[hhansell2003]

Dear Forum, We just returned from a trip to Venezuela to attend my mother-in-law's funeral. On the way back we connected to Philadelphia through San Juan. I was seated in seat # 27F by the window. American Airlines advertises that they have food for sale. The plane left at about 6 PM from San Juan. 2 hours into the flight, I asked the flight attendant about dinner. He apparently neglected to tell the rest of us in the back of the plane that they ran out of the meals for purchase. This was a 3 hour and 38 minute flight right through dinnertime and we had no time to eat in San Juan as we had to dash to make our plane due to another late arrival by aa. My advice is to plan a longer layover if you are connecting in aa's hubs so you can eat. We had no such luxury and I had no dinner. The flight attendant offered to me for consolation a drink and a "complimentary chocolate chip cookie. American Airlines knew how many passengers were booked on that plane and yet neglected to stock the plane with food. I find this unacceptable and will try to avoid American in the future. A word to the wise.

[wkharris2001]

I'm assuming they only stock so much food to prevent the dinners from going bad. what probably happened is that they sold more dinners than they were anticipating. I know that's no excuse, but with the way things are these days. every penny counts. so they'd rather run out of dinners than have to throw dinners that they didn't sell away. if you've ever gone to a restaraunt the day before they get their truck, the same concept they'll be out of a few things waiting for fresh to come in the next day.

[garrettrmsy]

Agreed, every penny counts. Passengers of American Airlines are paying the jacked up price, which normally is higher than other airlines (i've noticed) and receiving less amenities than other airlines. It blows my mind how awful American Airlines is. As I look through these threads, I keep thinking to myself, "oh, its probably just that person's flight ." In reality it is every flight that I have ever been on while paying for the terrible seats, lousy service and an overall terrible experience.
As for the person who keeps responding to the posts in a "let's figure out why this happened together" way, you obviously work for American Airlines because you are a typical excuse making, uneducated high school dropout made to read these posts, make excuses for why a flight was late, and make it look like you are actually a satisfied customer. Nice try but make it look a little better, okay?

[wkharris2001]

ummm if you were speaking of me being a highschool drop out?? no i graduated highschool thank you very much, as far as making excuses? no there is no excuse for crappy service, but yeah **** happens and we're all human and flights do go out late and come in late and it happens, it's part of the industry. as far as working for american airlines, no I don't work for american airlines but if you read right below my name it does say i am an airline employee. so yes i am a little bit more educated as to how the airlines run.

[Leatherboy2006]

My problem with Hhansell2003 is well it is unfortunite that they ran out of meals, the flight attendant did go out of their way to offer a free drink and free cookie which was probably all she/he had left. They did not even have to do this and they were probably just upset about not having enought meals for everyone that wanted one, so at least give the flight attendant some credit for trying to assist in this matter and not I am not a airline employee but have a lot of friends here in Dallas who are and yes I have a high school AND college degrees

[hhansell2003]

Hi all. I think it is pathetic that one would say this flight attendant went out of his way. I had to bitterly complain to get any response. The lack of regret or apology in his attitude is pathetic. The fact that they neglect to tell you they ran out of food is pathetic especially during mealtime on an almost four hour flight. I know your friends depend on American for their livelihood and I have empathy for that. I just don't think you can defend a flight attendant when you were not there. I still find this treatment unexcusable and will at all cost avoid american airlines in the future.

[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

I won't deny that you probably felt very miserable when you arrived in San Juan. Further, as far as I know, Puerto Rico has few, if any, "all night" eating places.

BUT, if no food on the plane was the ONLY problem I would chalk that up to a GREAT flight, especially considering you traveled with American. If the flight attendants, or gate agents, don't threaten you with arrest; you arrive at your destination within an hour of the scheduled time, and all of your baggage arrives at the carosel within 30 minutes of arrival, THAT, in my judgement, is a great flight. Also, I would say this same thing to anyone who travels in first class on any of the "legacy" airlines.

The on-board service provided by Southwest and American is about the same. Except, that Southwest is, a lot, more honest, and, you're not subjected to a nasty, or power-drunk, attitude.

Next to to Puerto Rico: Go out of your way, and use Air Tran. Food service on Air Tran is very predictable---there isn't any!

[BigK]

AA054, 25th October 2011. ORD to MAN
Would you believe this aircraft ran out of HOT water at breakfast toward the end of a transatlantic flight?

Plenty of COLD water but no means of heating it to make coffee? Really????

Maybe they were running out of fuel?

And throughout the flight an older female flight attendant was up and down the aisle, blowing bubble gum till it spattered all over her face whereupon she scooped it back into her mouth and chewed it some more. This happened several times. Quite disgusting!