Food, glorious food! When flying up front, it is one of the highlights of a flight for me. Domestic first class in the USA often means you get barely anything whatsoever. Who loves the snack basket? Not me! I’m used to flying in Europe, where you get actual meals. Ain’t competition great?
On American Airlines, flights up to 900 miles in first class get the snack basket passed around. It is quite a shame that the distance between DEN and LAX is 862 miles, which means missing out on actual food.
AA1164 – Denver to Los Angeles (DEN-LAX)
31 January 2022
Airbus A319 – N746UW
Seat: First Class 1A
Departure: 16:33 Arrival: 18:10
Boarding was on time and as I was in Group 1, I was quickly on board and settled into my seat. The first class cabin – business class everywhere else around the world – consists of two rows of four seats.
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- The comfortable seats in row 2.
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- Leg room in row 1, note the cutout.
Once everyone was seated, the crew did the safety demonstration. After a quick enough taxi, it was a rolling take-off for us and we headed into the sky.
Domestic First Class “Meal”
Drinks orders were taken once in the sky and I opted for a Mimosa and a water. I find the sparkling wine on AA to be rotgut on its own, but it’s quite drinkable with juice in, so that is my go to.
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- I do like the glasses.
The crew came around with the snack basket, serving people from the back to the front. She was emphatic for everyone to, “take as much as you want, there’s plenty more”, and also said something indicating she wouldn’t be passing the basket around all the time. Fair enough!
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- It’s the famous snack basket!
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- My first class meal, very posh…! There are about 3 chips in here.
In the basket are crisps, trail mix, almonds, corn, and brownie brittle. On a previous flight I took two of everything from the basket and have since tried them all. Everything is very tasty, so no complaints there.
How About That Toilet?
Up front just by the cockpit door is a little room and inside there you will find the bathroom. There will be no bath there however, but you will find everything else useful.
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- Hello, my old friend!
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- This is a tired sink.
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- Flying in the USA often guarantees gorgeous views!
Flying along to LA, I was offered and accepted another Mimosa and found the service from the flight attendant very good. Eventually we descended and landed on time. I hotfooted it off to Terminal B for my connecting flight to London, my first time doing that walk.
Overall Thoughts
Look, the snack basket in domestic first class on American Airlines has been around for ages. Since all the airlines stateside seem to do it, it will be around for a long time. No use me bitching about it, but I do, as it cost me around US$250 for the flight. By comparison, this is what I had the next day on British Airways on a 280 mile flight.
Hell, if you really want to have a good cry, here’s the gorgeousness Swiss served on a 771 mile flight in 2020. Both of these flights are shorter than the AA flight here and nary a snack basket in sight. “But the seat!” I hear you cry. Seat schmeat. Give me great food any day of the week. Since I knew what I was getting into, the flight in American’s domestic first class with no food was fine.
What do you think of the snack basket and this experience? Have you had similar? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by BriYYZ via Wikimedia Commons.
Rather than be disappointed, I simply stop on my way to the gate and get a take away of my choice. Then I just ask for a beverage. F/C food/beverage service probably isn’t going to change until (a) mask requirements are stopped or (b) premium cabin passengers revolt or maybe a combo of both. I’ve been flying transcontinental of late and F&B is almost back to pre-pandemic levels in F/C.
Yes, I also flew a transcontinental and a transatlantic on this trip (reviews to come) and the on board service was fine. I don’t think someone should really have to buy food in the airport and bring it on board in first class though. Your point makes sense, but still, for the money they charge, there should be a meal on all services. This is not just an AA thing though, so I’m hardly singling them out. Thanks for the comment!
The food in british airways may be nicer, but the seats are shit. how are you going to seat someone in an economy seat with no legroom or recline and call that business class gimme a break.
Works for all of Europe. You should see the seats down the back of the BA aircraft, or those on Ryanair. A step up from a wooden bench. Thanks for the comment!
For flights of less than two or three hours, I would happily swap the “First” Class (aka big seat economy) that you get on US airlines, for the blocked middle seat you get on European airlines, and instead enjoy the decent food and lounge access that they provide. But, for longer flights, the big seat is very nice to have.
True, I think the extra space comes into play the longer the flight. You need it, you use it more and so on, so that’s a fair point all round that you’ve made there.
think you need to stop whining about EVERYTHING on your trip….maybe wait till your not jet lagged to write your review?
Hahaha! Say what now? Every other article about this trip has been either extremely positive (BA London to Dublin, the afternoon tea in their lounge), positive (the Oneworld lounge at Los Angeles), or half and half (the BA Club World flight, the negative really only being the breakfast and the one tray dinner service). Even this one is half and half, good crew service, terrible food selection. Anyway, thanks for reading – you’ll get another positive one soon when I review my Alaska Airlines flight, so keep an eye out for it!