Diamond, AA Platinum, Marriott Gold
Posts: 100
I had the Island Surf and Turf on PHX-HNL earlier this year. It was a small filet with exactly ONE shrimp for the surf portion. I forget else what was with it, but it was very good and cooked decently for an airline steak. I wanted more shrimp! Taking the A330 flight or a 757?
Dec 30, 2018, 5:17 pm
#1105
Join Date: Dec 2018
Posts: 1
Substitute for beef?
Wife and I flying on CLT—>SFO and had preordered the usual beef filet. Upon receipt, it was not the usual dry AA filet but some sort of pot roast/boneless short ribs. And after polishing off the plate, I will never be going back to the AA standard beef. This dish was tender and incredible. Has anyone else seen this, or had this subbed in for the usual filet? This dish was up there with the best... very surprising.
Oddly enough, wife had ordered the southwestern lasagna and FA told us that had been changed last minute for the tortellini.
Oddly enough, wife had ordered the southwestern lasagna and FA told us that had been changed last minute for the tortellini.
Last edited by bassmstr2; Dec 30, 2018 at 5:24 pm Reason: Add picture
Dec 30, 2018, 5:39 pm
#1106
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: AA Executive Platinum/Million Miler, Marriott Titanium Elite-Lifetime, Hilton Gold
Posts: 3,198
I had the filet last week DCA-MIA. It too was fantastic, sauce, sides and all.
Dec 30, 2018, 6:44 pm
#1107
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2002
Location: NC
Programs: AAConciergeKey/1MM, DL DM/2 MM, UA Gold,Hilton Diamond, IHG Plat, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 11,967
I ordered an AVML on a PIT-DFW flight...wonder if it will be flying in from DFW?!
Dec 31, 2018, 12:20 pm
#1108
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: BOS
Programs: AAdvantage (Exec. Plat.)
Posts: 81
MIA-DCA, LUS A321, pre-ordered diabetic meal. First time I've seen shrimp on a diabetic meal -- great touch! Other options were asian chopped salad or hamburger (vomit-worthy end result).
Dec 31, 2018, 12:38 pm
#1109
Suspended
Join Date: May 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: DL Diamond, AAdvantage EXP, Hyatt Explorist, HHonors Diamond, Avis First
Posts: 7,344
Diabetic lunches out of LGA are not too good though IME.
Dec 31, 2018, 6:32 pm
#1110
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Central Mass
Programs: Independent
Posts: 4,829
AA 110 12/31/18
ORD-BOS
Chopped salad
romaine, penne pasta, blue cheese, pepperoncini and tomatoes with side of Italian seasoned grilled chicken
Wasn't bad, a little on the small side though. Chicken was obviously cold. I notice that the protein in the meal descriptions lately is really downplayed. We got a warm cookie afterwards, too.
ORD-BOS
Chopped salad
romaine, penne pasta, blue cheese, pepperoncini and tomatoes with side of Italian seasoned grilled chicken
Wasn't bad, a little on the small side though. Chicken was obviously cold. I notice that the protein in the meal descriptions lately is really downplayed. We got a warm cookie afterwards, too.
B]
See here for the 2019 domestic meal thread.[/B]
See here for the 2019 domestic meal thread.[/B]
Last edited by JDiver; Jan 2, 2019 at 10:37 am Reason: Insert moderator note