American Airlines Nailed Domestic First Class Breakfast In A Way Few Airlines Do

American Airlines has food in domestic first class. They have gotten past their belief that they wouldn't need to bring real meals back.

They put too many salads on a tray at times, but turkey pastrami is better.

American Airlines used to serve smoked salmon in their breakfasts on regional jets. It was a perfect meal to serve cold because the regional jets don't have ovens in the galleys. I thought it was a better choice than an egg dish with sausage.

I had a smoked salmon plate on my flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu. I was given a bagel, but there was no tomato. I have criticized American Airlines for failing to pay attention to the details, which is how they got themselves into trouble with their Oasis domestic configurations, they didn't even build a cabin mockup before rolling it out.

I was surprised and delighted and I have to give American credit for getting it right on the recent Austin flight. The vegetarian omelet or smoked salmon plate was the choice. The salmon plate was vastly improved.

There was a bagel, cream cheese, tomato, cucumber, sliced hardboiled egg, and chopped red onion. There was a bowl of fruit with this. I would have been happy with this meal on a premium transcon flight.

There is always room for improvement. It was not a really gourmet lox platter.

• It wasn’t the best New York bagel. Out of Austin, as this flight was, their caterer really should source from Rosen’s Bagels. And few bagels would stand up to a flight attendant over-heating it in the galley oven. Still, I give them credit, they’ve figured out what a bagel is!
• A plate for the bagel would have been nice. A flight attendant brought out the lox platter, sans bagel or cream cheese. I asked whether it came with this? And he mentioned it was still “heating in the oven.” The the bread basket came around and I selected a bagel. Of course there was nowhere to put it, or than… on top of the lox, or directly onto the tray. A plate for the bagel – indeed, just a bread plate! – would have been nice. The crewmember laid it down on top of the lox. Presentation matters.
• It wasn’t the highest quality salmon. I simply do not expect American Airlines to be purchasing smoked salmon at over $40 a pound, and again credit because they’ve figured out what smoked salmon is!

I hope this continues. It should be an option on flights. The US airlines do a poor job at breakfast. Sausage is not something I can look at and the eggs are not good. A cup of yogurt doesn't cut it. This option was lovely and American improved upon the last iteration I tried.

The August 2015 meal service at American was an improvement, not up to pre-merger standards, but a huge step forward after norming catering with US Airways in September 2014, which I later learned was supposed to be a short rib. The new meal service was supposed to start.

In general.

I am a frequent critic of American Airlines, but I was very impressed with their domestic service this week. I wrote about breakfast on the flight. I will talk about dinner on the way back. It was an improvement over what American Airlines was serving.

In airlines.

With the global Pandemic, airlines have looked to cut costs wherever they can, while saying the changes are driven by safety concerns. I reported last weekend that American Airlines started giving out fruit and cheese plates in domestic first class on flights over 900 miles.

In airlines.