Mac & Cheese With Mozzarella Balls? The Baffling Meal I Was Served In American Airlines First Class – View from the Wing

Just when I wrote off upgrades, suggesting that buying them at a discount for $40 was the way, my luck with them seems to have turned around. I’ve cleared on three of my last four segments. We’ll see how the rest of the week goes.

On my trip this week, buy up offers in the American Airlines app and on their website were super expensive. And the prices jumped around! For instance, one segment started out at $442 and dropped to $97, while another went from $247 to around $500 to more than $600.

I assume if American will only sell an upgrade for an additional $600 on a flight that’s less than 1,000 miles they are confident in not giving it away and I’ll keep my exit row aisle.

On an otherwise uneventful flight from Dallas – Fort Worth to Washington’s National airport, the woman in the aisle seat next to me was on her third bloody mary. Shortly before landing a flight attendant came around to collect drinks and other service items. So this passenger held up her finger as if to ask for a moment – and then chugged her vodka and bloody mary mix. The flight attendant visibly cringed and said, “you really didn’t have to do that…”

I drank only water but I did try the chicken parmesan. My upgrade cleared right at 24 hours out, and I wasn’t able to pre-order. But this was an interesting selection and mostly I wanted to taste it.

Now, it’s chicken parmesan with macaroni and cheese, so naturally the side American Airlines selected for it was mozzarella balls.

American Airlines is still offering cardboard box meals on their regional jets, instead of returning to pre-pandemic plated meals. And they frequently overload on salad – my record is three different salads on a single tray domestically. But even massively overcooked, the chicken was tasty!

They just could do with paying more attention to the details of what items pair well with each other in the same meal. That’s their weakness. I see American Airlines ads constantly on social media, “American Airlines checks all the right boxes to get you there,” but sometimes the lack of attention to detail in customer experience reminds me precisely of box checking.

Even if they don’t spend more money, they could put better thought into meal planning. Overall their meals beat Delta (a low bar) but a bit more care here would go a long way.