American Airlines Lounge Food ‘Upgrade’: Full-Size Brats, Tiny Plates, Big Mess – View from the Wing

American Airlines has improved the food in its lounges, but still lags the offerings of Delta and United. “Me too, but less than” is a conscious strategy to “never spend a dollar more than we need to” in the words of their CEO.

On the one hand, I wish the food were better. On the other hand, the lack of good food is one reason that the lounges aren’t as crowded (except in some hubs like Charlotte, where club space is woefully undersized relative to the operation).

However, American takes other precautions to save money in its lounges, too. They want to make sure that customers eat less, or at least take less, in order to control food costs. And they do this with very small plates.

These plates are so small that it’s almost impossible not to make a mess. They don’t hold much food, and they don’t do a great job of holding it in. If you pick up food using tongs and place it in the plates, some items like salad invariably fall onto the ground.

Like Maslow’s hammer, food served in the Admirals Clubs doesn’t get paired with appropriate plates. They get the same plates (nails). A reader passes along,

[American Airlines Admirals Club in Charlotte] is now serving full size brats. But the plates aren’t any bigger and they don’t fit. This is the only size plate available in the club.

Awkward! At the most basic level, the purpose of a plate is:

• to hold food off a surface (table, lap, ground) and keep it from spilling or dropping while you’re eating.
• to keeps food grouped together instead of spreading everywhere. It lets you move food easily from the buffet area to your seat
• to create a barrier between food and dirty or unsanitary surfaces
• to provide a flat, often decorative space to arrange food attractively.

That’s the theory anyway! I suppose if the lack of proper plates for Admirals Club food is a stopper, you could always just limit yourself to the Snack Tower of Sadness.

Or, American could take seriously the idea of their premium pivot and invest in dishware, not just food.

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