To make travel more consistent between US Airways and American Airlines (AAL), the combined airline is ditching meals in first class on flights under three hours. For the airlines, “consistency” is a nice way of saying that this change should save the world’s largest airline some money. For first-class passengers, it means snacks.
The snacks-only regime begins on Sept. 1. For flights under an hour, the snack will be packaged. For those running from one to two hours, the snack will come in a basket. For flights up to 2 hours and 45 minutes, the snack basket will be enhanced with fruit, breads, or sandwiches and other packaged snacks. “We’re preserving signature elements that have set apart American’s meal service, like our popular warm mixed nuts on meal flights, warm cookies and premium desserts,” American said in an e-mail on Monday to customers.