American Airlines ditches wine list for First and Business class

Passengers have criticised the airline for scrapping its printed wine list in First- and Business-class cabins.

Following a change in policy, American Airlines passengers have complained about having to ask a flight attendant to relay wine information instead of being able to read the options from a wine list.

The printed food menu handed to travellers in First class and Business class now comes with an addition that says: ‘We invite you to engage with our flight attendants to learn more about the selection of wines available for your enjoyment.’”

Gary Leff, founder of aviation travel blog View From The Wing, commented: “Flight attendants, of course, have been given no extra training on the wines being offered. You can ask, and maybe they’ll show you the bottle.”

Commenters on aviation forum flyertalk also recounted a lack of knowledge of the wine product offering by American Airline flight attendants, with one member saying that on a flight from London Heathrow to Philadelphia passengers were told: “I don’t know anything about the wine, we have white and red and you can have your choice. And you have to decide now, before take-off, which one you want with your meal.”

Not a green decision

However, anyone thinking that American Airlines has scrapped the printed wine list for green-minded reasons, would be mistaken.

“This is a temporary change to the inflight dining experience while we transition beverage suppliers,” said a statement by the airline. “We look forward to bringing back the printed onboard menus in spring 2024.”

According to Leff, the wine offering from American Airlines is “shockingly bad”, and he is “not surprised they’re not putting it in writing.”

Leff also slammed the airline for failing to serve “a single Australian wine” on a flight route departing from Australia, which he said was a far cry from when American Airlines first restarted its Sydney service and poured Penfolds Grange in First Class.

One commenter on flyertalk said of the wine list switch-up: “I’m sure the big glossy menus were an expense they were looking to shed (and frankly I thought them a bit wasteful in terms of a high-quality item that just goes into a landfill) but a nice middle ground here would have been a lower end printed product more in line with what restaurants with frequently rotating menus do.”

Another flyertalk member, based in the Pacific Northwest, asked why American Airlines couldn’t offer the wine list digitally: “I am perfectly fine with a simpler and less fancy menu that has the same basic information. Heck – it’s 2023, save some trees, put it online and let me access it in the app inflight. Or put it on the IFE [in-flight entertainment].”

A third frequent flyer explained: “It seems like the reason for the lack of printed wine list is that AA’s catering can’t guarantee which wines will be loaded on which flights. A better airline would have handled this differently.”

In August 2023 American Airlines revealed it would be swapping Champagne for Italian sparkling wine Ferrari Brut Trento DOC for its Business class passengers.

However, many were quick to note that the wine should not be seen as a downgrade from Champagne, though some suggested it was a “shame” that American Airlines didn’t serve American sparkling wine rather than Italian bubbles.