I had an interesting experience on a recent flight on American Airlines. I have found that most of my domestic award flights recently have been using American Airlines AAdvantage miles, since I am getting outstanding value from my miles
(SEE ALSO: Easily Getting 3 Cents Per American Airlines AAdvantage Mile)
I recently traveled on an open-jaw flight from Cincinnati to Houston and then from Atlanta to Cincinnati. Both times I connected through Charlotte
A Bumpy Regional Flight
There were no issues with the beverage service on my outbound flights, though my initial Cincinnati to Charlotte leg was delayed a bit taking off. This wasn’t a huge deal for me as I just spent time in the Escape Lounge CVG. But it did make my tight connection even tighter, and I had to sprint through the Charlotte airport since we arrived at the end of the E concourse and had to make it to the end of the B concourse in ~20 minutes.
On my way back, I was flying American again, this time from Atlanta to Charlotte. That’s a pretty short flight (only around 40 minutes actually in the air) and it was a bit bumpy, so the pilot made an announcement that there wouldn’t be time to do beverage service. No problem – I understand that sometimes this happens, especially on shorter flights and it’s not a big deal to not get a can of soda and a Biscoff.
But then on my 2nd American flight of the day (from Charlotte to Cincinnati), there was again no beverage service, despite this being a longer flight and there not being any noticeable turbulence. There was also no announcement about beverage service being suspended.
American Airlines Flight Attendants Contract
I didn’t think much about it at first. Like I mentioned, it’s really not a big deal for me to not have beverage service on a flight, but it IS something that I notice. But then I read a few articles over at View from the Wing and Live and Let’s Fly about AA flight attendants not doing pre-departure beverages in protest of not having a contract. Again, those are talking about serving pre-departure beverages, not the regular main beverage service. I was also not 100% sure if this was a regional jet operated by one of the feeder airlines (Republic, Mesa, etc) and if so, if those flight attendants were covered by the same AA union contract.
I am not a labor relations lawyers, but as I understand it, not doing beverage service because of being upset about the contract would be an illegal work action. But certainly I could see scenarios where they SAY it’s because it’s a “short flight” or there is “turbulence” but really it’s because they’re upset about the contract.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day, I don’t know exactly what happened and to me at least, it’s not a big deal. I’m really not upset about the lack of beverage service, though it would have been nice if that was the case to get an announcement about the reason why. I know many AA flight attendants are upset about their lack of a contract, and I can sympathize with their position.
What do you make of this beverage service debacle? Leave your thoughts in the comments below
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
MIA/Tpa they said it was too bumpy, however it was a smooth flight.
There were notes about catering issues at PHL and CLT and that crews were instructed not to wait if drinks weren’t loaded. Some flights less than 900 miles were only loaded with water, juice, and coffee/tea. Perhaps your CVT-CVG flight had no drinks loaded?
Hmm that is possible. Again, it’s not so much the lack of a beverage service (I get it, sometimes that happens), but just a lack of notice. If there had been an announcement saying something like “Our apologies but we didn’t have any beverages loaded, so there won’t be any service”, I’d have understood.
But when the flight is smooth, and there is no beverage service, the IMPRESSION that is given (fairly deserved or not) is that the flight attendants are just sitting around doing nothing
Take out your headphones. Listen for announcements- if still unsure, RING YOUR CALL LIGHT AND ASK!
BTW, regional AA have AFA not APFA. Do some research before writing an article. It’s the responsible thing to do.
I don’t wear headphones but thanks
What makes me question this no-beverage service concept is that it’s not too bumpy for selling airlines’ credit cards. I’ve been on multiple flights when a pilot says it’s too bumpy for beverage service, but the moment it’s time to pitch credit cards, they are all in the aisles.
Thankfully at least I didn’t have any of that!
Well said!
On nearly 40 AA flights so far this year, coach has probably had a beverage service 20% of the time and First maybe 75%.
Interesting – that hasn’t been my experience, but those numbers point to me that the flight attendants are intentionally not doing it as a form of protest against the lack of contract
The best one was a DFW-CLT flight in First where the Captain said there could be some bumps at points along the way… the F/A who was in the aisle taking dinner orders said loudly “Let’s see if I even serve dinner tonight!!” And he didn’t. When I complained, AA wrote back that 1.) meals aren’t guaranteed no matter what is advertised, and 2.) safety safety safety.
Sheesh. I could certainly see some scenarios where the flight attendants talk to the pilots and say “Hmmm don’t you think it’s going to be really bumpy today? (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)”
Exaggerate much?!
“Attention ladies and gentlemen. Due to our childish antics over our contract, we’ve decided to screw you, our customers. Thanks for flying American.”
I mean without any other type of announcement, that’s basically the announcement that is playing in my head…
Flight AA2817 LGA to ORD no beverage service, also couldn’t clearly understand why.
It’s really not worth being called in for not doing one’s job. AA has a stupid point system, so no one is going to risk their job over a beverage service.
You might want to look into the caterers that are in a 30 day cooling off period. If you were so concerned over a missed beverage this time? Bring a large bottle if the caterers go on strike!
If you mentioned turbulence why would there be a doubt if it was something else?? This article seems inflammatory & there must be a slow news day if you decided to write this “think piece.” Imagine thinking your Diet Coke & biscoff are that important in comparison to the safety of the working crew & the fellow passengers.
There was turbulence on the first flight (ATL-CLT) and an announcement that due to turbulence there would be no beverage service. Fine.
The issue was with the 2nd (longer) flight from CLT-CVG where there was no turbulence, no announcement and no beverage service.
(Also, I prefer Coke Zero 😀 )
American Airlines does not have a scheduled beverage service in the coach cabin ATL-CLT or CLT-ATL. Also FAs have been instructed not to wait for catering so that is most likely the issue with the other flight.
Dan, you seem like a nice guy and I have been enjoying reading your blog (though you may want to change the word “occasionally” when sharing the Kickstarters, because you do share them often, but that is TOTALLY OKAY; it’s your blog).
But please do not be influenced by clickbait Boarding Area writers, Matthew and Gary. Those two are educated men who manage to use case studies to generalize to an entire population for clicks. In the same time period as these posts appeared, I also have flown AA First, and on short flights too, including MCI-ORD, and even as pax were boarding I was offered a beverage. So many variables play in.
Frankly, the obsession over PDB with all the posters and bloggers is baffling to me. Sure, not getting a meal on a long flight could be problematic, or being denied a drink if you need medicine or are dehydrated, but this has become the most whiny and petty thing. People have some isolated experiences over not getting a drink on a flight when they think they should have one, and suddenly the whole airline sucks. I am not talking to you specifically, as you ASKED us what we thought. I think it’s fuel to fire and people writing clickbait like Gary and Matthew are stoking it. I used to read Gary daily–for years actually. I finally just stopped last year. But Matthew being in Boarding Area means he is always “H/T View from the Wing” and while it’s his right, it’s either the latest naked psycho in Miami or why everyone should support Israel and all Palestine is connected to Hamas (both of them–but of course, we should learn about ALL the other nations and cultures!). Pleasure just stay Dan.