rpjepson

I have just flown, for the fourth time, in PE. On each occasion, I have pre-ordered food. I'm not one for eating my vegetables, so always click on what usually seems to be the chicken option.

Without exception, on each of the four flights taken I have been handed a vegetarian meal. Each FA has shown me their pad, which says I asked for such.

I can't discount the third possibility here (complete ineptitude on my part) but has anyone else encountered this? I was mildly horrified when something containing corn appeared earlier today.....

USFlyerUS

What specifically did you pre-order? I had the same thing happen in business when I ordered the "pasta", yet I wasn't given the same meal as everyone else who didn't pre-order.

econometrics

I haven't been in PE yet, but do they come and confirm that you pre-ordered a certain meal before take off, like they do in J?

Strange.

thunderlounge

That is strange. Sounds like AA is still working out the kinks of providing the new cabin (staffing, pre-orders for meals, etc.)

brobab

Similar experience here. I have been ordering the diabetic meal - trying to get a low carb/high protein meal. One flight it was grilled chicken on top of hummus - perfect. The next time it was chicken on top of noodles. One time at random it was a completely inedible grilled cauliflower salad - great idea, horrible execution. Last week pasta - the antithesis of low carb. I have gone back to just picking the chicken or the fruit plate.

sluggoaafa

If you don't specify (Chicken/Beef/Seafood/Pasta...etc.) often times people will select an "alternate" option which to FAs means you are requesting the pasta type dish.

Be specific in what you would like to pre-order. I've learned through many trial-and-errors that the pax will get very upset when I say: "I see you pre-ordered the pasta for tonight, we do have that option for you"....80% of the time, they ordered a 'chicken alternate....or beef alternate'...which is very confusing on the final paperwork.

I have since learned to look over the pre-ordered meals, and if I see an "ALT" meal listed, I'll go to that person and double check what it is they actually ordered.

FlyingEgghead

If I am choosing from a prepopulated list of meal options on the website, how is it possible to do a better job of "being specific"? Either I click one or I don't.

Or do you mean, be specific (on board) regarding what I did (intend to) pre-order?

I'm not familiar with "alternate" -- that doesn't seem to be a customer-facing term. Generally preorder offers 2-4 regular options (at least one of which is vegetarian) and N special meal options (which we assume translate to M actual distinct meals where M < N).

rpjepson

To answer the earlier question, I ordered whatever the meat-based dish was each time. There have only ever been two options avialable - either chicken / beef dish, and then a pasta-based one.

On a related note, is the second meal PE specific? You don't get a choice, but it appears more extensive than the Y sandwich etc you'd normally get. It is also different from the C meal, which this last flight appeared to be a bbq sandwich or a salad.
In ​​​​​PE, it was a "burrito bowl."

arlflyer

This is what I was wondering - I know that on a lot of int'l carriers, PE entrees are the same as J. Is that not the case with AA? Because if it were, that would be the easy hypothesis - that they gave away your PE pre-orders to J pax.

pdcarg77

I did a few runs on PE just recently.
There have always been 2 options to pre-order: a "protein/meat" based dish (beef, chicken, fish), and a "vegetarian" option (usually a pasta of some sort).
On my latest flight (DFW/EZE) I pre-ordered the pasta and, on boarding, switched seats with someone else to allow her to fly with her partner.
When they were serving dinner, I told them I preordered the "vegetarian" option.. meaning the pasta.. and when they passed on the tray with something which was not the pasta on the menu (I think it was rice.. or something like that..), it turned out that this meal was for someone else who specifically chose the "vegetarian/vegan meal" from the Special Meal menu.
In the end I got what I preordered.. some cheese ravioli.. similar style to what you would get on domestic F or mid-haul international J.
By the way, every single time, the preordered meals were "allocated" first and, whatever options were left, offered to the remaining passengers.

pdcarg77

Meals on AA's PE seem to be a category of its own, since they are not similar to those on J (travel J or PE on some routes quite often, so pretty much know what you are getting on either.. and they are not the same).
Besides china used for serving is different in size/shape (J entree's china will probably not fit the PE tray layout).

arlflyer

OK, thanks for the info on that - I haven't followed PE on AA too closely.

Interesting that they find it more effective from a cost and operational perspective to cater an additional type of slop for the PE seats instead of just leveraging existing economies of scale and adding more of the J entrees...