A welcome change for many American flyers, the previous “lite bites” basket in First Class has since been replaced with plated dishes, similar to the pre- September 1 era, prior to them overhauling their meal service.
I reviewed several of the sandwiches like the Turkey, Swiss & Honey Mustard Pretzel Pistolet and the Arugula Pesto and Roasted Tomato Rosemary Square. I was never a fan of any of these, since they had a processed look and taste to them.
Moving away from these unappealing options, American introduced several new options that would be on hand during snack eligible flights:
- Fruit & cheese including grapes, cheese slices, and crackers
- Spinach dip and pita bread
- Charcuterie plate including salami, mozzarella ball, olives, and pita bread
- Hummus and pita bread
- Spinach and hummus dip with pita bread
On a flight from Chicago to Dallas, I was offered a choice of the fruit & cheese plate, or the spinach and hummus dip plate. I choice the spinach and hummus option, which was presented in the new ramekin bowl, with silverware on the side.
Both dips were rather tasty, and actually plentiful with the amount of pitas that were included. In fact, I wish there was a few more pitas included to “use up” the remainder of the dips.
The fruit and cheese option looked delicious as well, and I recently was offered an identical version on a flight from Chicago to London.
Both snacks were served as is, without being on a tray, which, in my opinion, was the one thing lacking with the service – but only to make the flight attendant’s job easier. It seemed like it would be much more efficient to collect up a tray, vs. the individual plates, silverware and napkin, though I understand that some flights have in fact received trays, so I’m not sure of the reasoning behind what goes where.
These new snacks are not pre-9/1, however are much better than the snack baskets previously passed around, so take these improvements with whatever their worth. I like the new options, and am looking forward to trying some of the other versions as well.
Have you experienced American’s new plated snack option on domestic flights? What did you think?
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.
When you refer…twice…to “pre 9/1”, what do you mean? Did you intend to write 9/11 rather than 9/1?
I have mentioned in earlier comments that you blogs are sometimes helpful yet at other times simply annoying. Not that many people can get too excited about the snacks in 1st Class on American Airlines going to Chicago! Just sayin’
On 9/1/14, AA fully changed their meal service. They changed the food offerings, dishware, times of service, etc.
Carl. I think I can address your question. On 01 SEP 2014, AA “aligned” some of the fc snack items to match those of US. On 01 MAY, the service across both carriers aligned to the new snack option. What bothers me the most with this new snack option is the lack of chiller carts on some of the US operated 319/320’s. These are not chiller equipped and are the among some of the OLDEST Airbus aircraft flying. These “bare bones” planes came from AMERICA WEST ( are you surprised? ). The carts on these planes are supposed to have the snacks chilled by dry ice. It fails. BIG TIME! I saw snacks last week coming from New Orleans that were round tripped from DCA that looked sad at best. The cheese was warped and slick, the fruit, even worse. And would not even attempt to touch the dip. So the airline has used social media to drive this offering, removing a shelf stable product for a perishable one. Most were not provided with flat ware either as the learning curve has not caught on yet. Good luck. Enjoy the snack without chilling. And small trays Jamie? Don’t hold your breath.
Do you know what company/brand the spinach dip is?