Ah. There’s nothing that causes a fight faster than innocently asking, “Jam on top or Cream on top?”. Of course, I’m referring to the tradition of Afternoon Tea, which American Airlines is planning to try out.
You have arrived at a propitious moment, coincident with your country’s one indisputable contribution to Western civilisation. Afternoon Tea – Hugo Drax, Moonraker.
Image, American Airlines.
American Airlines is testing a new afternoon tea experience on inbound flights to the USA from London and Paris.
This will be offered across all cabins as part of the second service.
According to the airline
“Customers will be able to enjoy this classic European ritual reimagined for the sky, complete with tea service and carefully curated accompaniments that include finger sandwiches, scones, crème and jelly.”
I’ll leave the faux pas behind for a moment.
The airline is also refreshing part of its onboard services, with the airline offering new snacks – in the form of Tostitos Bite Sized Rounds and Tostitos Chunky Salsa and LaCroix Limoncello being loaded aboard.
Meanwhile, for those in the premium services – on all U.S. inbound Flagship service flights, Hawaii Flagship service flights and transcontinental Flagship service flights. First and Business customers can simply leave Bang & Olufsen headsets at their seats when they deplane, as opposed to the crew collecting them an hour from landing (and then being put on the cheap earbuds that have the sound fidelity of a muffled scream).
Some reasonable improvements
Service adjustment is always interesting—it involves identifying what is hot, what can be improved, and what can be tried.
We can see that they’re trying here with introducing seasonal items (including the drinks), trying out new catering concepts (with afternoon tea) and ending the annoying headphone collection round (and good luck getting them working off an aircraft).
Small positive steps forward.
PS. It’s Jam, not Jelly.
PPS. I prefer my scones with clotted cream only. Go and argue in the comments which way you prefer.
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I cringed as soon as I saw this one your home page, and I was at least partially right. The announcement is indeed cringey:
* it is not an “European ritual”, it is British. If pressed, I’d even call it “English”. Yes, the French have a sort-of-tea afternoon thing that involves tea, but it’s the same.
* Following up on that, why are they offering it on flights originating in Paris? And where are they going to get the ingredients for the Paris-originating flights, particularly the scones? Are French scone makers up to the challenge?
* I know that Dallas is not a fount of knowledge of all things English, but even many Americans know you have jam with tea, not jelly (that’s for American things like PB&J sandwiches), and it’s cream, not creme.
But all silliness aside, it is nice to see AA, an airline particularly known for uninspired food choices (like Tostitos salsa…sigh…), to try something new. Although I suspect the presentation in coach will be less than inspiring.
But with all the outstanding baked goods dParis has to offer, why not just have something different for the Paris-originating services?
I try to be positive – Honestly
But trust me, this, you do NOT know how hard it was, not grit my teeth when I read the statement.
Its almost as if AA let a Chat engine build up that statement for them, rather than getting actual facts.
For a French service, Macarons and Pastries would work (even though pasties don’t fly too well).
And then there’s the quality of a scone out of France. shudder