AA brings back free beer and wine
 

American Airlines has announced it will no longer charge for beer or wine on longhaul international flights in the economy cabin.

http://aa.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=3434

This will be of particular interest to certain frequenters of this Fodor's board.

I came to ask... and got an answer: no free booze on our flight to Costa Rica next month :((

OUCH! Good I am not a "certain frequenter" :D

And don't tell Mr. Again: he will be very disappointed :(

Didn't they use to give out free wine in the past? For some odd reason I thought they did. I know on BA, Air France and Air Canada the booze is free.

Most if not all airlines gave out free alcohol before 9-11 occurred. I hope that Continental/United will be the next to make this announcement. On my Continental flight from Barcelona to Newark, Beer was $6 and wine was $7. Very few takers. Most people who want free beer and wine and learned to fly on a foreign airline.

According to www.airlinequality.com, there have been a lot of people on codeshare flights with British Airways and were shocked to find out they had to pay for it on an American flights. I wonder if BA asked American to stop charging?

Am I reading too much into this? Notice the wording from the press release:

"We invite them to have a drink on us."

I take that to mean a single drink. It's not going to be an open bar. :)

I don't alcoholic beverages on a plane. I end up with such a headache if I do. If I'm sitting in biz or first, I'll always ask the flight attendant to pour a tiny, tiny amount of wine into my glass so that I can taste it, but nothing more.

That should be "I don't drink alcoholic beverages on plane ..."

Delta has had free beer and wine in economy on all of their international flights for years.

Delta's offered complimentary wine and beer in coach for several years, since the merger with Northwest which had offered it on their transatlantic routes due to their agreement with KLM. After the merger this practice was extended to transpacific routes as well.

For several years prior to the merger Delta offered one (and only one) complimentary alcoholic beverage (wine, beer, or spirits) on non-domestic flights. This drink was typically offered only with the meal service, and requests were typically refused prior to meal service (which I skip, as I can't eat the food), so it was a bit inconvenient at the time, as I like to spend as much of the flight as possible sleeping.

Good news for you AA flyers in any case.

This is great news as I just booked a ticket to Barcelona this week. I am not a big drinker on planes but I do enjoy wine with dinner. Thanks for the news.