The Mystery Meal Onboard AA 0095 (June 4th)

After attending a travel blogger conference in Spain’s Basque Country, it was time to travel home. I took two flights. The first, Bilbao to Madrid on Iberia which I booked with Avios. The second, Madrid to New York JFK on American Airlines which I booked in cash. I used a systemwide upgrade so I could be seated in Business Class.

The date was Tuesday June 4th and the AA flight was 0095.

Boarding was easy, and I took my seat in row 8 on the 777 aircraft.

I looked at the menu and made my choice for the main plate. I chose the salmon (prepared with red curry sauce, thai rice, pumpkin and choy sum). The appetizers listed on the menu, the same for everyone, were a mixed salad (with walnuts, apples and raisins) and a burrata plate (with fennel salad, almonds and pomegranate seeds).

I know it’s only airline food, but it sounded delicious and I was looking forward to it.

My drink was served which I enjoyed with the airline’s signature hot mixed nuts.

The appetizer and salad were served soon thereafter.

The salad and appetizer were each very good.

But wait…. the salad was a spinach salad with artichokes and feta. It wasn’t the mixed green salad with walnuts and apples listed on the menu.

The appetizer was a chicken dish, not the burrata with fennel listed on the menu.

What the —-?

Why didn’t the food served match the menu?

And then the main course was served.

This definitely wasn’t salmon. Perhaps it was cod or scrod, I’m really not sure. And I’m guessing that the accompaniments were something like Spanish rice and chopped greens. This was not the salmon with red curry sauce and Thai rice that I thought I’d be enjoying for my lunch. I would have ordered something else had I known that this was the dish. I was disappointed with the main course, but I was also perplexed because nothing that was served matched what was listed on the menu.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

I nicely asked a flight attendant about this. She shrugged her shoulders at me as if she didn’t know what I was talking about. Later she swung back by and said they’d been given the wrong menus, adding in a dismissive tone that it’s still chicken and fish and beef. She added that I was the only one who noticed.

Thankfully, for dessert, the signature ice cream sundae was served!

One of the other flight attendants came over to speak to me. He had apparently overheard my conversation about the mystery meals. He said that he wanted to explain to me what was really going on. He explained that each month, AA publishes a new menu for business class.

He showed me the small print on the back of the menu which says 06/24.

06/24 menu

He said that the menu which was distributed was intended for June flights, but since the meals from May had not been finished, the plane was loaded with meals leftover from May. He further explained that the flight attendants weren’t aware of this snafu until after I brought it to their attention, because all they see are wrapped plates saying chicken, fish or beef.

The flight attendant I spoke to felt this was all part of a bigger problem at the airline – as demonstrated by the various recent shake ups at the corporate level and the decreased morale of the flight attendants who were working without a contract.

Before landing, a light meal was served. Predictably, the choices didn’t match what was on the menu. I chose the chicken sandwich but it was way too doughy for my taste.

remember those mystery meals from elementary school?