Why Does American Airlines Serve A Meal On Some Flights?

american airlinesThe Michael W Travels family recently returned from a trip to Costa Rica.

Some background about our flights:

We flew roundtrip on American Airlines. Our flights were a bit inconvenient. We had to make a stop and spend a night in Dallas before getting to Costa Rica and in Philadelphia before returning home.

During our journey, I noticed something that didn’t really make much sense. Maybe one of you have an idea…

We flew from Dallas to San Jose, leaving at 3:00 PM, arriving at 7:03 PM. On the way home we left San Jose at 3:00 PM, arriving in Philadelphia at 8:45 PM.

Being that we left at 3:00 PM and would be arriving at or after dinner time, Kim and I wondered if there would be some sort of meal service although we didn’t really expect one. Our rational why there might be one was due to the fact that we were flying to an international destination.

Sure enough a meal was served on the way to Costa Rica. I got a sandwich, chips and a brownie and I’m pretty sure Kim had a salad with chicken. Nothing special but something is better than nothing.

This meal became even more important after Alamo almost ruined our trip. We arrived  at our hotel even later than expected and were lucky to find a supermarket to get a few things at just before it closed.

On the way home we had to fly to Philly. The flight left at the same time as it did on the way to Costa Rica and was around the same length of time. We arrived in Philadelphia even later due to the time difference.

Before getting on the flight, we had some food (I guess you could call it lunch) at a lounge we got access to with the Priority Pass. Kim and I assumed we’d have a snack/ meal during the flight similar to the one we had on the way to Costa Rica.

Soon after takeoff, they announced the beverage service but no mention of a meal! I think we got cookies with our drinks but nothing else!

This made me wonder why American Airlines served a meal on the way to Costa Rica but not on the way back?

Any ideas? Thanks!

2 thoughts on “Why Does American Airlines Serve A Meal On Some Flights?

  1. They serve a meal on the way to be competitive with foreign carriers but skip the way back to avoid having to double cater economy meals. Easy to do with first or business hard to do with coach . Not worth controacting catering at that kind of outstation

  2. I think it has to do with competition. AA serves meals where they compete with the Latin competitors – i.e. Latam and Avianca. I don’t know that any of those carriers fly to PHL.

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