Miamiairport wrote:AA does not do a beverage service in Coach unless it's greater than 2.2K miles. If it's 900-2.2K miles it's the little baggie. Under 900 miles nothing. You can ask and you may or may not receive a beverage. For the most part you get a beverage service in F unless it's a very short flight (less than 300 miles). Then it's hit or miss. There are sandwiches or fruit plate on flights from 900 to 2.2K miles in F and the relatively small number of domestic flights over 2.2k miles there's a single tray meal service. Some longer domestic flights also have a self serve snack basket in F. However, there appears to be no food in F on AE flights, even over 900 miles. Some flights seem to have the little cookies. Pre departures beverages in F are about as common now as getting a LGA/ORD Monday upgrade as a PLT pre-COVID.
On a relatively few number of flights FAs will refuse to do any kind of service. On a IAH/MIA flight last month (admittedly this was Republic and not actually AA) the F FA made a "stern" announcement that he would not be doing a beverage service in either cabin. Thus dude also had on these thick black gloves one would see someone handling nuclear waste. Too bad he wasn't laid off if he's that sacred.
COVID 19 is not transmitted by food or beverage. There was a rumor going around that AA had plan to restore a beverage service in Y but the union objected. It's a case of lazy flight attendants. Some of which would be more than happy to hand you and take back a credit card application. I guess it must be made from COVID resistant paper.
This is all a bit harsh. While many airlines have flight attendants that are hit or miss when it comes to service standards and levels, you really do have to factor in the higher rate of exposure cabin crew face in interacting with passengers, notably over the recent holiday period, where volumes picked up to a pandemic high. Flight attendants are some of the worst paid employees an airline has and the benefits they do get don't outweigh the unpleasant side of the job. I personally don't care if they wear latex gloves or not. That's their choice. While it is generally accepted that COVID is transmitted via droplets in the air over surface contact, no one really knows for sure. There are plenty of entitled, obnoxious, and inconsiderate passengers who aren't content enough with a bare bones fare and have to take out operational issues on the cabin crew. The industry is a dirty one for sure, but don't blame the flight attendant because they're in your line of vision. If the flight attendant, like the one you described on the IAH-MIA flight is forcibly rude, I think it's sufficient to engage minimally and respond with equal coldness, but not much else is needed.
