American Airlines is refreshing its complimentary economy class snacks this fall, replacing its longstanding pretzel or Biscoff selection with a broader lineup that includes Goldfish, Tate’s Bake Shop chocolate chip cookies, and Peterson’s savory and sweet snack mix.
American Airlines Is Finally Improving Its Complimentary Economy Class Snacks
American Airlines has announced a refresh of its complimentary Main Cabin snack lineup, beginning on select flights in early October.
The new setup is pretty straightforward.
- On morning flights, passengers will be offered a choice of Biscoff cookies or Goldfish
- Later in the day, the choices will be Goldfish, Tate’s Bake Shop chocolate chip cookies, or Peterson’s savory and sweet snack mix
That replaces the rather limited status quo of Biscoff cookies or AA-branded pretzels and it’s another step in the right direction from AA.
American Airlines Adds More Choice To Economy Class Snack Service
American says the change was driven by customer feedback and testing, with the goal of offering more sweet and savory options throughout the day.
Biscoff is sticking around in the morning, which is a passenger favorite and pairs quite nicely with the Lavazza coffee American now serves. Goldfish will also be available in the morning, while later flights will add Tate’s Bake Shop chocolate chip cookies and Peterson’s savory and sweet snack mix.
American says the snacks will rotate over time as it evaluates customer preferences, so this apparently will not be a static menu forever. Chief Customer Officer Heather Garboden said:
“Small details can make a meaningful difference in the travel experience, especially the familiar touches customers look forward to throughout their journey.”
I agree with the underlying point, even if we’re talking about crackers and cookies.
This Is Small, But It Still Matters
Nobody is going to choose American over Delta or United because Tate’s cookies are being handed out in economy class.
But that’s not really the point. For years, American seemed almost aggressively indifferent to many of these smaller elements of the passenger experience. The mentality often appeared to be that if a flight got you from A to B on time, everything else was secondary.
That has changed.
American is adding seatback screens to its narrowbody fleet, rolling out free Wi-Fi, investing heavily in its lounges, improving premium cabin catering, expanding Flagship Dining access, and now apparently even paying attention to what gets tossed onto the tray table during the beverage service.
None of these things alone fundamentally changes American Airlines, but each are a puzzle piece in AA’s push to premium.
American Is Finally Paying Attention To The Details
Delta has long understood that seemingly insignificant touches can shape how passengers perceive an airline.
United has increasingly figured that out too.
American, meanwhile, spent years stripping away many of those touches in the name of efficiency and consistency.
Now it appears to be rebuilding them. As minor as it is, passengers notice when an airline offers a choice instead of simply dropping the same tiny bag of pretzels in front of everyone.
And particularly when you are flying regularly, those small differences accumulate. It’s nice to see AA offer something like this to everyone onboard.
American spent years falling behind Delta and United in several areas of the passenger experience, and much of what it is doing now amounts to catching up. Its latest innovations are all positive, but hardly revolutionary:
Seatback screens, free Wi-Fi, and better lounge food are just catching up. The same is true with these new snacks.
But I’m also not going to criticize American simply because these changes should have happened sooner. Better late than never.
But hopefully the momentum continues.
CONCLUSION
American Airlines will introduce a refreshed complimentary snack lineup in early October, with Biscoff cookies, Goldfish, Tate’s Bake Shop chocolate chip cookies, and Peterson’s snack mix rotating depending on the time of day.
It’s a small change, but paired with everything else American has been doing lately, it reinforces the sense that the airline is finally paying much closer attention to the passenger experience.
I like that and yes, I’ll happily take the Tate’s cookies…
image: AA
Pepperidge Farm remembers… when Delta’s subsidiaries like Endeavor had Biscoff, but now serve Milano cookies in First on their lil CRJs. Now, ironically, you get more Biscoff on American (in the morning.) As long as United keeps the stroopwaffle flowing…