American Airlines Wants To Stop Running Out Of Food In Coach—Preorder Starts Rolling Out October 13

American Airlines is bringing back the ability to reserve food in coach before your flight, so the sandwich or cheese plate doesn’t run out before flight attendants reach your row. Reservations open October 13 for a test starting October 20 on Dallas–Fort Worth to Los Angeles flights and gradually roll out additional markets over the next several months. This has been on my wish list for years. American has made a tremendous number of improvements over the past year and a half, including better food for sale on more (but still not enough) flights. A better set of options doesn’t help when there’s nothing left. How American’s Returning Coach Food Reservations Will Work It’s now called “reserved buy on board.” Customers on eligible flights will receive an email inviting them to reserve food through the American Airlines app or aa.com. Order between seven days and 20 hours before departure. The first reservations open October 13 for October 20 flights. Your selection is loaded specifically for the flight. American gets advance notice of what you want, instead of calculating how much food to stock. Payment is processed automatically when you receive the item onboard. There’s no refunds to deal with if it isn’t loaded, or change flights. Eligible top elites can reserve their complimentary food item. Executive Platinum and ConciergeKey members already receive a free buy on board item in coach. This ensures their choice is available. The test includes the following items. Prices are from American’s current onboard menu: Fruit and cheese plate: $13 Chicken ranch wrap with turkey bacon, rotini chipotle salad and a cinnamon churro bar: $14 Inflight Bites snack box: $10 Doritos Minis Cool Ranch: $6 Nuts on Clark roasted salted mixed nuts: $11 BoomChickaPop sweet and salty kettle corn: $5 American’s vice president of culinary strategy and operations Raphael Girardoni says they’ve been working on this for about a year, including testing how customers make their selections. Dallas and Los Angeles offer a large market for feedback, and both airports use Sky Chefs. They expect to add markets about a month after the test begins. The goal is to reach the domestic network’s eligible flights by the end of the first quarter of 2027, eventually offering reservations everywhere they sell food. American Had This Before—And I’ve Wanted It Back American pioneered meal preorders among U.S. airlines in first class back in October 2012, nearly 14 years ago. You could choose your meal before departure and avoid having your first choice run out. In January 2018 I wrote about their coach preorder trial on Dallas flights to New York LaGuardia, Philadelphia and Seattle. You reserved your food at least 24 hours before departure and paid onboard. It was crucial because American wasn’t loading enough food. I’d gotten the last chicken wrap sitting in row 14. The passenger across from me wanted one and couldn’t get it. Anyone farther back wanting that wrap was out of luck. That was before the pandemic. We’ve been waiting a long time to get this back. On September 24, I covered the coming ability for Executive Platinum and ConciergeKey members to reserve their free coach snack. I wanted American to restore the option for everyone purchasing food, too. Now we have a launch date and a plan for doing that. As an Executive Platinum member, I especially appreciate this since upgrades basically don’t ever clear, with empty first class seats sold for tens of dollars to once a year flyers. At least this will help deliver more consistently on a consolation prize for longer flights and it helps a lot on the tight connections in Phoenix and Charlotte. Better Food, On More Flights, That You Can Actually Get American lowered the buy on board distance threshold from 1,300 miles to 1,100 miles in June 2025. They’ve worked on the food itself, too. The awful steak sandwich gave way to a turkey wrap I actually liked, followed by this year’s refreshed snack box, cheese plate and other offerings. They’ve also improved the coffee with Lavazza and started rolling out better complimentary coach snacks. That’s real attention being paid to the experience where most passengers sit, along with the upcoming installation of Starlink wifi. Preorders should help American sell more food while wasting less. Loading too few sandwiches loses sales. Loading too many means throwing them away. Asking customers what they want gives the airline information it can use to get that balance closer to right. And there’s a cost to repeatedly running out that won’t show up in an individual flight’s food sales. Customers learn not to count on you. Girardoni also wants to expand into more sandwiches, salads and fresh bowls. The north star ought to be their partner Alaska’s food for sale operation. I really think American should be offering food on shorter flights. United sells snacks on flights as short as 500 miles, and Alaska offers food on most flights of 775 miles or more, with advance reservations. American’s 1,100-mile threshold is simply too high. Pre-orders simply would have made sense on my delayed afternoon Charlotte–Austin flight last week, scheduled for three hours but only 1,032 miles and actual time from initial boarding was much longer than that. I’d like food for sale on long American Eagle flights, and it’s time to bring back real meal trays in first class on those regional flights too. Topics on this page