ORD-BUF B737 No PDB….. but the flight attendant was able to eat her food before and after door closure.

YYZ - JFK - partial PDB (juice / water only), as it is "illegal to serve alcohol on the ground"

JFK - PIT - no PDB, but the FA managed to catch up on all of her social media

Please report the YYZ-JFK nonsense to AA. Lying is never acceptable.

This drives me absolutely nuts. I've seen it on both AA and UA.

Had a 2.5 hour flight ex-DFW last night on an A321 (with the large F cabin). Water for pre-departure and the FA brought everyone's beverage out on their meal tray. No mixed nuts.

On my last 4 flights in MCE where I can clearly see 1st, they got Pre-departure drinks.

ORD -TUL this afternoon full PDB. Great crew.

DCA-PHX. A321N no PDB

LIT-ORD and ORD-LIT this weekend full PDBs both way. Even better no credit card spiels.

PDBs beyond the water tray have been a mixed bag over the past three weeks. Granted, most of my flights have had hectic boarding situations (making up time, bag tetris in F). The FA on tonight’s ORD-EWR flight at least acknowledged the lack of a “custom” PDB via an announcement and was quick to perform the drink service when in the air.

Finally, yesterday -- PIT to CLT - full PDB.

Great older gentleman FA.
Full/oversold flight.

Last Saturday MIA/DCA OJ and water. Then we sat at the gate for 3 hours (flight was already an hour late) due to thunderstorms then waiting for fuel. FA refused to open the liquor cart claiming it was against policy. She struggled with the meal service. Finally as we were getting close to initial descent a FA from the back came out to finish serving meals.

DCA/CHS full PBDs then CHS/MIA (I was on a reroute) PDBs then we waited on the tarmac for 2 hours for takeoff clearance. Drinks and nuts served. Due to rough air FAs were not allowed to get up in flight.

Witnessed a lot of PDB being offered recently. I never get one, so can't comment on whether more was available if desired than presented.

CLT-MIA - Water and OJ
MIA-SAL - Full PDB offered
HOU-DFW (Eagle) - Full PDB offered
DFW-JAX - Water, OJ and prosecco (top notch service by the FA on this flight. Like truly world class :tu:)
JAX-CLT - Full PDB offered.
CLT- IAH - full PDB offered

I don't understand how this is possible. The stuff is pre-laid out on a tray.

It is certainly not against policy to serve liquor after gate departure yet while on the ground waiting for take-off. Maybe a few international locations restrict this. Years ago, flying from SLC this was true, and there was a time where pre-merger US had not paid its liquor duty to the state of New Mexico, so ABQ could not do PDBs. But these were rare, one-off problems.

The slowness in meal delivery is another problem altogether. Domestic First Class used to start with two FAs working the forward galley together. One served the drinks and nuts plus meal orders and delivery, the other prepped the cocktails and the meal trays. This meant that the meal was served to the whole cabin within an hour of take-off. Nowadays, especially with the 20-pax A321s, one solo FA tries to get this done sequentially, and row 5 is often not served until two hours after takeoff. These meal flights are often under three hours in duration. These flights should have four FAs, but it does seem nowadays that three serve only economy class during the entire flight.

June 2023:

PHL-MIA - A321 - Full PDB from one of the best AA flight attendants I've ever had on a flight (he got two Above and Beyond coupons)
MIA-PHL - A321 - Slightly delayed boarding so no PDB - in stark contrast to the way down, one of the worst AA flight attendants I've ever had on the way back (he was friendly enough, but so inefficient with his service and slooooooow - he finally got my first drink to me slightly after an hour after takeoff and my meal to me about 50 minutes before landing - and that was with TWO F/As working the F galley on this flight!)

My weekend experience:

AA1611 LAS - PHX 6/23 - water or OJ only
AA1573 PHX - FAT 6/23 - water only
AA1573 FAT - PHX 6/25 - full PDB offered and excellent service all round
AA365 PHX - LAS 6/25 - no PDB whatsoever due to late boarding caused by a missing FA.