On the same week that Delta announced new in-flight entertainment features allowing passengers to customize their service flow, American Airlines has quietly eliminated its second beverage service for domestic flights.
The news was first reported by aviation insider xJonNYC on X and BlueSky, noting that most flights over 1500 miles will now only receive one beverage service. Additional beverage services will be on request.
AA a new onboard service update. Domestically main cabin, now [most] flights over 1500 miles only get one beverage service. Anything else is “Beverage service on request”. That is to say the "arrival" service is eliminated and "on request"
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) January 9, 2025
At least I think that's the change
I reached out to some friends that are cabin crew at American and they indicated that the airline has not yet updated the service manual to reflect this change. At this point it is unclear when this will go into effect.
Service flow on flights under 1500 miles is expected to remain the same, with no service in Economy on flights under 250 miles and a single beverage service with a snack on flights between 250-1500 miles.
While it’s frustrating to see American make this change I can’t say that I’m surprised. The airline has been in a race to the bottom for the last few years and what was once a premium airline is now positioning itself to compete with the likes of Spirit and Frontier (no offense to them).
Though additional beverages are still available “on request”, the consistency with which this will be delivered is up in the air as you’re at the mercy of the cabin crew. I have had some absolutely fabulous crews on American flights over the years and some truly awful ones and my assumption is that the request could lead to mixed reactions from the crew.
As someone who rarely sleeps on planes, especially in Economy, I liked having the second service to break up a long flight. Right or wrong, I’m typically not a fan of using the call button and instead will head back to the galley to ask. I’ve found that they are typically more than willing to help in these instances as it minimizes disruption for them.
Summary
American Airlines is reportedly eliminating the second beverage service for Economy passengers on flights over 1500 miles. Additional beverages will be available upon request after the first service has been completed though this will likely be dependent on the crew. The change comes the same week that Delta announced massive upgrades to its passenger experience, highlighting the ever widening gap in the onboard product for two of the country’s largest carriers.
