Onboard a US Airways regional jet (though painted in the American Eagle livery), something caught my eye in the pre-departure beverage service.
It looks like American is using bigger plastic cups for their pre-departure and select in-flight service! For those of you in First Class, don’t worry. Your in-flight drinks are still in real glasses, and still with the etched American logo on the side.
I was always amused with the half sized cups, as I know many airlines use them. They barely hold a quarter can of soda, when combined with ice, and you can pretty much down one in a few seconds.
This is the first I’ve seen these larger cups aboard American, so I apologize to those of you that have noticed this before. For me, this is the flight that is allowing me to be Executive Platinum for the following year, so after 100,000 miles of flying, with a majority being on American mainline jets, and some US Airways, this is the first I’ve noticed this cool new feature.
Sure, it’s small, but it’s an earmark towards customer service, which I like. Plus, it requires less refills on the part of the flight attendant. 🙂
Has anyone else noticed this new feature?
Jamie Larounis is an avid traveler, blogger and miles/points educator. Traveling well over 100,000 miles a year and staying in hotels for over 100 nights, he leverages miles, points and other deals to fly in first class cabins, and stay in 5-star hotels. The Forward Cabin shares his experiences, musings, reviews, tips, tricks, resources and industry news with you, the fellow traveler.
i work for the US side of the AA GROUP. these cups have been used for years on our side of the house. the bigger cup came about in 1989 after the PI//US merger. PI gave out the whole can, but US did not. so, as a compromise, the larger cup began to appear onboard our aircraft. the larger AA cup is just a continuation of what the US side did, much to the delight of folks like you. and yes, we still have glassware in FC but the plastic is used for predeparture, when we can get to it, because there are times when we need to race to our jumpseats after picking up in FC. enjoy.
i’m a DCA based US FA, and the larger cups are a hold over from US. actually, the larger cups go back to the 1989 merger with PI. piedmont served a whole can. and, US for a while, adopted the procedure. however, it was not cost effective, and thus the larger cups came into being. if a passenger asks for a whole can, we give it to them. of course, the whole can is procedure on the ‘shuttle’ between the cities of LGA/DCA/BOS. glass ware is furnished in FC for the main beverage services, while the plastic is used for the predeparture service……….when we can get to it. it also helps having plastic for the ‘pre’ as it facilitates the clean up process before we take our jumpseats prior to takeoff. glad you noticed. enjoy.