Abyssmal food on board
 

I thought long and hard about starting this thread. I decided I wanted to ...../voice my opinion. Traveled on AA from LHR to LAX in F recently. The service on board was great. Friendly staff and attentive to my needs. Just what one hopes for when traveling. The food however in the BA club in T3 and on board was TERRIBLE. Inside the club, I had a choice of prepacked Tuna fish or some other unrecognizable food. I fully understand the need to keep people's including my own grubby hands from touching food. So if you're going to do that, give me a menu to order food from. On board, FC passengers were given the same food choices as those in Biz Class. The exact same menu. Not right IMHO. Then for midflight snacks, the choices were worse than a vending machine. In fact if I could monetize it, I'd contract with AA to put fresh vending machines on board. No fruit. No cookies. No sandwiches of any kind. No cheeses. No cookies. I wondered if mid flight they didn't change the paint on the plane to read SPIRIT airlines.

I understand that we are in a pandemic, but on our outbound flight on IBERIA we had many more choices and much better quality food. Why has AA sunk to the lowest level of food service?

While I have nothing to add....I subscribed to this thread just out of pure curiosity for what is to come.. :tu:

I actually was very happy with the food on LHR-DFW last week. Surprisingly good.

The outbound (MIA-LHR) was barely edible slop.

I took home my food in a doggie back to test its half-life, PM and I'll be happy to ship it to you.

It's "health and safety" camouflage. American just simply wants to cut any corner they can to squeeze any amount of profit. What's sad though, is passengers would almost certainly stomach the additional $XX on a ticket if it meant better quality food and snacks. COVID has been nothing more than a crutch for domestic carriers to worsen an already inferior product. And then pretend it's for YOUR benefit.

Really? I mean other than FTers, I'd say the market has spoken time and time again that people will go for the cheapest ticket, no matter what. I would agree this is less the case for business class travel, but becoming more so by the day for companies who are even starting to consider ALLOWING their employees to travel for business again, unfortunately.

i would pay extra, but I doubt that most people would. For leisure travelers, even people who can afford a higher price will only pay extra if they actually know the food - or seat or whatever differentiation matters to them - is better. Most people (outside of FT) don’t do their homework and even mass advertising may not work if competitors do similar advertising to obscure the differentiation. And even if they are aware of the differentiation it may not be that important to everyone - Southwest is doing just fine without meals. Finally, many business travelers are inhibited by travel policies that prioritize price over everything else.

whats so odd is the LHR lounge situation.

with no BA flights out of T3, but the BA lounge open, it smells of AA cost cutting because that is not the same BA T5 lounge experience which is online order from a limited menu. why AA did not open their lounge is odd if they were the only one of the two to operate flights from T3 but imagine it would be cheaper to use BA given they already were staffing across T5, and AA chose the "lounge lite" package that BA offered which is like the normal set up but more akin to holding the wedding in the backyard. much much cheaper.

Even pre CoVid AA's food was barely edible (especially when originating the US).

Undoubtedly there *is* this market. Full stop. You are right. And perhaps they make up the majority of air travel.

But I would argue there's still a decent sum of people who book air travel in 2021 knowing full well they will bill it to a company or employer and get reimbursed for their expenses. Especially in first or Economy plus. I fall into the this category. Luckily, I'm fortunate enough to have a job which allows me to book my own economy travel (within reason). So staying loyal to an airline (in this case AA) means I can expense any travel at par pricing to said client and have the latitude in the price. E.g. I can tell the client(s): this is what American costs, and this is what you're getting billed. Here's the receipt to prove it's what it actually cost. No negotiations. I can't imagine I'm alone.

But that said, even if it were my own money. If the difference between edible food and throw-up between two buns (which is the most recent F cabin sandwich offering) is $20? or even $50? and I'm footing the bill, I'd rather spend my own dime to get a better offering. Either way, I'm going to spend it. Whether that's buying overpriced food at the airport snack shack or doing it in the air. It's a sunk cost. May as well save the hassle in the terminal.

As mentioned by a poster above, the LHR T3 situation is down to AA not providing an enhanced lounge offering for their F pax.

I’m surprised that the BA lounge in T3 isn’t following the QR code menu system they use in T5. The post-Covid lounge offering in T5 has been almost universally praised.

Well to be fair, Southwest is doing just fine without meals because they're actually providing a superior product over the likes of AA (just sad....) in Y. WN has 31" pitch on board, two free bags at 50lbs each, free carry-on, free seat selection (when you get on the plane anyway - you pick any open seat and sit down) and no change fees across the board on all tickets, even the $80 midcon. They also don't advertise on third party websites which kind of shields them from price comparison sites, and there's definitely a segment of travelers that is maniacal about them (my sister says she'll sooner FedEx herself than fly AA for ex lol). As for corporate travel policies, for as long as I'm booking my own travel, there's a lot of flex in those policies - mine says 'best nonstop fare' (whatever that means - I assume it means don't take a 7 hour connection to save $50 :rolleyes: - and no one's going to bat an eye unless I book a $700 fare from DFW to IAH going via LHR for ex) and I know for a fact that most of my coworkers fly their favorite carrier anyway.

For international flights I make it a general rule to almost never fly US carriers, unless they're offering an absolute bargain basement fare that makes it sensible for me to buy up to a better seat etc.

I gotta say, the best food I've had on a plane was on OZ and SQ, though OZ has gone significantly downhill since 2018 when they changed caterers. And QR was the only carrier that was willing to go to the Business class galley to get me champagne with dinner when I asked for it when I was in Y.

I think it's clear that the T3 BA lounge is only open at the request of AA, in which case AA is likely footing the bill, in which case, you won't see BA's "higher end" offerings. AA has become a truly pathetic airline when it comes to premium service. The absolute bottom of the heap.

I would happily pay a $25 surcharge (maybe even more) for a pre-ordered 1970s-era Transatlantic First Class Meal on an overseas flight. But I know this kind of surcharge is anathema to many on FT and the carriers won't do it because of the costly logistics.

I generally agree with your point that the market has spoken. However, we're talking about F on a three class aircraft. Such passengers have already decided to pay a premium (except in cases of pricing anomalies) or apply an upgrade instrument. I tend to think that these folks would actually pay a little bit more for a better experience....on the occasions that I choose to fly F versus J I know I would.