08/18 PHX-DCA Full PDB
08/22 DCA-MSP Full PDB
08/22 MSP-PHX Water

Here's a wild story. This past Saturday, we got to ORD ten minutes after our connection was supposed to have left. We ran, at a real dead run, from the furthest G gate to a mid-K gate in under ten minutes. Even worse, I had to manage this feat pushing a luggage cart. (Yes, ORD has them.) We got to our departing gate maybe two minutes before its also delayed departing time, hot panting and shocked to see the door still open. They had held it for us (and for three other passengers from our flight who sauntered in ten full minutes after we did), which I didn't even think AA still did. Anyway, we boarded, still looking frazzled from the sprint, and the "F" flight attendant at the door said, "Welcome aboard."

I answered, "Just glad to be here. We just came from G-10 running all the way."

Then he said, "You look hot. Would you like some water? Where are you sitting?" Note here that F was already 100% fully boarded.

I said, "Row 14, and that would be truly wonderful!" A couple of minutes later, he brought each of us a water -- nice big water cups, and chilled to boot.

So that's a PDB in coach, right? And a held plane, too. Sometimes AA is actually pretty great, still. Sometimes.

I don’t typically share my PDB experience as it is usually wildly inconsistent. But this is a first. I got a PDB sitting in MCE before a 50 minute flight! In a E145!

It’s been a while since I have been pleasantly surprised by onboard service. Miracles do happen.

8/26 AA 2793 CLT-SEA A-321: Water only. I asked for something else, we had a slightly ground delay after all, and was refused.

Were you and/or catering delayed? Otherwise, "ah, my understanding is that open bar PDB is the service standard, let me just check that with AA using my flight number and seat assignment so they can pinpoint the service I was supposed to receive."

mixed bag on a recent trip:
04/08 AA1587 JFK-PHX Full PDB and further on the ground until flight returned to gate after 3 hours
05/08 JFK-PHX AA2262 - No PDB (6.30 am departure)
05/08 AA692 PHX-HNL - full PDB
18/08 AA298 HNL-LAX - No PDB
19/08 AA238 LAX-JFK - Standard transcon business PDB

I have been offered 3 times a PDB this summer on SWO-DFW flights on E145s. (Envoy). I board first (as the only Exec Plat in Stillwater OK, it seems) and after sitting (usually seat 3 or 4A) the flight attendant notices on the passenger list I am ExecPlat, welcomes me, thanks me for my loyalty, and asks if I would like "anything to drink" while everyone else is boarding. And they mean anything, which is fun, because most often in the sky they only serve water due to the short flight time. As much as I hate the plane (yeah, yeah, the A side is 'okay'), the service this last few months has been pretty good on those flights.

---
DFW-ORD
AA2412 August 20th. No PDB at all.
But worse than that, a CK in front of me (1C) had the loudest most obnoxious laugh and laughed out loud ihe entire flight while watching NBC sitcoms on his device. Like, holy eff dude. If you are on here, pipe it down.

I always deliberately make myself the last to board when flying E145s, since I have to valet-check my bag and I don’t relish the idea of sitting onboard those tiny planes any longer than necessary. So that I got a PDB as the last person to board still amazes me.

The FA even took preflight orders from the MCE section for what we wanted in the air. It was like sitting in a little 3-person F section! Honestly better than a lot of the service in F these days.

Mine was also Envoy; perhaps they are making a better effort than the other AE carriers.

Catering was delivered on time. We had a slight ground delay due to a nearby lightning strike that limited ramp activity so we had to wait for bags to be finished loading.

Had a full house on my recent trip cheating on my usual BA:

17/08 DUB-CLT usual water / OJ / fizz.
17/08 CLT-MSY mainline 738 open bar.
24/08 PVD-PHL Eagle CR7 open bar - plus many top ups in flight. A wonderful DAY based crew.
25/08 PHL-LHR usual water / OJ / fizz, though there was a rolling mx delay which lasted over two hours and the only top up was a bottle of water.

8/26 BWI-JFK Republic operating AA4570: No PDB despite pushing back nearly 15 minutes early. FA seemed pretty uninterested in doinh anything but the bare minimum.

8/26 JFK-LAX AA300: PDB followed by a pleasant service once airborne.

09/03. LAX-ORD on 2184 no PDB, but we offered two CC pitches!

AA5336 (PSA) IAD-CLT
9/3...first AA flight in a couple of months…been exclusively flying AS and UA.

Fantastic service by the CLT based crew. Only 4 people in First. PDB orders were taken as soon as I took my seat, but then she said she wasn’t going to be able to offer them because she was still waiting on ice. Ice was eventually delivered (in a Safeway bag!) once boarding was completed, and I didn’t think she was going to still offer them, but she still did and profusely apologized for the wait.

Not only did she do them, but she also offered cans of soda to the ground staff who were busy running up and down the jetbridge stairs with valet tagged bags.

Great service in the air. Drinks (with automatic doubles provided) were offered as soon as we hit 10K. She went back to help the Y FA with the cart but returned to offer refills, and offered “last minute requests” (as she referred to it) as we were descending into CLT.

I sent a compliment to AA after we landed. PSA service is consistently excellent IMO...no credit card pitches either.

Somehow I've managed to avoid credit card pitches on all but two flights this year.

Maybe FAs are realizing that they don't work and just piss people off.

I don't know where else to post this rant, but LAX-PHX today, there were PDB's in F, but absolutely no service of any kind for the entire flight in Y.